honeysuckle for MRSA
This was sent to me from a lady in a planting yahoo group... I love my honeysuckle, and am excited that it can be used for medicinal purposes!!! Im not sure where she got her info from, but I have read before that it did have medicinal properties....
Quote:
Here's the name and the medicinal properties for Japanese Honeysuckle, the one you are talking about. The plant is invasive, so be careful not to let it take over!
We use it to treat cases of MRSA that the docs have given up on, with good results thus far. I did not include the pics and citations in this post.
Japanese Honeysuckle
Lonicera japonica
This introduced vine, widely planted as an ornamental and wildlife plant, is found virtually statewide in Texas, although it is not as frequently encountered in the Trans Pecos and High Plains areas as it is in others. Kids, and some of the more 'childish' adults among us, love this plant for the drop of sweet nectar that can be gathered from the bottom of each flower and for its fragrance but it has become an invasive pest and a threat to native vegetation in many areas.
The plant is a climbing or trailing vine that can form virtually impenetrable thickets, choking trees and shrubs and making navigating to other plants one wishes to collect a tortuous ordeal. The leaves are up to three inches long, lance shaped or oblong, entire, opposite and a leathery dark green. They are evergreen here, although deciduous in colder climates, and provide shelter for birds and other animals in winter. The flowers are in pairs, white fading to yellow with age, about 1 1/2 inches long with a pair of leafy bracts below each flower. The corolla is two lipped, the lower lip unlobed and the upper three lobed and there are five conspicuous stamens per flower. The fruit of this honeysuckle is a shiny black berry about 1/8 inch across, relished by many species of birds but causing severe gastric distress in any humans foolish enough to consume them.
Japanese honeysuckle is a strong antimicrobial, proven experimentally to be effective against a wide range of organisms including Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus hemolyticus, Diplococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus pneumoniae and Mycobacterium tuberculosis; some really nasty bugs that are increasingly becoming resistant to most or all of the antibiotics conventional medicine has to offer. Extracts of the plant have also been shown to be antiviral against the respiratory syncytial virus in vitro and to lower serum cholesterol levels in experimental rats as well as to stimulate leukocytic phagocytosis and phagocytic activity of inflammatory cells, indicating an immunostimulant effect. Chinese hospitals use an injectible extract of the flowers for various infections, including pneumonia in children and a tincture of 1,000 grams of the dried flowers soaked in 1,500 ml. of 40% alcohol for 48 hours, then decocted down to 400 ml. and poulticed on cervical ulcers for 7-12 days with marked success. Extracts of the plant have also been used in China to treat some tumors, including breast cancer, with some degree of success. A sterile isotonic eyewash of the flowers may be used for conjunctivitis and a decoction may be used as a wash or poultice for various external infections or as a douche for vaginal infections. Stems and leaves of the plant may be used in a similar fashion and as an adjunct to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. A decoction of 30 grams of the dried stems and leaves or 90 grams of the fresh is drunk instead of tea as a remedy for the common cold in China; one study has shown positive results from the use of a strong decoction of stems and leaves for the treatment of an unknown type of infectious hepatitis; another study has shown good results when using a compound of Lonicera japonica, Ophiopogon japonicus and Astragalus membranaceus for the treatment of viral endocarditis and yet another has proven a cytoprotective effect on hydrogen peroxide induced cell injury. This is definitely a plant to consider when faced with an infection, internal or external, that is not responding well to conventional antibiotics.
Constituents: Tannins; saponins; flavonoids, including ochnaflavone; monoterpenoids, triterpenoids and sesquiterpenoids including linalool, geraniol, aromadendrene, eugenol; loniceroside A and B; protocatechuic acid; methyl caffeate; 3,4-di-O-caffeoylqu inic acid; methyl 3,4-di-O-caffeoylqu inic acid; methyl chlorogenic acid; luteolin and luteolin-7-rhamnogl ucoside; inositol; HCN (hydrogen cyanide); lineoleic and lineolenic acids; loganin; myristic acid.
Collecting: Find a good stand of honeysuckle, well off the road and away from toxic dumps and other hazards and pick as many about-to-open flowers as you need. As the flowers tend to open sequentially we usually settle for bunches that have some flowers open but the majority still closed as it simply isn't worth the effort it would take to collect only unopened flowers. If it's the stems/leaves you want simply gather whatever you need, taking the less tangled ends just to make life easier. Dry well as the flowers do have a tendency to mold if not well dried.
Preparation: It takes a LOT of honeysuckle make an effective dose, so a strong decoction is probably the best method to use. The traditional Chinese dosage is 9-15 grams/day, which, given the weight of the flowers we have dried, works out to 2 TABLESPOONS of dried flowers three times a day. Feel free to weigh what you gather as this may vary. While the traditional Chinese method of preparation involves a rather lengthy boiling, typical of much Chinese herbal preparation methodology, a simple decoction should be as effective.
Dosage: Flowers 9-15 grams a day, leaves/stems 9-30 grams a day, in divided doses. See text for additional details.
Contraindications: None known. The flowers are considered to be a "food" in the Orient
WARNING: Do NOT consume the berries of this plant as they will cause severe gastric distress. While the berries are listed as toxic the authors have found no references to deaths caused by consuming them.
Other uses: "Crafty" folks will find the stems of Japanese Honeysuckle to be quite useful for basketmaking. They should be stripped of their leaves and boiled for several hours and left to soak overnight to prepare them for use. If the vines are not to be used immediately they may be coiled and hung to dry, but will then need to be soaked for several hours before use. The leaves simmered with alum, tin or chrome yield a yellow dye and with iron a gray one. A solar dye with alum will yield a golden tan color. Japanese honeysuckle, despite being an invasive non-native plant that is damaging populations of many native plant species, is considered to be an excellent food for Whitetailed Deer, quail, wild turkey, robins, bluebirds, goldfinches and many other bird species and is still touted as a wildlife plant by many "authorities" . This plant is considered to be spread primarily by the birds that consume the fruit and excrete the seeds in new locations. It is also utilized by several butterfly species including various swallowtails and skippers as well as by various moths. The tangled thickets it forms provide nesting and resting cover for a variety of animals, especially in areas where it is evergreen.
Cultivation: DON'T!!! Japanese honeysuckle is wreaking havoc among our native plant species and should probably not be encouraged. If you do decide to cultivate this plant simply dig up a rooted section of vine to transplant, root softwood cuttings or scatter the berries where you want the plant to grow.
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