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Veterinary Botanical Medicine Association
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VBMA Herbal Wiki
COMMON NAME:  Oregon Grape Root
LATIN NAME:  Mahonia aquifolium
VARIETIES:  Mahonia aquifolium, Mahonia nervosa, Mahonia repens
 
BACK TO HERBAL WIKI INDEX
Marhonia aquifolium courtesy of Meggar  

The next herb is the study guide is Oregon Grape Root; Mahonia aquifolium.

Berberis aquifolium
Oregon Grape is a member of the barberry, native to the rocky Mountain area. It was first used as a bitter tonic to promote internal and external
secretion in dry and atrophic diseases.  Classified as a mild herb with minimal chronic toxicity.

Part used: root bark

Energy: bitter, cold; stimulating while astringing, decongesting, and
relaxing
 
WOOD:
Tissue State -atrophy and stagnation
Specific Indications: poor anabolism, with withering, wasting, dry skin, scalp, or mucosa, constipation from lack of secretion; at the same time a buildup of catabolic wast products with lack of secretion from skin and mucosa; respiratory allergies, constipation, dry intestine, car sickness!!!,lymphatic congestion, chronic swelling and induration of glands with dry atrophic condition, elevated mononcytes; dry, scaly, itching patches, inability to sweat!!); rheumatiod arthritis, muscular, bone and periosteal plains, worse at night
 
SCUDDER:
Scudder wrote in 1870-"rights the wrongs and cleans the Augean stables, sharpens the appetite, give new tone and new blood to the body, and comes as near to curing consumption as any remedy known to us at the time. It is both a blood maker and a blood cleanser, and as there is no known remedy so virulent to microorganisms of nearly all varieties, as healthy blood serum, berberis becomes, indirectly if not directly a microbicide."
 
ELLINGTON:
"Its influence upon the secretion of the entire glandular structure of the digestive and intestinal tract is steady, sure, and permanent..It stimulates all the glandular organs of the body. It stimulates digestion, and absorption and thus improves general nutrition...the specific action of this agent is in scaly, pustular and other skin diseases due to the disordered condition of the blood...It has cured persistent acne..it seems of especial value in scaly skin diseases and in disorders of a non-inflammatory type, and yet it works nicely in some cases of the moist variety. It has cured very many cases of salt rheum (??) even when the symptoms were chronic in character and greatly exaggerated...It should be prescribed in glandular indurations and chronic ulcerations both of a scrofulous and syphilitic type..it is lauded highly in syphilis.... It was recommended in chronic malarial conditions in intermittent fevers, and i the stomach, liver, intestinal and general glandular disorders of the fevers. It certainly acts as a tonic and corrective to disorders of the liver.
 
FELTER:
"Specific indications-Syphilitic dyscrasia; chronic skin diseases with blood dyscrasia with or without syphilitc taint; profusely secreting tumid mucous membranes; indigestion with hepatic topor....it stimulates secretion and excretion,, improves digestion and assimilation; it activates the lymphatic system and ductless glands; and augments the renal secretion. It is a corrector and eliminator of depraved body fluids and assists thereby in good blood making. It has won its reputation chiefly as a remedy for the syphilitic taint. The more chronic the conditions or results of the disease, the more it has been praised. The bone, mucosa, and cutaneous disorders following in the wake of syphilis seem to clear up under its persistent use. It does relieve the night pains and the shin pain of syphillitic periostitis. It should be given freely in syphilitc leucoplakia of the tongue, mouth, and throat, where the mucosa is tumid and secreting excessively, and when emaciation and weakness with yellowish parchment-like skin are evident.
 
CHRISTOPER:
"Mahonia creates appetite, improving digestion and absorption, heals the lymphatic system, purifies the blood, and stimulates the liver to promote strength and vitality."
 
MOORE:
"This herb acts on dry cases. When the body is dried out it cannot move metabolites. Mahonia is suited to situations where there is both faulty anabolism and catabolism-both tissue building and cleansing. By improving metabolism and elimination, Mahonia proves to be a very important remedy in the therapeutics of the skin. It is indicated when muscles, joints, and bones are inflamed and sore. This is largely due to poor cleansing and removal of waste from connective tissue. Due to the presence of Berberine and related alkaloids-not to be used during pregnancy or lactation. Gross overdosing may produce termor of the limbs, lack of muscular power and dullness of the mind."
 
 
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