In Good Health: Classes with Lana

Ingredients:

• 1 handful of ‘Jin Yin Hua’ honeysuckle flowers (Flos Lonicere)
• 1/2 handful of ‘Gan Cao’ Licorice root (Radix Glycyrrhizae)

‘Jin Yin Hua’ Honeysuckle

Put the above herbs into non-metal pan, add 5 cups of water and soak 10-15 minutes to soften the herbs and prepare them to release their medicine. Bring to a boil. Then, turn flame to low and simmer for 35 minutes. Strain the tea and drink 1 cup (1/2 c/ for children) twice daily. Drink tea warm. Herbs can be used again.

This is a good summer time drink.  Both Licorice and honeysuckle are sweet in taste.

Medicinal Properties:

Honeysuckle Flower

In addition to being sweet, honeysuckle flower is cold in nature and is useful in treating all types of heat.  It can treat ‘summerheat’ symptoms (thirst, headache, sweating, heat stroke, etc.).  Honeysuckle works like a natural, herbal antibiotic to fight infection.  This flower also can detoxify and reduce inflammation.  Honeysuckle has antimicrobial effects against many pathogenic bacteria including Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and  Pseudomonas.  Honeysuckle is also antiviral and has been show to deactivate the PR8 strain of the influenza virus.  This flower is useful in cases of:

• infection (common colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc.)
• fever
• skin conditions (hot & painful sores with or without pus, swellings, pimples, carbuncles, mastitis)
• sore throat
• food poisoning
• dysentery
• urinary tract infections

Licorice Root

Licorice is sweet and neutral in temperature.  It is quite good at detoxifying and cleaning the body in a wide variety of situations,

‘Gan Cao’ Licorice Root

including:

• sorethroat
• skin sores
• burns
• food poisoning
• mild infections
• toxicity

Licorice helps the body detoxify from pesticides taken in through non-organic foods and other types of environmental toxins (heavy metals, herbicides, drugs).  Licorice also works on the channels of the Lungs (Metal element) and Spleen (Earth element).  It can calm the lungs and stop coughing & wheezing, and it can mildly strengthen the digestive energy (loose stools, palpitations and fatigue).  Since the earth element controls the muscles, Licorice root has an analgesic pain-relieving effect upon muscles. It is combined with peony root ‘Shao Yao’ to treat musculoskeletal pain, spasms & cramps (leg pain, etc.) or pain & cramping of smooth muscles (abdominal, epigastric pains, etc.).

Caution:

A caution is not to use high doses of licorice of cases of:

• high blood pressure
• kidney disorders
• edema
• congestive heart failure
• hypokalemia (low potassium electrolytes)

In such cases, licorice root should not be used regularly or long term (more than a week) because it can cause a little water retention which can increase the imbalance of these conditions.

Summary:

Honeysuckle and licorice are both important, common herbs with cleaning and clearing properties.  I have them in jars as part of my home pharmacy and use them regularly – either internally (as steeping tea or with decoctions) or externally (compresses, soaks, steams).  I often combine Honeysuckle ‘Jin Yin Hua’ with chrysanthemum ‘Ju Hua’, which is another flower that has antibiotic properties.  The two flowers together are usually my first choice in home antibiotic care for mild situations.  Often I will prepare the two as an external soak for an injured finger or other infected area.

Tags: detox, flower, honeysuckle, licorice

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2012 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Detox, Flower Remedies, Herbal Libations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.