Author: Linné, Family: salicaceae
Salix alba is only one of many species of willow used medicinally. Traditionally the bark has been
used for fever, pain, rheumatism and gout, but since the invention of aspirin it has lost its
importance. I'm not sure if it ever has been so well known by everyone as it seems in Jean Auel's
books, this feature was maybe inspired by the modern popularity of aspirin.
As aspirin in large doses is harmful to the stomach, it may be that a tea from the bark has the same
effect.
Photo by Sanatan Eva Marbach
More about willow in MGMH
Text References: Healing
| CB 3, 29-30 |
Ayla's Leg
(...) then went to the small creek to fill her bowl and peel bark off
a willow tree. (...) She always thanked the spirits for // willow, for
its ubiquitous presence as well as for its painkilling bark. She couldn’t
remember how many times she had peeled willow bark for a tea to relieve
aches and pains. She knew of stronger painkillers, but they also dulled
the senses. The analgesic properties of willow just dulled the pain and
reduced fever. |
| CB 3, 33 |
Later in the afternoon, the girl's leg began to throb as the effects of the willow bark wore off. |
| CB 3, 39 |
Iza decided a poultice was no longer needed, but she made a willow-bark tea for the child. |
| CB 4, 52 |
"Iza," Creb said as she was preparing a tea of willow bark for Ayla. "I will not be eating tonight." |
| CB 11, 179 |
Creb's Tooth
"One bad tooth is the same as another. Just make me some willow-bark
tea." |
| CB 11, 180 |
Creb's Tooth
"I thought you said willow bark wouldn't help much?"
"Nothing will help much. You can try a piece of sweet-rush root to
chew, it might do some good. But I doubt it." |
| CB 19, 310 |
Durc's Birth
The beginning contractions were easy. Ayla sipped willow-bark tea,
talking to Iza and Uba, excitedly pleased that the time had finally come. |
| CB 25, 413 |
"Wipe your eyes, and when we stop, you can make me some willow-bark
tea, medicine woman." |
| VH 6, 104 |
"Willowbark! I'd better make willowbark tea." (...) He didn't have
to be a zelandoni to know about the painkilling properties of willowbark;
everyone made willowbark if they had a headache, or some other minor pain.
He didn't know if it was used for serious wounds, but he didn't know what
else to do. (...)
Why is it taking so long? Wait, I don't have the willowbark. I'd better get it before the water boils. (...) After peeling the bark from a bare-leafed tree whose long thin branches trailed the water, he raced back. (...)
Finally he grabbed a cup and scooped out some water, (...) then dropped the willowbark in the hide pot.
|
| VH 19, 327-328 |
Jondalar's Leg
I'd better see if I can get him to take some willowbark, she thought (...)
She looked over her stock of medicinal herbs while she was getting
// the willowbark. (...)
Besides the willowbark, she took down a plant whose uses she knew well.
(...)
She managed to get him to swallow some willowbark tea (...) His eyes
fluttered, and he mumbled but remained unconscious. His scratches and gashes
had developed a warmth and a redness, and his leg was visibly swelling. |
| VH 20, 335 |
She brought the man cold willowbark tea she had made earlier. |
| VH 20, 336 |
He wondered how skilled the woman was. Willowbark tea did not make
a healer. |
| VH 20, 342 |
She gave him a willowbark tea to start with, to keep down the
fever and alleviate pain. |
| MH 12, 173 |
Hangover
She had an upset stomach along with her headache, so she decided to
use it as well as the willow bark. |
| MH 19, 295 |
Still moving carefully, she took several packets from her medicine
bag and mixed up willow bark, yarrow, wood betony, and chamomile in various
proportions. She poured cold water into the cooking basket (...), added
hot rocks until it boiled, then the tea. |
| PP 7, 102 |
She was also feeling some fullness and a little backache, and she attributed
her disquiet to the slight discomforts she occasionally experienced when
her moon time was coming on. (...)
Ayla decided some willowbark tea might relieve her discomfort and quickly
got up to cut some fresh. |
| PP 25, 420-421 |
Earlier, she had mixed dried willowbark tea into a bowl of water she had put aside for him, and he was thirsty enough to lap it up, painkill // ing medication and all. (...)
Ayla thought Wolf seemed better in the morning, but she took more willowbark out of her otter-skin medicine bag and added a cup of the decoction to his food. |
| PP 27, 459 |
He wished for some willowbark for his headache, too. |
Text References: Food
| MH 27, 442-443 |
Mamutoi Spring Feast
For the big Spring Feast, nothing left over from the previous year
would be eaten. (...) Every edible vegetable product they could find was
collected. Birch and willow catkins; the young unfolding stems of ferns
as well as the old rootstocks which could be roasted, peeled, and pounded
into flour; the juicy inner cambium bark of pines and birch, sweet with
new rising sap; a few purplish-black curlewberries, filled with hard seeds,
growing beside the small pink flowers on the ever-bearing low scrub; and
from sheltered areas, where they had been covered with snow, bright //
red lingonberries, frozen and thawed to a soft sweetness, lingered with
the dark leathery leaves on low tufted branches. |
|
Abbreviations |
Editions |
| CB |
The Clan of the Cave Bear |
The page numbers refer to the hardcover editions by Crown Publishers, Inc, New York 1980, 1982, 1985, 1990.
Book 1-3 are the Special Collector's Edition, I don't know if the page numbers differ from those of the 'normal' hardcover editions. |
| VH |
The Valley of Horses |
| MH |
The Mammoth Hunters |
| PP |
The Plains of Passage |
| (...) |
omission |
Copyright |
| ... |
original in text |
All book quotes: © Copyright Jean M. Auel
The format and text contents of this site are the property of the author |
| MGMH |
'A Modern Herbal', by Mrs. M. Grieve |
Comments, suggestions, errors, anything else ... emails are welcome!
|
Author: Linné, Family: salicaceae