Herbs yesterday and today

By Nancy Malcom

Nevada Daily Mail

Jim Long, herbalist and historian spoke at the January meeting of the Vernon County Historical Society Sunday at the Bushwhacker Museum.

A Missouri native, Long held an interest in plants and particularly herbs since he was five years old. His grandmother lived in Nevada and she encouraged his interest in plants. "My other grandparents, no matter what plant I came dragging in, would simply say 'it's poisonous, don't touch it.'" Long grew up in Taberville and his curiosity wouldn't be swayed by his grandparents' insistence that every plant in the backyard was poisonous.

"I think they were afraid I'd bring in a big bouquet of poison ivy," he said during his presentation. He paused then grinned, "actually I did do that one spring so maybe that's why they wanted me to stop dragging in plants." Many of today's medications are based on herbal treatments used long ago. Some, Long said, haven't changed at all, other than brand names have been added.

As he passed around containers of eucalyptus and mint he commented, "these two ingredients were common in many herbal treatments throughout history, and still are today." Although Eucalyptus isn't native to North America, it was imported from India and later Australia for herbal cures.

Long has published many books on the role of herbologists throughout history. He also speaks nationwide on herbal lure used by Native Americans and the common medicines of the frontier or in the Civil War time period.

One of his books, "It will Do No Harm To Try It" is a fully annotated edition of Elias Slagle's notebook of home remedies dating from 1858. He obtained a copy of the notebook from Bushwhacker Museum Curator Patrick Brophy who had purchased it from the estate sale of the late Kenneth Young at Richards.

Long shared one of the "recipes" for curing snake bite. "Actually, when a person is bitten by a Diamond Back rattler, they had about a 40 to 50 percent chance of surviving it with no treatment at all," Long explained. "So when someone was bitten and used these cures, the ones who lived passed on the word that the cure worked, and the ones who died weren't around to contradict them." Since the rattlesnake bite treatment, like many others, include drinking several shots of whisky throughout the cure, the patients all got to feeling better whether the cure worked or not, Long added.

He explained that whiskey was used for a sound medical reason as well as simply to make patients feel better. "Whiskey speeded up the absorption of the herbal medicines," Long added, "so it really did help with the overall cure." Long is currently offering advice to the museum concerning planting an herb garden near the old jail that would be reminiscent of those grown during the dates and times represented by the museum's displays.

"My view is that such a garden should include plants that directly relate to the displays within the building covering a specific time period. People travel around just touring historical herb gardens," Long said in his letter in the Bushwhacker Musings newsletter.

Long lives near Blue Eye, Mo. and sells herbs, books and herbal products that he creates there.

Not only an authority on plants and herbs of Missouri, Long has traveled the world on plant expeditions, visiting faraway places including West Papua, New Guinea.

Long explained that herbs for the most part have not changed, haven't been hybridized. When you smell valerian (a muscle relaxer still in use today) it smells exactly like it did when the frontier doctor used it, Long said.

Jim Long can be reached at www.Longcreekherbs.com.