“Late at night while you’re sleeping Poison Ivy comes a creepin.'”
— The Coasters, 1959
‘Tis the season for creeping vines waiting to bring forth untold misery to the gentle gardener.
There’s poison ivy, leaves of three, poison oak, leaves of five, there’s Virginia creeper. Though most people are not allergic to Virginia creeper, 10 percent of the population is allergic. Every part of poison sumac is toxic, even the fallen leaves.
The Prairie is host to them all, and though they may be difficult to differentiate, it is wise to steer clear. Some poisonous plants cause blistering rash, but the allergen can also cause swelling of soft tissue around eyes and lips which is dangerous and cause for immediate medical attention.
When I was a child, the Rexall pharmacist was our family’s first line of defense. For poison ivy, not near eyes or lips, he prescribed white shoe polish. It worked like Calamine lotion, but in his opinion was better. Being swabbed with white shoe polish didn’t bother me a lick if I could continue to play outside and avoid the dreaded injections at the doctor’s office.
There’s the Clorox bath. Clorox seems mostly a drying agent and perhaps antiseptic. At my house no scratching was allowed, so you can imagine my elation when Dr. Dora Herring (doctor of accounting, not medicine) suggested the Clorox bath along with gentle rubbing with a soapy washcloth to break blisters and accelerate healing.
Dr. Dora’s remedy has been by far the most physically satisfying. She also suggested sweating out toxins with exercise. I found exercise helpful but nothing close to the ecstasy of “gentle rubbing.”
My go-to book, “The Practical Encyclopedia of Natural Healing” (1976), suggests the “classic herbal remedy is jewelweed.” The flowers and leaves are “juiced” and applied to the blisters. The mixture can be refrigerated and even frozen without loss of benefit. Users declare it works like magic.
Another herb, goldenseal, can be brewed into a tea and ingested. Goldenseal is a root, dried and ground into a powder, and claims to have many beneficial uses.
Starkville herbalist and owner of Sweet Gum Springs Apothecary Lindsey Wilson suggests jewelweed and goldenseal are over-harvested and prefers instead to first rinse the exposed area with castile soap; then if the rash sets in use a plantain poultice by simply chewing the leaves and placing it on the rash.
Plantain (a common local weed, not the banana) can also be simmered in water for five to 10 minutes and used as a rinse to reduce symptoms. If the toxin moves into the blood system, a plantain tincture (extract) can be taken internally, two droppers full in a small amount of water, six to eight times a day. Yellowroot has the properties of goldenseal but is local and more sustainable, suggests Lindsey.
“Bentonite clay is super effective at drawing out irritating oils in the skin. It cools and dries the rash and encourages healing,” she says. “Though any of the plenteous Prairie or creek bed clay will do.”
Lindsey, a wellness guide and knowledgeable herbalist, makes the remedies sound so desirable it’s almost worth the rash.
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