- Joined
- Sep 20, 2007
- Messages
- 2,685
I walk through groves of it in shorts and am never bothered.
Geuss I'm lucky, my mom gets it terrible.
Geuss I'm lucky, my mom gets it terrible.
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
Poison Oak...
- Thread starter Stainz
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 7,021
macgregor, that can change and does a lot of times, so my advice (not that you asked for it) is to avoid it anyway. There's a school of thought that believes the more you're exposed, the more likely you are to develop an allergic reaction.
Doc
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2007
- Messages
- 2,685
Yeah thats what I've heard also.
Wasn't there a post here awhile back about eating the baby leaves to give you immunity.
Wasn't there a post here awhile back about eating the baby leaves to give you immunity.
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2005
- Messages
- 1,339
for the jewel weed, what part of it do u use and do u apply it?
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 7,021
The following is a quote from The Green Pharmacy:
"I'm not the only fan of jewelweed for preventing the unpleasant symptoms that develop following exposure to poisonous plants. Increasingly, at workshops where I mention it, participants chime in with their own jewelweed stories. I'm well aware that these stories, and my own, are what scientists call anecdotes and therefore are open to scientific skepticism. But seeing is believing. Pile up all the anecdotes, and they make a pretty convincing case.
Of course, experimental evidence is even better. That's why, whenever I teach a three-day class on medicinal herbs, I treat my students to a dramatic little demonstration. I find a poisonous plant, usually poison ivy. I apply its juice to the sensitive undersides of both of my wrists. A minute or two later, I wipe one wrist with a ball of crushed jewelweed leaves and stems. Three days later, the wrist that I didn't treat with jewelweed shows the typical itchy, blistery poison-plant rash. The wrist rubbed with jewelweed invariably show much less of a rash, and sometimes none at all.
My friend, Robert Rosen, Ph.D., a chemist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, is a whiz at isolating chemical substances from plants. He may have come up with an explanation for jewelweed's effectiveness. Urushiol does its dirty work by binding to skin cells and triggering the rash-producing irritation. A mere one-billionth of a gram of urushiol is enough to affect those who are highly sensitive.
Dr. Rosen has identified the active ingredient in jewelweed as a chemical called lawsone. This substance binds to the same molecular sites on the skin as urushiol. If applied quickly after contact with a poison plant, lawsone beats the urushiol to those sites, in effect locking it out. The simple result is that you don't get the rash.
The greatest concentrations of lawsone are not necessarily found in jewelweed leaves. Although the leaves have some lawsone, there may be more in the reddish protuberances that resemble little prop-roots extending out from the lower stem near ground level. Apply the juice from the crushed red knobs, and you'll probably get better protection." (The Green Pharmacy, James A. Duke, Rodale, 1997, ISBN# 1-57954-124-0, pages 358 & 359)
Some of you may recognize Dr. Duke's name. He is co-author of the Peterson Field Guide 'Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants'.
Doc
"I'm not the only fan of jewelweed for preventing the unpleasant symptoms that develop following exposure to poisonous plants. Increasingly, at workshops where I mention it, participants chime in with their own jewelweed stories. I'm well aware that these stories, and my own, are what scientists call anecdotes and therefore are open to scientific skepticism. But seeing is believing. Pile up all the anecdotes, and they make a pretty convincing case.
Of course, experimental evidence is even better. That's why, whenever I teach a three-day class on medicinal herbs, I treat my students to a dramatic little demonstration. I find a poisonous plant, usually poison ivy. I apply its juice to the sensitive undersides of both of my wrists. A minute or two later, I wipe one wrist with a ball of crushed jewelweed leaves and stems. Three days later, the wrist that I didn't treat with jewelweed shows the typical itchy, blistery poison-plant rash. The wrist rubbed with jewelweed invariably show much less of a rash, and sometimes none at all.
My friend, Robert Rosen, Ph.D., a chemist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, is a whiz at isolating chemical substances from plants. He may have come up with an explanation for jewelweed's effectiveness. Urushiol does its dirty work by binding to skin cells and triggering the rash-producing irritation. A mere one-billionth of a gram of urushiol is enough to affect those who are highly sensitive.
Dr. Rosen has identified the active ingredient in jewelweed as a chemical called lawsone. This substance binds to the same molecular sites on the skin as urushiol. If applied quickly after contact with a poison plant, lawsone beats the urushiol to those sites, in effect locking it out. The simple result is that you don't get the rash.
The greatest concentrations of lawsone are not necessarily found in jewelweed leaves. Although the leaves have some lawsone, there may be more in the reddish protuberances that resemble little prop-roots extending out from the lower stem near ground level. Apply the juice from the crushed red knobs, and you'll probably get better protection." (The Green Pharmacy, James A. Duke, Rodale, 1997, ISBN# 1-57954-124-0, pages 358 & 359)
Some of you may recognize Dr. Duke's name. He is co-author of the Peterson Field Guide 'Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants'.
Doc
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
- Messages
- 890
Great post again Doc. That is really taking one for the team out there with rubbing that stuff on himself, knowing how annoying a PI rash can be. Really interesting. You'd think that now that someone of considerable note like Dr. Duke has isolated the probable active chemical, that some trials would be underway or that some pharmaceutical company would be trying to extract it or attempt to synthesize it.