Plant Allies: Focus on Juniper
Note: I am not a medical professional. The information below is for educational purposes only.
Juniper Monograph
Growing up in the Southwest juniper trees have always been apart of my life. In fact I think most people have had contact with junipers and never really know it. Have you see yards with low hedges that have green or blue-ish berries on them? Those are junipers.
The first time I heard of junipers being used medicinally was when I was a kid. I was on a tour with my mom outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico and they told us juniper berries were used by the pueblo people as tooth ache remedy. You simply chew on a berry without swallowing it and the essential oils would reduce the pain.
In my herbal studies I have yet to come across juniper being used as a analgesic. Cloves are much more suited to that task. But juniper does have some pretty incredible uses.
Juniper shows it’s qualities most as diuretic. Meaning that it stimulates cells to flush out liquids. So if you have edema (excess fluid build up or retention) you need to get that fluid out of your body and juniper is a master at stimulating the body to release that fluid.
Indications for Juniper
urinary tract infection
headache
dyspepsia, intestinal pain
respitory congestion
water retention from diabietes
moist eczema
dysmenorrhea
These are just a few and by no means all of the physical symptoms that juniper can be useful for.
Juniperus ssp. (communis, monosperma)
Family: Cupressaceae
Usable Parts: Berries and leaves
Energetics: warming and drying
Properties: antifungal, antiseptic, carminative, diuretic
Usage: Manly used as an infusion or a tincture.
In western herbalism one of the defining characteristics of plants is their energetics. Juniper is warming and drying. You can see this very clearly in its use for water retention. Edema is most often a cold damp condition and needs a plant ally that can warm up the tissues and dry them out. You definitely do not want to use juniper with any warm or hot conditions as it will only irritate those conditions such as a kidney infection.
““The fire. The odor of burning juniper is the sweetest fragrance on the face of the earth, in my honest judgment; I doubt if all the smoking censers of Dante’s paradise could equal it. One breath of juniper smoke, like the perfume of sagebrush after rain, evokes in magical catalysis, like certain music, the space and light and clarity and piercing strangeness of the American West. Long may it burn.” ~ Edward Abby”
How to Identify Juniper in the Wild
Identifying juniper is pretty easy. There are three distinct things to look for:
short segmented needle shaped leaves. It’s an evergreen so you’ll be able to find them year around.
small to medium sized berries that start out green and ripen over time to be dark blue/purple with a white coating
papery shredded bark
When to Harvest Juniper
harvest the berries when they are in their second year or once they turn the dark purple/bluish color. Don’t harvest the green ones.
needles can be harvested at any time.
If you are interested in trying out the flavor of juniper, I’ve got a super easy recipe for Juniper and Hazelnut Chocolate Bark.
And if you want to indulge in the encredible smell of juniper try out my Juniper & Cedarwood soap. The scent of this soap just makes you feel so calm and relaxed. It’s earthy yet vibrant and makes you want to be in a cabin in the wood with hot drink and a fire. Or chilling out on the top of a peak you just bagged.
Want to read more about juniper? Check out Michael Moore’s book Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West. Or The Earthwise Herbal Volume II by Matthew Wood. Both Fantastic herbal reference guides.
What is your experience with juniper? Let me know in the comments below.
