The hidden Power of the Plant!

The Ornamental Jewelweed (Impatiens Royleii), was introduced into the U.K. in 1839, the same year as Giant Hogweed and Japanese Knotweed. It is an annual plant, and being the efficient plant that it is!, it soon broke out into the countryside and spread rapidly.

It's efficiency, is mainly due to the fact that the plant is a hermaphrodite, both male and female, it is born pregnant with the capacity to generate between 700 to 1500 seeds. Each one born pregnant, and able to catapult it's seeds for several meters, due to elasticated seed pods that release when they're ready. The R.H.S. (Royal horticultural society) has been documenting this Himalayan plant since 1855. It is currently growing in every country in the northern hemisphere, between the polar and tropical rings.

Maud Grieve (1858- 1942) was the one ‘I think’ who realized the medicinal properties of the Ornamental Jewelweed, whilst she was in India in the late 1800s. She was a medicinal herbalist, and on her return to Britain, was an active nurse during the 1st World War where she used an ointment, made up of the leaf of the plant boiled in lard, that she made herself (She explains this in her book "A modern herbal" published in 1931) . This was an excellent anti-fungal to treat trench foot. She talks about the tannin's and other properties that are in the leaves. So successful was this treatment for many other skin ailments, including bleeding hemorrhoids, that in 1925 two pharmacologists, Gibson and Maher, were commissioned by Rockefeller, to research the plant and synthesize it's properties. There go the Petro-chemical pharmaceutical industry. The properties that they were able to single out and synthesize, was astounding. Maher later went on to patent "Lawsone" (1956), a cancer suppressant, taken from Cox 2 Napthoquionone salts, which occurs naturally in the Jewelweed plant.

How I Found it!

In 2015 whilst at work, I was burned by a plant, wasn't sure which species though. My G.P. after great deliberation as to what was causing the burns, wanted to give me the usual antibiotic and an anti-histamine, which I did not want to take. These symptoms that I was suffering were the same symptoms as poison ivy contact and “Urushiol” burn. The best natural poison ivy treatment that I'd read about was the Cherokee remedy. Juice from the stalks of the "Orange Jewelweed" (Impatiens Capensis) were rubbed on the effected area's, caused by contact with Poison Ivy. The leaves they used as a poultice for cut's bruising and burns. Orange Jewelweed is native to North America but has been naturalized in Britain, so I went looking for it. Searching the places where it might be, by day. Re-searching where it grows and all the other remarkable things that it can do, by night. At first, I thought that the properties that this plant had, that it would be beneficial for Eczema sufferers. It proved to be much more! But first I had to find it!!

It was getting late in the summer, I'd been searching for this plant for a couple of months by now. I was about to resign to the fact that it probably didn't grow in the north west of England, but then, supposedly neither does poison ivy. So I sat down at the side of the river where I was, and contemplated my next move. Right there and then! a Bee started hovering only about a foot in front of my face, and stayed there for a good couple of seconds until it had my attention, and then flew past me into a blue flower and then another and another. But wait! These flowers are the same shape more or less, as the Orange Jewelweed, but these are blue. Then I checked it's leaves, they were identical to the leaves of the plant I was looking for. But how? The plant I was looking at was the Annual, Himalayan balsam (Impatiens Glandulifera).

What was going on? On closer examination, I only had sketches to go off at that time, I realized that the Himalayan balsam is actually the Ornamental Jewelweed. A simple mistake? maybe!

It does go under a lot of names! “Touch-me-not”, “policeman’s helmet”, “Indian balsam”, “Poor man’s Orchid” But why the two different Latin names?

I treated it as though it was Orange Jewelweed, and because of the research I'd already done on How the Cherokee used this plant, I was able to successfully extract it's nutrients and minerals into a liquid and an oil. The liquid is made up of the contents from all the plant where as the oil is made up of the leaf.

The minerals and nutrients of the plant comprise of an anti-histamine, anti-inflammatory, anti-pruritic, anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-allergen. There is Saponin, Cox 2 Napthoquionone salts, a platelet activating factor antagonist, Testosterone Alpha Reductase Inhibitor. Oh and not to mention Vitamin ‘A’ and Vitamin ‘K’.

Let me tell you what I've done with it!

The oil I made into a salve and with the liquid I made a soap. These were the first things on the menu. The soap being an anti-itch soap, that has soothing qualities against plant burns and stings or bug bites and stings and it’s anti-fungal was excellent for Psoriasis and Shingles as well as Eczema!

The salve is an excellent healing balm. “A modern herbal” (1931) states that the anti-inflammatory along with the anti-histamine and tannin's, if used on bleeding hemorrhoids, the Tannin's would help stem the bleeding and reduce the size of them. It heals the skin as well as fades scars. Great for post natal marking. It’s very good for blisters, burns and bruising. Its anti-fungal properties as well, really are second to none. Athletes foot, Trench foot, bed sores, cold sores, fungal nail, Acne and even Warts!

I found myself in deep research. According to PubMed, The plant has the number one Alpha Reductase Inhibitor (there are only five) which is testosterone, and supports it’s use against male pattern baldness.

“Napthoquionone” or vitamin “K”, surrounds tumors or malignant cell’s, and doesn’t allow them to spread.

The natural chemical “Sapponins” is a soapy like substance that occurs naturally in this plant. It is also a surfactant, meaning that its a lubricant, it will ease the surface tension between two liquid’s, a liquid and a solid or a liquid and a gas. Chinese herbal remedy uses it for Rheumatic swelling! Oh it’s also an anti-viral.

I had found myself a “Gold mine” so to speak, a very sale-able product or product’s, worthy of top drawer status.

But who to sell it to? There wasn’t a company that uses this plant extract!

So it looked like I’d have to build one myself!!

I visited a local soap company where I would ask questions about soap making and how I could mix it with the aquatious extract (Or Jewelweed tea) that I’d extracted from the plant. They were very obliging and gave me a kilo of a melt and pour soap to experiment with.

Straight away I was learning about how to mix the soap with the “tea” and blending it into an almost organic, anti-itch, anti-fungal bar of soap.

There were only a few people that I knew who had Eczema who would try it because you’ve got to understand that up until this point, it was only speculation on my part that it would work.

. And work it did! The anti-histamine took away the discomfort of Eczema and the anti-inflammatory reduced the redness that it leaves behind… Excellent!!

A neighbor, who I have talked to earlier about the plant leading up to this, has a little dog that had eczema, and she asked if I had anything to help it.

Along the way of this journey, I’d learned a bit about beeswax and how I could blend it with the oil extract I was able to take from the leaf, as to solidify the oil and give it body and form.

And so the Salve was born!

I hadn’t put any essential oil in this salve, and I even ate some of it to test it, make sure it was safe for the animal, and then I gave it to my neighbor for her dog.. Meanwhile!!

A guy that I know, had contact dermatitis in his hand’s. He said that the Dr has tried all kinds of different creams to treat it. The skin on his hands were cracked and raw and he had to wear little cotton gloves to help protect his hands from further infection. He wanted to use both the soap and the salve to see if this could work for him.

I was monitoring the dog every day, as previously agreed, and after about three days it’s skin started to heal.

The guy I know, came to me about a week after starting using the Jewelweed treatments. In an exited manor he said “LOOK” and thrust out the palms of his unglove'd hands. They looked really sore and I asked him if it was the stuff that I gave him that had done this? I thought that I’d done this! To which he replied:- This was the best it had been in month’s! The stuff was actually working!! He said “That’s not all” Because his job was working in rivers, his feet were wet a lot and he had a case of trench foot, and my stuff had sorted that out too!

Describing the feeling I got when I first herd this news is beyond my grasp of language. Knowing that what I’d made had actually improved quality of life.

But there was someone else there at that time, another neighbor that I were already talking to when the guy showed me his hands. My neighbor asked if there was anything I could do for his oral thrush, which were brought on by his asthma inhalers. He showed me and it was rite at the back of his tongue, very hard to get to. I thought for a moment, realizing I only had a soap and a salve, and then it hit me! The Tea!! it’s what I put in the soap!

“Swill this around in your mouth for at least 2 minuets every 12 hours” I said to him as I handed him a half litre bottle of Jewelweed tea. And guess what! It worked!!

I had to wait for the following season though now, so that I could make more extract. I had a bit of time to study about the plant before it grew again the following season. To learn about all the things that would be needed in order to mass produce the extract, whilst at the same time keeping a balance with nature.

Aunties Kitchen started out life as “Himalayan spring”. It wasn’t until just before going to print, that I received notification of another cosmetic company with a similar name, so I changed the name.

“Auntie’s Kitchen” seemed very apt just because of all the “Antis” who work there, cooking things up with all the ingredients this plant has to offer.

There is a lot more work to be done yet!

I call this my R+D!