Key words: yarrow, traditional ecological knowledge [TEK], Hutsuls, tannins, anti-inflammatory, gathering [Medicine under our Feet Series: Part 1/4] This is the beginning of a 4 part series, looking at different plants of importance in the Hutsul region. These photos were taken on some of the hikes/walks with folks noting some of the medicine under our feet. My field site, in Hutsulshchyna, is in one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. (This is probably a sentiment that many field ecologists have stated and will continue to state until forever. And it is probably true.) I’ve been fortunate. I’ve been able to travel, live in different places for extended periods of time. I have fallen in love with different ways of seeing, spices that confuse and delight me in the morsels of food I taste, and natural surroundings that invoke a deep sense of awe and delight…but this place is alive in a different way. It is special. There is deep connection and continuous dialogue between land and people. If I could characterize Ukraine, I would say it is a nation of green thumbs. When I tried to describe this English idiom to some Ukrainians and Hutsuls this past summer, perplexed and amused faces greeted me back with phrases like, “Why wouldn’t you try to grow your own food?” This nation falls along the latitude close to Nova Scotia, experienced numerous and continual invasions including a current one (Russia invading Crimea and eastern Ukraine) a nuclear explosion (Chernobyl - 1986), a Soviet government-induced famine called the Holodomor (1932-1933). Being able to “grow food”, and having access to land, provides a safety net during uncertain times. In my previous blog post, I played around with characteristics of resilience as seen in psychology and ecology. I am convinced Ukraine is a resilient nation, like many nations around the world that have experienced extreme stressors (China, India, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Sudan, Japan, and many others that I know I am forgetting). Knowledge and respect for the plant world is evident in big cities and rural areas that I have visited extensively in Western Ukraine. Books about medicinal plants, and gardening are present at local book sales and bookstores. However, some of the most telling knowledge lies in the people, many who maintain or have a plot of land in the countryside. There is an understanding that land is wealth. It is a source of identity and sustenance. This is Lyuba with her granddaughter, Sofika. This scene landed in my lap. I was playing with a dog and I turned around to see this beautiful capture of education. Education happens through experience, through the five senses. Here Sofika and Lyuba are processing basil, a rather new, cultivated plant used in cooking for this region. ©NMFontana My field site is nestled in the Carpathian Mountains, home of the Hutsuls, the home of old cultures, of peoples that have traveled, fled, settled and nestled in these spring-fed forested mountains. Beginning over 2,000 years ago, many ethnographic groups/tribes including Romans, Avars, Goths, Slavs, Magyars and today’s ethnic Hutsuls established cultural roots in this region (Kibych 2010). Since the Middle Ages, Hutsuls, traditional pastoral highlanders of the Ukrainian Carpathians, have maintained alpine grasslands, called polonynas, through mountain shepherding. Over the centuries, Hutsul shepherds and cultivators have adapted their ecological practices to the demands of the mountains, while simultaneously changing local flora and fauna, nutrient cycling and succession sequences to meet their needs (Geyer et al. 2010). This dynamic, intergenerational knowledge base of careful observation and innovative response to an ever-changing environment is defined as traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). One of my research questions is: How are forest-dependent people, like Hutsuls, managing and using wild plants? Cars, bicycles and motorbikes dance along mountain roads, riddled with potholes………….Much of my fieldwork consists of getting to know people, getting to know the land, forests, rivers and ecology. Throughout my interviews with elders, national park scientists, children, herbalists, foresters, farmers, pastoralists, I was exposed to many downright beautiful and amazing plants. This is the beginning of a 4 part series, looking at different plants of importance in the Hutsul region. These photos were taken on some of the hikes/walks with folks noting some of the medicine under our feet. Achillea millefolium L. is primarily found in the Northern Hemisphere in the temperate and boreal zones. You may be pretty familiar with it depending on where you live. It is a perennial herb and is pretty aromatic and is generally white. In this species, in particular, a deeper color forms (pink and even red) are found in older settlements where clones survived from the time they were commonly used medicinally (Chandler et al. 1982). I saw many pink yarrow plants in my walks with elders who still use the plant medicinally. It’s name, Achillea, comes from the time of the Trojan War (1200 BCA) where the Greek hero, Achilles, used the plant leaves to stop the blood flow of his wounded soldiers. Millefolium refers to the featherlike quality of the leaves, so fine that it looks like they have a thousand leaves. Also used by North American Natives for healing wounds and treatment of the common cold. In Ukrainian, it is called Dereviy tysyacholystiy/ Деревій тисячолистий. The Ukrainian name acknowledges the tannins present in the plant. Tannins are compounds that occur naturally and they bind to other compounds (like alkaloids, amino acids and proteins). Lots of plants make tannins – including most berries, like blueberries and cranberries, nuts, chocolate and legumes (peanuts and beans). In plants, tannins protect the plant from getting eaten and help regulate growth. Sometimes, when you bite into something that has tannins, it creates a strange, dry, puckery feeling in your mouth. Imagine being a rabbit and wanting to eat a plant that produces a lot of tannins – you might take one bite and decide to try another plant! This is one of my favorite photos since it shows its intertwining nature with humans, and other animals. Cattle nibble on it and it helps with digestion. I saw yarrow along grazed land, alpine pastures, roadsides, and in areas where humans and nature mix, in ecological terms, in areas of disturbance. There are quite a few species of yarrow in the Carpathians. According to a well-recognized book among plant experts in Ukraine called “Medicinal Plants of the Carpathians”/Likarski Roslyn Karpat/Лікарскі Рослин Карпат, three chronicles cite that the grandson of Dmitri Donskyi, who suffered a nosebleed, treated himself using yarrow juice. Leaves and flowers are used to treat digestive issues, bleeding, hemorrhoids and menstrual abnormalities (Komendar 1971). Another book called “The Gifts of the Forest”/Dary Lisiv/ Дари Лісів notes some other uses. Infuse yarrow (0.8 grams per 200 grams of water) on a tablespoon 2-3 times a day is consumed to improve appetite and digestion. Yarrow juice paired with dried yarrow flowers in a sack (1/3 of the weight) with chamomile flowers can be used to wash the face. In order to calm stomach pains, drink yarrow tea with chamomile flowers. At the same time, place heat on the stomach. Tea from yarrow flowers (3 cups a day) can be used to treat menstrual bleeding and hemoptysis. In veterinary medicine, a decoction of yarrow can treat gastrointestinal issues in young calves. Yarrow secretes quite a bit of nectar, and is well-visited by bees. Decoctions can repel harmful insects like aphids, thrips and spider mites (Elin et al. 1983). In my current research, I’ve found that yarrow is used as tea and it is typically mixed in with зелений чай/zeleniy chai, which translates to green tea (which isn’t like Chinese green tea)…but green tea, in reference to, anything green that is gathered from the Carpathian mountainside. It is gathered between June and the first frost. Collection occurs during flowering. Yarrow contains vitamin K, essential oils, trace amounts of alkaloids, tannins (as mentioned above), resins, inulin, carotene, vitamin C and volatiles. In folk medicine used for centuries, it is considered a hemostatic and diaphoretic agent used for treatment of both internal and external bleeding. Fresh, young leaves are rubbed and can be used as a hemostatic agent for external wounds and nasal bleeding. In my interviews, folks mentioned that it is used today in this region as a styptic and as an internal anti-inflammatory. It can be made into a tea and used as an anti-inflammatory. However, due to its high tannin content, it can overstress the gastric mucosa and therefore one must be mindful when drinking it. So the next time you see this plant, take in its aroma, beauty and medicinal potential with reverence and awe! Next time, I’ll be talking about St. John’s wort! P.S. I stole the title of this blog from a Ukrainian book by George Lypa/Юрій Липа [Yuriy Lypa] His last name Lypa translates to “linden” in Ukrainian! His book is called “Medicine under our Feet/ “Ліки під Ногами” [Liky pid Nohamy]. It was published in 1991. I think the title is just too neat not to spread! Citations: Elin Y.Y, M.Y. Zerova, V.I. Lyshpa and C.I. Shabarova. 1983. The Gifts of the Forest. Kiev: Urozhai. Chandler, R. F., S. N. Hooper, and M. J. Harvey. 1982. Ethnobotany and Phytochemistry of Yarrow, Achillea millefolium, Compositae I. ECONOMIC BOTANY36:21. Geyer J., L. Schmidt, I. Kruglov, V. Gubko, P. Sandei and P.L. Ibisch. 2010. Development, biodiversity conservation and global change in the Ukrainian Carpathians. Pages 84-97 in P.L. Ibisch, P.L., A.E. Vega and T.M. Herrmann, editors. Interdependence of biodiversity and development under global change. Technical Series No. 54. Secretariat of the Convention of Biological Diversity, Montreal (second corrected edition). Kibych, A. 2010. Hutzulshchyna and public progress. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic series14(14): 37-50. Komendar, B. 1971. Medicinal Plants of the Carpathians. Karpaty: Uzhorod. Lypa, Y. 1991. Medicine Under Our Feet. Ternopil.
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