Essiac Essentials

inulin content is at its maximum level. In their second year, the plants have much larger and longer roots with a distinctive fibrous outer layer that easily parts from the more tender inner root. Depending on how they are cut, these two growth rings can be clearly seen in the dried root.
     
    Fig 8 shows four samples of chopped Burdock root as supplied by the same distributor from a variety of sources over a two-year period. From these pictures you will see a considerable variation in the root’s appearance, depending on the way it has been prepared.
     
    Sample (a) shows the root chopped into large and uneven pieces.

     
    Sample (b) shows the same root after shredding.

     
    Sample (c) shows the root peeled before drying and evenly chopped.

     
    Sample (d) shows the unpeeled root evenly chopped to the size of small peas.

     
     
    When we measured the samples, using a standard measuring cup of the type commonly used throughout Canada and the USA, and then weighed them using conventional scales, we found some significant differences, i.e.:
     
    6.5 cups of Burdock root cut to the size of small peas weighed 23.12ozs /655g
     
    6.5 cups of Burdock root in large chunks weighed 17.5ozs/ 496g
     
    As a result of the confusion over the weight/volume question and the variations found in the processing of the herb for commercial distribution, we have opted, for accuracy, to use weight when measuring Burdock root in the recipe given in this book.
     
    ANALYSIS
    Vitamins: Antioxidants A, C+P, E; vitamin B-complex.
     
    Minerals: Free radical scourging zinc with trace elements of copper, manganese and selenium; chromium; cobalt; iron; magnesium; phosphorus; potassium; silicon; sodium; trace elements of calcium and sulphur.
     
    Other constituents : Inulin, a nourishing carbohydrate containing sodium and magnesium that acts as a protective layer — the content may be up to 45 % in the root in the first autumn of the two-year cycle and is anti-carcinogenic in that it has been found to break down the mucous membrane on cancer cells to allow the body’s bio-defence system to penetrate cells; mucilage content can be as high as 12%; sugars; a bitter crystalline glucoside, lappin; arctigenin; benzaldehyde, a component of the glucoside amygdalin, the oily substance that has been credited in human studies as having significant anti-cancer effects; tannic acid.
     
     

    Slippery Elm /Ulmus rubra (formerly fulva)
     
    Also known as Indian elm, Red elm or Moose elm, Slippery elm is a deciduous tree from the Ulmaceae family and is native to North America, ranging from south-eastern Canada and the eastern United States to Florida and Texas. Preferring a rich, well-drained soil in the lowlands and beside streams, it can be found on rocky hillsides and limestone ridges but doesn’t thrive there.
    It is the smallest of the American elms, reaching a height from 40 to 60 feet with a trunk diameter between 1 and 2.5 feet. The trunk bark is deeply furrowed, grey-brown on the outer layer with reddish-brown underlayers, the twigs are a light red colour and rough to touch. A mature tree can be identified by the spreading branches forming a broad, open and flat-topped crown, and resembling the American elm’s vase shape on the skyline. The leaves are characteristically rough and, measuring five to seven inches long and two to three inches wide, are larger than those of most of the other species. They are shorter on one side than the other. The upper surface is dark green, Slippery Elm dull and very rough to touch, while lighter and sometimes rusty underneath. Some people (Mali included) develop contact dermatitis after touching the leaves.
    A log aboard a ship from England brought another more recent — and, this time, very unwelcome — colonist from Europe to North America. The European elm bark beetle carrying the fungal Dutch elm disease landed in Cleveland in 1930 and precipitated the greatest ecological accident to overwhelm North America since the Mayflower landed in Massachusetts in 1620. Ninety-five per cent of the native elms succumbed to the disease, destroying the characteristic appearance of southern Canada and the eastern United States, familiar as it had been to so many.
    The elms are gradually making a comeback, but it is slow. We went from elm to elm in Ontario, feeling the leaves, examining the twigs and bark, and time after time all we found were young American (or White) Elms. Almost at the point of giving up, we were