White willow

Category: Medicines - plant based

Type

Voluntary

Introduction and description

Salix alba (white willow) is a species of willow native to Europe and western and central Asia.  The name derives from the white tone to the undersides of the leaves.  The stems (withies) from coppiced and pollarded plants were and are used for basket-making and this is the tree used for cricket bats.

Salix alba has a long history of medicinal use – bark and leaves.  The sale of ‘willow bark extract’ has become something of an industry, but care needs to be taken.  There are many kinds of willow [Salix] from the Pussy willow to the Weeping willow.  Salix alba  readily forms natural hybrids with crack willow Salix fragilis, the hybrid being named Salix × rubens Schrank.

Mary Cicely Barker’s child holds a Pussy willow [either Salix caprea or Salix cinerea].    It is noticeable that in some of the pages on the Internet dedicated to selling herbal extracts, there are pictures of Weeping willows [Salix babylonica and related hybrids] and this is incorrect.  When used medicinally, the correct plant must be used.

There appears to be the widespread belief that Salicin is the important chemical in willow.  It isn’t.  It may have been extracted long ago, it may be the basis for aspirin, but it is not Salicin which heals.  All we can do is point you to Dr Duke’s analysis [provided as an observation below] which shows both the activity and the chemicals in White willow.

What this means is that a very very large number of the so called ‘herbal remedies’ on the market today could be worse than useless.  Now let me quote:

Dr Duke provides no analysis for either Salix purpurea or Salix fragilis meaning he did not recognise either as being medicinal plants.  What this means is that in the least worse case scenario you are getting virtually no benefit from the watering down of the medicine with Salix purpurea and Salix fragilis, and in the worst case scenario they contain chemicals which are poisonous.

Description

Salix alba (white willow) is a medium-sized to large deciduous tree growing up to 10–30 m tall, with a trunk up to 1 m diameter and an irregular, often-leaning crown.

 The bark is grey-brown, and deeply fissured in older trees. The shoots in the typical species are grey-brown to green-brown.

The leaves are paler than most other willows, due to a covering of very fine, silky white hairs, in particular on the underside; they are 5–10 cm long and 0.5–1.5 cm wide.

 The flowers are produced in catkins in early spring, and pollinated by insects. It is dioecious, with male and female catkins on separate trees; the male catkins are 4–5 cm long, the female catkins 3–4 cm long at pollination, lengthening as the fruit matures. When mature in midsummer, the female catkins comprise numerous small (4 mm) capsules, each containing numerous minute seeds embedded in white down, which aids wind dispersal.

White willows are fast-growing, but relatively short-lived, being susceptible to several diseases, including watermark disease caused by the bacterium Brenneria salicis (named because of the characteristic 'watermark' staining in the wood; syn. Erwinia salicis) and willow anthracnose, caused by the fungus Marssonina salicicola. These diseases can be a serious problem on trees grown for timber, medicine or ornament.

Hybrids

Salix alba 'Caerulea' (cricket-bat willow; syn. Salix alba var. caerulea (Sm.) Sm.; Salix caerulea Sm.) is grown as a specialist timber crop in Britain, mainly for the production of cricket bats, and for other uses where a tough, lightweight wood that does not splinter easily is required. It is distinguished mainly by its growth form, very fast-growing with a single straight stem, and also by its slightly larger leaves (10–11 cm long, 1.5–2 cm wide) with a more blue-green colour. Its origin is unknown; it may be a hybrid between white willow and crack willow, but this is not confirmed.

Salix alba 'Vitellina' (golden willow; syn. Salix alba var. vitellina (L.) Stokes) is a cultivar grown in gardens for its shoots, which are golden-yellow for one to two years before turning brown. It is particularly decorative in winter; the best effect is achieved by coppicing it every two to three years to stimulate the production of longer young shoots with better colour. Other similar cultivars include 'Britzensis', 'Cardinal', and 'Chermesina', selected for even brighter orange-red shoots.

Salix alba 'Sericea' (silver willow) is a cultivar where the white hairs on the leaves are particularly dense, giving it more strongly silvery-white foliage. This cultivar has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Salix alba 'Vitellina-Tristis' (golden weeping willow, synonym 'Tristis') is a weeping cultivar with yellow branches that become reddish-orange in winter. It is now rare in cultivation. It is, however, still the best choice in very cold parts of the world, such as Canada, the northern US, and Russia.

The golden hybrid weeping willow (Salix x sepulcralis 'Chrysocoma') is a hybrid between white willow and Peking willow Salix babylonica.

It is unknown whether these hybrids and varieties have the same medicinal properties and activities.

Medicinal use

Some history

The use of white willow to relieve inflammation and pain goes back to antiquity.   It has long been used in Europe and China for the treatment of these conditions. The Assyrians knew of its properties:

The Cherokee and other Native Americans used an infusion of the bark for fever and other medicinal purposes. The bark was used as a pain reliever for a variety of ailments. In 2014, archaeologists identified traces of salicylic acid on 7th century pottery fragments found in east central Colorado.

But in the 1800s, we have the start of ‘chemistry’ and one active extract of the bark, called salicin, after the Latin name Salix, was isolated to its crystalline form in 1828 by Henri Leroux, a French pharmacist, and Raffaele Piria, an Italian chemist, who then succeeded in separating out the acid in its pure state.

And from that moment, the race was on to find a drug that could be sold as opposed to willow which was free. 

Aspirin is not Willow bark extract or willow leaves.

 In the first place acetylsalicylic acid is not the same as Salicyclic acid.  Furthermore, the White willow, if we look at Dr Duke’s analysis is a good deal more complex in its make up than just Salicylic acid.

If we compare the eHealthme statistics for Willow bark extract and those for aspirin we could not get a more different picture.  We have provided the aspirin figures as an observation under Salicylic acid, but very briefly,

• Willow bark - On Feb, 24, 2016: 0 [zero – nobody]  people who reported to have side effects when taking Willow bark extract.  Whereas
• Aspirin - On Feb, 24, 2016: 161,407 people reported to have side effects when taking Aspirin. Among them, 3,623 people (2.24%) have Death.

Clearly more people take aspirin than willow bark and also the way aspirin is packaged it is easy to overdose, but the statistics cannot be ignored, Willow bark appears safer.  It also has more applications – it is not possible to use aspirin to treat malaria, for example, but the Rev. Stone had great success with it.

Dr Duke's analysis of activity [extract]

There are numerous chemicals in White willow and those chemicals provide a truly amazing set of activities that way exceeds aspirin.  Just a small selection according to Dr Duke’s analysis:

Anthelmintic Antiaflatoxin IC50=2.57 ppm IC50=25 uM IC50=7.5 ppm IC50=9.52 uM Antibacterial MIC=>1,000 ug/ml Antiberiberi Anticancer Anticancer (Lung) Anticarcinomic Anticarcinomic (Breast) IC50=1.5 uM Anticataract 1 g 3x/day 15 mg/day 30 mg/day 350 mg/day 400 mg/day 400 ug/day AntiCrohn's 400 mg/man/3x/day 50-100 mg/day/orl/man AntiCTS 1,000 mg 3x/day AntiCVI 270 mg/man/day Antidepressant 2,000 mg/day 200 ug/day Antidiabetic 10-30 mg/man/day 200-1,000 ug 3-5 mg/day 30 mg/day 400-800 mg/man/day Antidote (Aluminum) Antidote (Cadmium) Antidote (Iodine) Antidote (Lead) Antidote (Mercury) Antidote (Paraquat) Antidysenteric Antiescherichic Antifibromyalgic 200-300 mg 3x/day Antiflu Antigallstone 1,000-3,000 mg/day Antigingivitic Antiglaucomic 2 g/day 60 mg/day Antihepatitic 1 g 3x/day/man 2-6 g/man/day Antiherpetic 1-5 g/day 20-54 ug/ml 48-150 ug/ml AntiHIV IC50=143 ug/ml IC72=200 ug/ml Antileishmanic IC50=64 Antilepric 1.5 g/man/day Antileukemic 1.6 mg/kg ipr mus 20-50 uM 5.5-60 uM IC50=10 uM IC50=25-56 ug/ml IC50=>10 ug/ml Antilupus 150 mg/man/day/2 mos AntiLyme 400-1,000 mg 50 mg 50 mg/day 500-2,000 mg Antimalarial IC50=1-6.4 ug/ml IC50=>100 ug/ml Antimeasles Antimelanomic 1-50 uM 480 ug/kg

AntiMeniere's Antimigraine 200 mg/day/man AntiMS Antipancreatitic Antipapillomic Antiparkinsonian 1 g 2-3x/day 100 mg/day 200-400 ug/day Antiplasmodial IC50=13-64 Antipolio and Antipoliomyelitic Antiprotozoal AntiRaynaud's 1,500-4,000 mg/day 280-350 mg/day 500 mg 1-2x/day Antishingles Antistreptococcic ID50=120 ug/ml Antitinnitic 60-120 mg/day Antitrypanosomic 100 mg/kg IC50=13 Antitumor 1-50 uM 10 uM 100-200 (-400) ug/man/day Antitumor (Bladder) Antitumor (brain) 38-150 ug/kg Antitumor (Breast) 0.8 mg/kg scu mus 1-50 uM 150 ug/kg diet rat 230 ug/kg orl rat 333.6 ug/day IC45=60 ug/ml Antitumor (CNS) IC43=45 ug/ml Antitumor (Colon) Antitumor (Gastric) Antitumor (Lung) 240 ug/kg diet IC30=60 ug/ml Antitumor (Ovary) Antitumor (Prostate) Antitumor (Skin) 20 uM Antitumor (Stomach) IC26=45 ug/ml Antitumor-Promoter Antiulcer 1 g/5x/day/man/orl 12 mg 3x/day/man/orl 15,000-25,000 IU/day 50 mg/3x/day/man 88 mg/rat/day/15 days Antiviral 1-5 g/day 20-54 ug/ml 48-150 ug/ml IC50=10 uM Asthma-preventive 1,000 mg/day/orl Cancer-Preventive 22 ppm Candidicide Chelator Diuretic 10 ppm 700 mg/man/orl Fungicide ED50=2.9-4.6 ug/ml MIC 1,000 ug/ml Gastroprotective HIV-RT-Inhibitor IC50=<1 ug/ml Trichomonicide

 White willow is, if Dr Duke’s analysis is correct, a sort of wonder plant, able to help with numerous viruses including the flu, herpes and HIV.  It also seems capable of combatting some ferocious parasites, is a fungicide and is an antidote to a large number of heavy metals.

Why are we taking aspirin when we could wander into the fields of the fens in the UK and gather Willow of our own – free - and if the above analysis is correct, safer and more effective?

When Dr Stone did his analysis he treated ‘the agues’.  The agues in those days was usually either malaria or the flu and his dried powdered willow bark was effective against both.

 

References and further reading

• Norn, S.; Permin, H.; Kruse, P. R.; Kruse, E. (2009). "[From willow bark to acetylsalicylic acid]". Dansk Medicinhistorisk Årbog (in Danish) 37: 79–98. PMID 20509453.
• Seaman, David R. (19 July 2011). "White Willow Bark: The Oldest New Natural Anti-Inflammatory/Analgesic Agent". The American Chiropractor.
• Hemel, Paul B. and Chiltoskey, Mary U. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses – A 400 Year History, Sylva, NC: Herald Publishing Co. (1975)
• Stone, Edmund (1763). "An Account of the Success of the Bark of the Willow in the Cure of Agues". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 53: 195–200. doi:10.1098/rstl.1763.0033.
• Rev Med Interne. 2000 Mar;21 Suppl 1:8s-17s.  [Aspirin throughout the ages: a historical review]. [Article in French]  Lévesque H1, Lafont O.
• Meikle, R. D. (1984). Willows and Poplars of Great Britain and Ireland. BSBI Handbook No. 4. ISBN 0-901158-07-0.

Related observations

Healing observations

• Accumulation and distribution of trivalent chromium and effects on hybrid willow (Salix matsudana Koidz x alba L.) metabolism 020525
• An account of the success of the Bark of the Willow in the Cure of Agues - Rev. Mr. Edmund Stone 1763 020518
• Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of propolis collected by three different races of honeybees in the same region 020527
• Culpepper's Complete Herbal on White Willow 020521
• Dioscorides and De Materia Medica - Willows and Opium 018069
• Dr Duke's list of Chemicals and their Biological Activities in: Salix alba L. (Salicaceae) -- White Willow 020519
• Dr Duke's list of Plants Containing QUERCETIN 021446
• Dr Duke's list of Plants containing SALICYLIC ACID 020467
• Dr Duke's list of Plants containing SELENIUM 020550
• Dr Duke's list of Plants with Antiglaucomic activity 019952
• Dr Duke's list of Plants with Antineuralgia activity 019580
• Dr Duke's list of Plants with Antiosteotic activity 018450
• Efficacy and Safety of White Willow Bark (Salix alba) Extracts 020510
• Fortified extract of red berry, Ginkgo biloba, and white willow bark in experimental early diabetic retinopathy 020529
• Inhibition of proinflammatory biomarkers in THP1 macrophages by polyphenols derived from chamomile, meadowsweet and willow bark 020528
• Mesopotamia - Its technology and culture 03 Healing 022204
• Mrs Grieve on White Willow 020520
• Physiological and proteomic responses of different willow clones (Salix fragilis x alba) exposed to dredged sediment contaminated by heavy metals 020524
• Tanacetum parthenium and Salix alba (Mig-RL) combination in migraine prophylaxis: a prospective, open-label study 020523
• The potential for phytoremediation of iron cyanide complex by willows 020526
• Willow species and aspirin: different mechanism of actions 020511

In time

Synaesthesia, Pure or enhanced perception, Inter composer communication, Vision, Dream, Perception recall, Exploring group perception

• Danielou, Alain – On drugs you are possessed by the spirit being of the drug 022582