Because some people never learn, me for instance, I have now gotten a bit of poison ivy on my ankle from wearing sandals in the woods. Not only did I amble along with my legs unprotected but I wasn't watching where I was walking and what I was stepping on or around. Oh well, next time I will be more careful. But in the meantime I am experimenting with natural herbal remedies. The first one that I tried was jewelweed which is easy to spot right now because it is in flower. The plant is also sometimes referred to as Spotted Touch-Me-Not which has always perplexed me because it is used to sooth the skin. There are both the orange and yellow (Pale Touch-Me-Not) flowered varieties in our area. Jewelweed is a member of the impatiens family.
I got the information below from Wildman Steve Brill's website. It is from his book "Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not-So-Wild) Places" (for those of you who don't have the book, it is great!).
"If you accidentally touch poison ivy and apply jewelweed juice to the affected area before the rash appears, you probably won't get the rash. One of my best strawberry patches is also infested with poison ivy. You can't avoid touching it as you collect the irresistible fruit. I have everyone apply jewelweed to all exposed areas when we leave, and nobody ever gets a rash.
The Indians treat already-developed poison ivy rash by rubbing jewelweed's broken stem on the rash until it draws some blood. The rash then dries out, a scab forms, and healing occurs.
There are many ways to capture jewelweed's medicinal properties: The fresh plant lasts a week in a sealed container in the refrigerator. 1960s foraging guru and author Ewell Gibbons reported the jewelweed tincture he extracted in alcohol went moldy, but I've soaked fresh jewelweed in commercial witch hazel extract for a few weeks, and the extract of the two herbs works well and doesn't perish.
You can also make jewelweed ointment by simmering a small amount of jewelweed in light vegetable oil (any vegetable oil except olive oil, which burns) 10-15 minutes. Use only a small handful of jewelweed stems per quart of oil, or bubbles of jewelweed juice will form in the ointment and go moldy. Strain out the herb, add a handful of beeswax to thicken it, and heat until melted. Take out a spoonful and let it cool to test the thickness, and add more oil or beeswax as needed. Add the contents of one oil-soluble vitamin E capsule, a natural preservative, and let it cool. Refrigerated, it lasts for months.
- Steve Brill
Although the plant seem to sooth my skin when I rubbed the juice of the stem onto the rash I didn't think it was drying it out quickly enough for me. I think next time I will try the jewel weed a little earlier in the outbreak.
