https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/02/wonderful-wintergreen.html
In discussing Wintergreen, it is important to distinguish of which herb we are speaking. Several herbs are called Wintergreen. Old European herbals refer to Pyrola rotundifolia or so called, “False WIntergreen.” Several
Native and Early American herbals may refer to Chimophila umbellata or Chimophila maculata - called “spotted wintergreen, Pipsissewa or Alligator wintergreen.” Mrs. Grieve makes this clear in A Modern Herbal:
Wintergreen
Botanical: Gaultheria procumbens (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Ericaceae
---Synonyms---Teaberry. Boxberry. Mountain Tea. Checkerberry. Thé du Canada. Aromatic Wintergreen. Partridge Berry. Deerberry.
---Part Used---Leaves.
---Habitat---Northern United States from Georgia to Newfoundland; Canada.
---Description---A small indigenous shrubby, creeping, evergreen plant, growing about 5 to 6 inches high under trees and shrubs, particularly under evergreens such as Kalmias and Rhododendrons. It is found in large patches on sandy and barren plains, also on mountainous tracts. The stiff branches bear at their summit tufts of leaves which are petiolate, oval, shiny, coriaceous, the upper side bright green, paler underneath. The drooping white flowers are produced singly from the base of the leaves in June and July, followed by fleshy, bright red berries (with a sweetish taste and peculiar flavour), formed by the enlargement of the calyx. The leaves were formerly official in the United States Pharmacopoeia, but now only the oil obtained from them is official, though in some parts the whole plant is used. The odour is peculiar and aromatic, and the taste of the whole plant astringent, the leaves being particularly so.
---Constituents---The volatile oil obtained by distillation and to which all the medicinal qualities are due, contains 99 per cent Methyl Salicylate: other properties are 0.3 of a hydrocarbon, Gaultherilene, and an aldehyde or ketone, a secondary alcohol and an ester. To the alcohol and ester are due the characteristic odour of the oil. The oil does not occur crudely in the plant, but as a nonodorous glucoside, and before distillation, the leaves have to be steeped for twelve to twenty-four hours for the oil to develop by fermentation - a reaction between water and a neutral principle: Gaultherin.
---Medicinal Action and Uses---Tonic, stimulant, astringent, aromatic. Useful as a diuretic and emmenagogue and for chronic mucous discharges. Is said to be a good galactogogue. The oil of Gaultheria is its most important product. It has all the properties of the salicylates and therefore is most beneficial in acute rheumatism, but must be given internally in capsules, owing to its pungency, death from inflammation of the stomach having been known to result from frequent and large doses of it. It is readily absorbed by the skin, but is liable to give rise to an eruption, so it is advisable to use for external application the synthetic oil of Wintergreen, Methyl Salicylate, or oil from the bark of Betula lenta, which is almost identical with oil of Gaultheria. In this form, it is a very valuable external application for rheumatic affections in all chronic forms of joint and muscular troubles, lumbago, sciatica, etc. The leaves have found use as a substitute for tea and as a flavouring for genuine tea. The berries form a winter food for animals, partridges, deer, etc. They have been used, steeped in brandy, to produce a bitter tonic taken in small quantities. The oil is a flavouring agent for tooth powders, liquid dentifrices, pastes, etc., especially if combined with menthol and eucalyptus.
---Dosage---Capsules of oil of Gaultheris, 10 minims in each, 1, three times daily.
---Other Species---
Gaultheria hispidula, or Cancer Wintergreen, supposed to remove the cancerous taint from the system. Is also used for scrofula and prolapsus of the womb.
G. Shallon is the Sallol of North-west America, whose edible fruit deserves to be more widely known and cultivated.
Pyrola rotundifolia, known as False Wintergreen or British Wintergreen, was formerly considered a vulnerary.
With Chimophila umbellata, the Bitter Wintergreen, Rheumatism Weed or Pipsissewa, C. maculata, the Spotted Wintergreen was used internally by North American Indians for rheumatism and scrofula. For its diuretic action it is occasionally prescribed, in fluid extract, for cystitis and considered useful in disordered digestion.
Trientalis Europaea, the Chickweed Wintergreen, a British plant, was formerly esteemed in ointment as a wound salve, and an infusion taken internally for blood poisoning or eczema. The root is emetic.
Native American use of true Wintergreen was widespread. Plants of The Cherokee states that “the roots… are made into a tea (with Epigae repens) for chronic indigestion… the dried leaves are a substitute for chewing tobacco.”
Tis Mal Crow tells us that the Muskogee had many medicinal uses for this herb, including use as a liver cleanser, for food poisoning or alcohol poisoning, for joints, muscles, sprains rheumatism and gout, in cough drops, for cold sores, fever blisters and fevers. He cautions against the use of Wintergreen leaf internally, except in small amounts, administered by an experienced healer.
Herbal Remedies of The Lumbee Indians tells us:
A Wintergreen root tea was used by some Lumbee healers to treat chronic indigestion. Also, the leaves were chewed for dysentery or tender gums. A tea was made front he leaves to nurse colds. The Algonquin peoples used Wintergreen in an infusion to treat colds and headache discomfort.
Wintergreen oil was a major export in early America. Eventually, the herb was replaced with Birch tree for the manufacture of Wintergreen Oil. The herb, however, retained domestic use. Resources of The Southern Fields and Forests, written in the 1860s tells us:
SPICY WINTER-GREEN ; PARTRIDGE-BERRY;M0UNTAIN-BERRY, {Gaultheria procumbens, Ph.) Grows in the mountains of South and North Carolina, Dr. MacBride ; New- bern. Fl. May.U. S. Disp. 345; Big. Am. Med. Bot. ii, 29; Lind. Nat. Sj^st. Bot. 221; Bart. M. Bot. i, 178; Kalm, Amoen. Acad, iii, 14 ; Bart. Collcc. i, 19 ; Eaf. Med. Fl. i, 202 ; Griffith Med. Bot. 425.
The whole plant is aromatic. It possesses stimulant aromatic properties, united with astringency; hence used with advantage in some forms of chronic dysentery. It is said to have also some anodyne power The infusion of the leaves has been found beneficial in amenorrhoea attended with debility, and in promoting the mammary secretion when deficient. In the Revolutionary war it was used as a substitute for tea. The berries, which are aromatic and pleasant, are employed to flavor spirituous liquors. An infusion of them in brandy is a convenient and useful substitute for the ordinary bitters. An essential oil is obtained from the leaves by distillation. From Mr. Proctor's examination, (Am. Journal Pharm. viii, 211; and ix, 241,) it is shown to possess acid properties, and to have the same composition as the salicylate of methylene. It is one of the heaviest of the essential oils, having a specific gravity 1.173, with a burning, aromatic taste, mixing with alcohol or ether in all proportions. This is found also in the Betula lenta, some of the Spirceas, in the Polygala lutea, etc. It is applied with good effect to diminish the sensibility of nerves affected by carious teeth, and to disguise the taste and smell of nauseous medicines.
King’s American Dispensatory of 1898 lists it official pharmaceutical use as:
History, Description, and Chemical Composition.—This plant is a native of the United States, growing from Maine to Florida, and westward to Pennsylvania and Kentucky, in cool, damp woods, sandy soils, and on mountains, flowering from June to October. It does not grow in alluvial soil, nor in limestone countries. The leaves are medicinal, yet the whole plant may be used; the leaves have a peculiar fragrance and an agreeable, characteristic flavor, with a slight astringency; the berries possess a similar flavor with sweetness, and are eaten by many; some wild animals, as deer, partridges, etc., use it for food. Water, by infusion, and alcohol extract the virtues of the plant. The leaves contain an odorous volatile oil, which may be obtained in the same manner as oil of peppermint. The specific gravity of the oil is 1.173 at 10° C. (50° F.). It is colorless at first, but subsequently becomes more or less of a pinkish color, has a hot and aromatic taste, possesses acid properties, and is soluble in alcohol or ether (see Oleum Gaultheriae).
Mr. J. Oxley, in 1872, found the leaves to contain glucose, chlorophyll, gum, tannic acid, a body analogous to gallic acid, but not yielding pyrogallic acid upon heating, and principles found also in uva ursi and chimaphila, viz.: Arbutin, ericolin and urson. A quantitative proximate analysis of the leaves made by F. W. Droelle (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1887, p. 289) largely confirmed these results. Volatile oil was found to the extent of ½ per cent. Gaultheria procumbens was ascertained by Prof. Power and N. C. Werbke to be free from andromedotoxin, a neutral poisonous principle present in several plants of the natural order Ericaeae (see Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1889, p. 361).
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Wintergreen possesses stimulant, aromatic, and astringent properties. It is used in infusion as an astringent in chronic mucous discharges, as a diuretic in dysuria, as an emmenagogue, as a stimulant in cases of debility, and is said to augment the flow from the lactiferous vessels of nursing women, but this is doubtful. It is also recommended as a valuable remedy for articular and muscular rheumatism. The infusion and the essence both relieve irritation of the urethra and bladder, and are adapted to the incipient stages of renal inflammation. Tubal nephritis is alleged to have been arrested by it even when examination has revealed in the urine the presence of blood corpuscles and tube casts (Webster). Scudder recommends it in spermatorrhoea with increased sexual excitement, and as a sedative in irritation and inflammation of the urethra, prostate gland and bladder. The volatile oil (see Oleum Gaultheriae), or its tincture, is used to render syrups and other preparations more agreeable. The oil allays the pain of carious teeth, and large doses of it administered internally have caused death by producing inflammation of the stomach; the essence of wintergreen is a carminative, and is sometimes used in the flatulent colic of infants. An infusion of the leaves or whole plant (℥j to water Oj) may be drunk freely. Dose of essence, 1 to 30 drops; of specific gaultheria, 1 to 20 drops.
Specific Indications and Uses.—Cystic and prostatic irritation, undue sexual excitement, renal inflammation (early stage).
Plants for A Future tells us the present use of Wintergreen under the name “Checkerberry”:
Checkerberry
Latin name: Gaultheria procumbens
Synonyms: Gaultheria repens
Family: Ericaceae (Heath Family)
Medicinal use of Checkerberry: Checkerberry leaves were widely used by the native North American Indians in the treatment of aches and pains and to help breathing whilst hunting or carrying heavy loads. An essential oil (known as "oil of wintergreen") obtained from the leaves contains methyl salicylate, which is closely related to aspirin and is an effective anti-inflammatory. This species was at one time a major source of methyl salicylate, though this is now mainly synthesized. The leaves, and the oil, are analgesic, anti-inflammatory, aromatic, astringent, carminative, diuretic, emmenagogue, stimulant and tonic. An infusion of the leaves is used to relieve flatulence and colic. The plant, especially in the form of the essential oil, is most useful when applied externally in the treatment of acute cases of rheumatism, sciatica, myalgia, sprains, neuralgia and catarrh. The oil is sometimes used in the treatment of cellulitis, a bacterial infection that causes the skin to become inflamed. Some caution is advised, especially if the oil is used internally, since essential oil is toxic in excess, causing liver and kidney damage. It should not be prescribed for patients who are hypersensitive to salicylates (aspirin). The leaves can be gathered at any time from spring to early autumn, they are dried for use in infusions or distilled to produce the oil.
Additionally, Plants for A Future lists 26 more varieties of Gaultheria. So, several plants are called Wintergreen, several more unrelated plants can be used to make Wintergreen Oil and the Gaultheria family is quite large, with multiple medicinal uses. Hopefully, this entry in the Bitter Herbs has at least cleared things up a little. I agree with Euell Gibbons that finding a patch of Wintergreen under the snow is one of the true treats for the winter forager.
Author: Judson Carroll. Judson Carroll is an Herbalist from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. His weekly articles may be read at
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The information on this site is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing on this site has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I am not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and their is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm just a guy who studies herbs. I am not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write is accurate or true! I can tell you what herbs have "traditionally been used for." I can tell you my own
experience and if I believe an herb helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use any herb I, or anyone else, mentions you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, sensitivity or underlying condition that no one else shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to read my blog you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices and not to blame me for anything, ever.
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