Essiac Essentials

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    • Having satisfied yourself that you have the correct herbs, check them carefully before storing. They should smell fresh with no odour of mould. If they have little or no smell, they have been around for a very long time. Don’t buy them.
    • Store the herbs in brown paper bags placed inside screw-top glass jars. Keep in a cool, dark place that is completely free from damp or condensation and not near either a microwave oven or the electricity meter.
     
    Seeds of any plant are a concentrated form of the multi-minerals, vitamins and enzymes of the mature plant. They are complete organic factors and we like to include both Sheep sorrel and Burdock seeds in the basic mixture for the tea.
     
    SHEEP SORREL
    Well harvested Sheep sorrel retains its green colour which is indicative of a high chlorophyll/carotenoid content, essential for the anti-oxidant qualities in the tea. Buy the dried herb either whole or chopped so that you can check stem and leaf size and the identity of the seeds. The leaves are curled and dry and dark green in colour. The stems are usually shrivelled and more pale. The seeds should be dark reddish-brown and the size of a pin head. Anything larger has not come from Sheep sorrel. If you find any seeds in the packet, plant some in the garden or in a pot and see what comes up. It is quite possible for you to grow sufficient Sheep sorrel for your own needs.
     
    BURDOCK ROOT
    The root needs to be chopped small to ensure even distribution throughout the mixture. It is kept in pieces rather than powdered to prevent the herbs from burning at the bottom of the pan while the decoction is boiling and to help keep the sediment down during preparation in order to produce a clearer liquid.
    Burdock root is generally more easily available commercially than Sheep sorrel. However, like the distributors, we are always at the mercy of the methods of the growers because the root has to be chopped to size before it is dried. If the grower chops it evenly into pieces that will dry to the size of small peas you are very fortunate.
    Sometimes you may find yourself faced with a quantity of rock-hard, large chunks and no other source of supply to turn to. At such times you have no choice but to shred it in a commercial food-processor before it can be used. Don’t even try to shred it in a food-processor in your kitchen unless you have a very reputable and high-powered machine. Any other stands a good chance of being wrecked — and the root will look much the same as when you began.
    Burdock seeds have the same properties as the root. As they are part of the aerial structure of the plant, we feel that they are important and should not be discounted from the recipe. It is not essential but, if available, some of the crushed seeds could be included with the root when making up the Essiac.
     
    SLIPPERY ELM BARK
    Buy the finely-powdered inner bark from a herbal supplier or from your local pharmacy. It should be a pale beige colour and evenly powdered. Don’t buy a bag of brown powder. It could be anything. If it is fluffy with pieces of bark in it, don’t buy it because you will not be able to grind it well enough for the formula.
    Occasionally, unscrupulous distributors have been known to mix the bark with flour or willow bark. The resulting decoction is very thick and difficult to strain out.
     
    TURKEY RHUBARB ROOT
    Identifiable as a pungent, golden-brown, fine powder, it is generally readily available from herbal suppliers in the UK, Canada and the United States. Dull brown or reddish- brown powder is not Rheum palmatum.
    Buy the smallest amount you can and specify exactly which species of rhubarb you need. If you are buying by mail order, ask what colour the root is and whether it is in chunks or is already powdered. If you have to buy it as dried chunks of root, you will find that it grinds down easily in a food-processor.
     
     
    Harvesting the herbs yourself
     
    If you decide to try to grow or harvest these herbs yourself, it is essential that you should be sensitive to the fact that they are destined to be used for human or animal consumption. Your herbs can either be wild crafted or grown specifically for the Essiac formula.
    If the plant is not listed as a protected species, in most countries it is not illegal to harvest its seed and aerial parts from the wild but it is illegal to dig up established plants and roots and to destroy established colonies of the plant. Check this out in your own