Spruce

Overview. Picea abies, the Norway spruce, is a tall, pyramidal conifer native to northern and central Europe and long cultivated elsewhere as timber and ornamental. The resin that exudes from wounds in the bark, historically traded as Burgundy pitch, along with the young shoots and needles, has been used in European folk and physiomedical practice. Cook and his contemporaries classed it among the stimulating, warming agents, valued chiefly as an external rubefacient and as an internal stimulating expectorant for cold, damp chest conditions.

Clinical Notes. In physiomedical use the softened pitch was spread thickly on leather or linen and applied over the chest for chronic bronchitis or over a painful joint or the lower back for rheumatism and sciatica, left in place for days to draw local circulation and produce a mild, sustained warming counterirritation.

Properties and Uses. Frankincense and Burgundy Pitch are excitants, but are not used internally. Applied to the skin, the pitch softens and becomes adhesive, and will excite redness and tenderness, and lead to blisters and small ulcers. These articles are usually mixed with the gum hemlock, beeswax, sweet oil, and similar substances, and formed into plasters, which are used to provoke counter-irritation over parts where there is deep-seated pain. There can be but little spoken in favor of them, and it is not wise to attempt to cover their character by the virtues of the good company they are generally thrown into. There is no doubt we possess far more efficient and innocent excitants.

primary-actions. Spruce acts primarily as: Stimulating expectorant, Antimicrobial, Antitussive, Rubefacient (resin), Antioxidant, Adrenal-supportive (aromatherapy), Anti-inflammatory, Vitamin C source (historical antiscorbutic). Secondary actions include Open and warm the lungs, Expel phlegm, Relieve cough, Warm and move topically, Uplift and steady (aromatic).