Winter's bark

Cold, sluggish digestion with bloating, a pale tongue, and poor appetite calling for a warming aromatic bitter rather than a purely cooling one

Historical shipboard use to prevent scurvy on long voyages when fresh citrus was unavailable, the bark chewed or taken as an infusion

Overview. Drimys winteri, known as Winter's bark, is an evergreen tree of the temperate rainforests of Chile and Argentina, ranging south into Tierra del Fuego and the Strait of Magellan region. Its aromatic, pungent inner bark was brought to European attention in the sixteenth century by the English captain John Winter, who reportedly used it to protect his crew from scurvy on a voyage through the Strait of Magellan. It became established in Western herbal practice as a warming aromatic bitter for weak digestion, though it has often been confused commercially with the unrelated West Indian tree Canella alba, which shares the common name wild cinnamon or false winter's bark.

Clinical Notes. Winter's bark is reached for when digestion is cold, sluggish, and weak rather than inflamed or hot. It works well as a warming aromatic bitter, taken shortly before meals to rouse appetite and ease flatulence, and pairs naturally with other carminatives such as ginger, cinnamon, or angelica in a compound bitters formula.

Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage. Canella bark is an aromatic stimulant and tonic, useful in enfeebled conditions of the stomach and alimentary canal. It is generally used in conjunction with other tonics. It is employed in the West Indies as a spice, and has been advised in scurvy, and in chlorotic, post partum, and carcinomatous menorrhagia. Some smokers add this bark to their smoking tobacco to remove the unpleasant odor from the tobacco, and to impart a degree of fragrance to their smoking-rooms. Dose, 10 to 40 grains.

Description. The bark is of a pale yellowish-white color (externally slightly yellowish-red with elongated scars disposed transversely), occurring in quills or hard, twisted pieces, with an acrid, peppery taste, an aromatic, clove-like, or cinnamon-like odor, and a short, white, granular fracture. On breaking the bark, numerous resin cells, appearing as orange-yellow specks, are scattered throughout the whiteness of the internal structure. Alcohol extracts its properties, the tincture being of a yellow color, and becoming white when water is added. It pulverizes readily, yielding a powder of a pale-yellow color.