Remedies in Nature

We first consider the commonly encountered herb known as rue (Ruta graveolens of the family Rutaceae). It is a plant loaded with alkaloids and considered excessively toxic. Nevertheless, it surfaces as a herbal remedy for various ailments. Listed in Hartwell s Plants Used Against Cancer, it has also been used against rabies, at least according to European folklore, as set forth by John Heinerman in Healing Animals with Herbs. 

Bringing matters somewhat more up to date, it may be mentioned that the Papago Indians of the American Southwest and northwestern Mexico were reported by Joseph G. Lee, M.D., to have a rabies cure. The cure, interestingly, also involved rue. Thus, Dr. Lee, in an article titled Navajo Medicine Man in the August 1961 issue of Arizona Highways, describes rue as a Navajo remedy for rabies. Another is said to be dog lichen, Peltigear canina, which received its name as a folkloric cure for rabies. Nevertheless, most of us would no doubt prefer a modem version of the Pasteur treatment. 

Primitive remedies for hydrophobia and other illnesses have been set down by Claude Levi-Strauss in his study The Savage Mind, and according to L vi-Strauss may be examples of totem transference (Levi-Strauss, 1966, pp. 8,9). Thus, animals and plants are not first known as the result of their usefulness, but instead are assumed useful because they are first known. 

In short, the other species of greasewood are to be distinguished from the Wyoming species. For example, the common evergreen greasewood or creosote bush or chaparral of the American Southwest is an entirely different species, which has been called Larrea mexicana, but more usually is called Larrea tridentata or Larrea divaricata. Yet, other species are also called greasewood. 

The greasewood or creosote bush or chaparral is also called by still other names. Thus, the Mexican people sometimes call it Yerba hedionda or stink bush, for the leaves have an acrid, disagreeable odor (Madison, 1955, pp. 226-228). Alternatively, it is called hediondilla, the little bad smeller, or gobernadora, the governess, for its benehcial medicinal properties (Saunders, 1933, pp. 287, 288). 

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