It was a beautiful spring day for a plant quest. Army veteran Mark Tsunokai (Sgt. T.), Dr. James Adams and I drove for about an hour and finally exited onto a dusty trail in the Santa Monica Mountains to learn about the healing properties of plants.
Dr. Adams was leading our quest. A doctor of allopathic pharmacology and professor at the Univ. of Southern California, Dr. Adams spent years studying with a traditional Chumash healer. Though we were actually in search of one obscure plant with buds that can help alleviate the symptoms of pneumonia, we were also interested in the bigger picture of how to heal.
Before we’d gone very far, we encountered black sage and purple sage plants, both of which are excellent cooking spices. “The purple sage is the best plant to relieve pain,” Dr. Adams told us. The method he explained is to take two small handfuls of the leaves, simmer them in seawater, and then soak your feet in the water. My obvious question was, “What if you’re not near the sea?” Ordinary water will do, we were assured. And though purple sage is the best plant for pain, Dr. Adams said that black sage could be a reasonably effective substitute.
I wondered what other kinds of pain sage might help alleviate. A headache? Toothache? Aching back? This was apparently an amateur question. Dr. Adams smiled patiently and answered, “I’m saying you should soak your feet for any pain.”
Further along the trail we saw a family huddled around a bush. Dr. Adams began to tell them the identity of the bush they were standing around—golden currant—but they weren’t interested in the plant, just the red snake resting beneath it. We all stopped to admire the motionless four-foot long beautiful snake with its upraised mottled red head. It was identified as a red racer, somewhat rare, and we quickly took a few photos before it abruptly raced away.
We moved on to tamer subjects, or at least more stationary ones. Our guide picked up some small dried plants and shook out the tiny seeds. “Chia!” he declared. This was native golden chia, the high-energy seed used by desert Indians for generations, not the cultivated chia commonly sold in food markets.
“Chia is the best treatment for someone who’s had a stroke,” Dr. Adams explained. “Add one tablespoon of the seeds to 10 tablespoons of water, and the seeds will swell up gelatinously. Give this to the stroke patient once a day for a month.”
Since I ingest chia every day in my coffee, I wondered if this would help to prevent a stroke. Disappointingly, no, or at least “Not necessarily,” he answered.
We identified numerous spring wildflowers, such as mariposa lily, blazing star, brodiaea or blue dicks, and mimulus. Dr. Adams taught us how the nearly miraculous mugwort leaves can be used for healing, as well as the California sagebrush, details and recipes for which are in his book (see below).
Finally, we came across a stand of erect but somewhat inconspicuous plants with little sticky yellow flowers. This was gum plant, also known as gum weed, and the object of our search. The doctor carefully explained that to use this plant to treat pneumonia, we should boil one bud in a cup and a half of water in a lidded pot. The patient is advised to drink some each night.
Along our walk, Dr. Adams spoke of his “teacher,” whom he rarely mentions by name. Chumash healer Cecilia Garcia passed away in 2012. In a lecture now available in an open access article titled Spirit, Mind and Body in Chumash Healing, they wrote, “In the olden days, Chumash saw the spirit, mind and body as inseparable entities that could not be treated separately in disease. All healing involved the spirit, the mind and the body.” All that Dr. Adams shared with us on our quest that day was imbued with this philosophy, as is their entire book.
Clearly, we’ve lost touch with nature’s pharmacy. Like so many areas of our lives, we’ve turned over our critical thinking and investigation to “experts.” Dr. Adams, continuing the legacy of Cecilia Garcia, is on a mission to change that.
James Adams, Ph.D. is co-author (with Cecilia Garcia) of Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West (Abedus Press, POB 8018, La Crescenta, CA 91214). The Third Edition includes medicinal recipes from Cecilia Garcia.
Christopher Nyerges is the author of Foraging California as well as Guide to Wild Foods and other books. He has been leading plant identification outings since 1974. School of Self-Reliance, Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041
