Devil's Club

Other Common Names:
Alaskan ginseng

Devil's Club:
Devil's Club is also known as American ginseng is used today as a body-balancing and system-strengthening tea. Scientific trials show that ginseng significantly enables the body to cope with hunger, extremes of temperature, and mental and emotional stress. It produces a sedative effect when the body needs sleep. Other studies have indicated that this root increases immune function, resistance to infection, and supports liver function.

This relative of ginseng grows in moist but well-drained areas of the woods like avalanche chutes and stream banks. Devil's club stems can grow from five to nine feet tall though three to four feet is more common; every summer huge (Frisbee sized) maple-leaf shaped foliage sprouts from the new stem growth. Devil's club is feared by hikers because of the spines that encase the succulent stems and line the underside of the leaves. In the autumn, inconspicuous devil's club flowers mature into bright clusters of red berries and the huge leaves turn yellow. Devil's club forms dense thickets in moist woods. It ranges from south-central Alaska and the extreme southwest Yukon coastally to California. Sometimes it grows in sub-alpine zones and may grow to the timberline in the north.

Devil's Club is useful:
Devil's club root and inner bark have been widely used for centuries by indigenous peoples for their medicinal properties that bear similarities to those of ginseng. The remarkable "adaptogenic" quality of ginseng (helping the body to adapt to stress, fatigue, and cold) has been confirmed. As a specific herb, devil's club has been used by the First Peoples of the Northwest United States, to treat Type II diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and tuberculosis.

Devil's club or Alaskan ginseng is related to the oriental and American ginsengs and like these herbs is used as a body-balancing and system-strengthening tea. Trials show that ginseng significantly improves the body's capacity to cope with hunger, extremes of temperature, plus mental and emotional stress. Furthermore, ginseng produces a sedative effect when the body requires sleep. Other research has indicated that ginseng increases immune function, resistance to infection, and supports liver function. As an adaptive of the Aralid type, Devil's club is useful as a tonic for chronic stress of the adrenal/pituitary/hypothalamic variety. Recent scientific studies have confirmed the presence of anti-tuberculosis chemicals in devil's club root extracts. American herbalists consider devil's club to be a useful expectorant.


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