Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Black Haw also known as Viburnum
Slave Owner’s Herb
Family: Caprifoliaceae; (includes Honeysuckle, Elder)
Genus and Species: Viburnum Prunifolium
Also known as: Viburnum
Parts used: Bark
Black haw is an herb with a shadowy past. The reddish-brown bark of this native American shrub has a long history as a folk remedy for gynecological complaints - uses supported by some recent research. Before white people came to this continent, Indian women drank a decoction of black haw bark for menstrual cramps, childbirth recovery, and menopausal discomforts. But its special use was to prevent miscarriage.
It was left to southern slave owners to invent more nefarious uses for the bark-they used black haw coercively to prevent slave abortions. Slaves were a valuable asset, and slaveholders wanted slave women (”breeders”) to bear as many children as possible. Slave owners often raped black women for pleasure and to increase their slave holdings. Many slave women attempted to abort the resulting pregnancies as a quiet protest against slavery.
A favorite means of inducing abortions on southern plantations was cotton root, an herb readily available to slaves. According to the 19th-century Eclectic medical text, King’s American Dispensatory: “It was customary for plantersto compel female slaves to drink an infusion of black haw daily whilst pregnant to prevent abortion from taking the cotton root.”
Quiets the “lrritable Womb”
An Eclectic physician from Mississippi introduced black haw to the North, where it quickly became an herbal mainstay for gynecological complaints. The Eclectics valued it highly: “As a uterine tonic, it is unquestionably of great utility… for menstrual pains… and a good remedy for menopause… But the condition for which black haw is most valued is threatened abortion. By its quieting effect upon the irritable womb, women who have been previously unable to go to term have been aided to pass through pregnancy without mishaps.”
Modern herbalists continue to recommend black haw for menstrual cramps and threatened abortion. Some herbals encourage women to drink black haw tea throughout pregnancy.