How Quercus Robur (Oak) Is Used In Treatment Of Disorders Of The Gall Bladder

Other Common Names: Common Oak, Cervalho, Chene, Encina, English Oak, Mese, Oak, Pedunculate Oak, Rovere, Quercus robur

Range: Widely distributed over Europe; Asia; Britain; Chile; USA.

Habitat: Often the dominant woodland tree, especially on clay soils but avoiding acid peat and shallow limestone soils.

The Greeks held the Oak sacred, the Romans dedicated it to Jupiter, and the Druids venerated it.

The genus Quercus comprises numerous species, distributed widely over the Northern Hemisphere, and found also in Java, and the Mountains of Mexico and South America.

The oak tree has a long history of medicinal use. It is antiinflammatory, antiseptic, astringent, decongestant, haemostatic and tonic. The bark is the part of the plant that is most commonly used, though other parts such as the galls, seeds and seed cups are also sometimes used. A decoction of the bark is useful in the treatment of chronic diarrhea, dysentery, intermittant fevers, hemorrhages etc.

Externally, it is used to bathe wounds, skin eruptions, sweaty feet, piles etc. It is also used as a vaginal douche for genital inflammations and discharge, and also as a wash for throat and mouth infections. The bark is harvested from branches 5 - 12 years old, and is dried for later use.

Any galls produced on the tree are strongly astringent and can be used in the treatment of hemorrhages, chronic diarrhea, dysentery etc.

Galls are excrescences produced in plants by the presence of the larvae of different insects. The forms that they assume are many, and the changes produced in the tissues various. They occur in all parts of the plant and sometimes in great quantities.

If collected after the insects have escaped, galls are of a pale, yellowish-brown hue, spongy and lighter in weight, perforated near the centre with a small hole. These are known in commerce as white galls.

The chief constituents of Aleppo or Turkey Galls are 50 to 70 per cent of gallotannic acid, 2 to 4 per cent of gallic acid, mucilage, sugar, resin and an insoluble matter, chiefly lignin.

The plant is used in Bach flower remedies - the keywords for prescribing it are 'Despondency', 'Despair, but never ceasing effort'.

A homeopathic remedy is made from the bark. It is used in the treatment of disorders of the spleen and gall bladder.

Seed - cooked. Nourishing but indigestible. Chopped and roasted, the seed is used as an almond substitute. It can be dried, ground into a powder and used as a thickening in stews etc or mixed with cereals for making bread. The seed contains bitter tannins, these can be leached out by thoroughly washing the seed in running water though many minerals will also be lost. Either the whole seed can be used or the seed can be dried and ground into a powder. It can take several days or even weeks to properly leach whole seeds, one method was to wrap them in a cloth bag and place them in a stream. Leaching the powder is quicker. A simple taste test can tell when the tannin has been leached. The traditional method of preparing the seed was to bury it in boggy ground overwinter. The germinating seed was dug up in the spring when it would have lost most of its astringency.

Tannin is extracted commercially from the bark and is also found in the leaves.

Oak trees are more persistently attacked by insects than any other trees.

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