Jewelweed - but can it really? The plant best known as a poison ivy remedy

Two words - explosive dehiscence. This is going to be a quickie.?

Jewelweed also called snapweed is a common trailside plant we notice when the translucent seed pods burst and hurl clear-ish green seeds in many directions. I

It's a great party trick for sure.?

And here's where I put the salesy little pitch for you to pay attention to this plant.??

It's one of the most reputed and widely known natural remedies for poison ivy.

If you're really astute and spend time down on your belly in anybody's flower garden with the low-growing annual plants you might notice a resemblance in this seed dispersal method with the domesticated, fragile, but quick impatiens. You would be right to guess a relationship between the two!?

The woodland or natural impatiens is usually called jewelweed but it can also be called touch-me-not, slipper weed, and my favorite, elf cap. Let’s bring back this colloquial name!

Where is this little guy in native to?

I should say that by default and contrast, I am talking about the medium tall leggy translucent green fragile juicy-stemmed, knobby-keed, yellow or orange flowered forest plant. It can also grow in edge territory.?

Impatiens campensis, Impatiens biflora, the two orange flowering species, and Impatiens pallida, the yellow or whitish-yellow one are native to North America.?

Impatiens capensis was named for the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa by a mistaken botanist, at least we think so. It seems to be native to North America or perhaps both continents from way back when there was greater contingency. I'm just being silly and this is to say when it comes to questions of whether a plant is native to one place or another, the plants have been around long enough to have known and traveled a world much different than we know or could imagine or even simulate with predictions. We also know that birds love the seeds of Impatiens.

Is the plant native to this continent or that sometimes it's both - little bookmarks in an unwritten history of life on earth’s origins, or the sample could have simply been mislabeled, or the origin misattributed, especially by someone new on the scene who simply didn’t have context for the plant, yet, or who had other ideas!?

But there's my little speculative soapbox for this episode, and more as a theme than a statement about this particular plant or origin of these particular species.?

We also have similar species Impatiens balsamina in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.? Impatiens glandulifera is of the Himalayan region also. Both have some traditional uses that overlap with traditional and current use of the North American species.

In the schools I learned in, seeing that traditional use of the same or similar species were the same, or uses were of similar themes and rationale, going far back was a ‘ding-ding!’, a positive for viewing a plant as truly medicinal.?

But I am sure there is also much more than what I have yet learned, and uses that I have only caught glimpses of once or twice, which are completely common knowledge to someone else. (An invitation to chime in!)

So, didn't I tell you that I like to talk about how herbs work?

Key constituents of Impatiens include mucopolysaccharides -? that's the slimy stuff, folks.

But to be more precise, these are complex polysaccharides much like we find in aloe, that create demulcency. These hold water to an area and cool and soothe when it comes to declaring any special unique active constituent of jewelweed, the constituent name lawsone is spouted in many of the texts. This is sort of interesting because it is also called a hennatannic acid, meaning it has properties like a tannin, but also some other characteristics. It is named for its similarity to constituents found in the henna plant!?

Many sources and studies have called lawsone the active ingredient though others have debunked this.?

What is my opinion?

I plead plurality of constituents.?

That is to say, I truly believe it usually isn't just one constituent of a medicinal plant that is active, so to speak.?

Saponins. These are constituents that have a physically soapy quality. These can solvate oils or blend oil and water together because they share physical properties of both. Many of the later studies on jewelweed, though most are fairly simple, which is good actually because they approximate actually use, credit saponins as much or more than lawsone.

Here is the most specific statement I have found about how it works.?

This is a quote form the beloved James Duke, an American botanist, herbalist, and author, and peer, whose credibility and recognition often stood out a bit in herb interested circles beyond herbalism, based on his work with the USDA.?

“Robert Rosen Ph.D., a chemist at Rutgers University… may have come up with an explanation for jewelweed’s effectiveness. Urushiol does its dirty work by binding to skin cells and triggering the rash producing irritation. A mere one-billionth of a gram of urushiol is enough to affect those who are highly sensitive. Lawsone...binds to the same molecular sites on the skin as urushiol. If applied quickly after contact with a poison plant, lawsone beats the urushiol to those other sites, in effect locking it out. The simple result is you don’t get the rash”?

You may read it yourself in The Green Pharmacy, by James Duke, in the 1997 Edition, p 359

I would say it doesn't really matter which are the most important constituents as long as the sum of the whole works!?

But Westerners do like to dissect and converse, so there you have it.?

By the way, the range of studies comparing jewelweed to placebo found it anywhere from 0% to 67% effective.?

Some found it effective, but just as effective as soap. But keep in mind it's right there. It often grows next to poison ivy. So keep it in mind, but be on the watch and avoid poisonous ivy and other plants producing rashes. I would never venture into such a predicament just to show off your herb knowledge to your friends.

Jewelweed tends to grow where the soil is moist and cool, which can be in a bit of shade or part sun. Though it is an annual it has such a prodigious seed dispersal strategy that it tends to take foot in large recurring patches. As for practically all of its uses, you really want a fresh preparation, or as close to it as possible.?

Some make a succuss, which can be pronounced two ways, of it that is a preparatio of a blended or juiced fresh plant. Some may use it immediately, and others may attempt to preserve it with just a little alcohol, or refrigerate it for use shortly after. (Either of these can produce impressive spoilage even if you’ve put in great effort.)? Better yet, freeze it. In this case no alcohol is needed and I would avoid adding any alcohol, as alcohol will keep the solution from freezing. Then thaw the frozen plain jewelweed juice when a weary occasion for use occurs.

I also vote for the no alcohol method because in many of the really simple studies that used an alcohol preparation of jewelweed, these preparations caused minor irritation when applied to the rashes of poison ivy. Ouch!?

How about some other uses before we finish.?

The next most obvious is for the sting of nettles, or urtication, since we're always stretching our herbal vocabulary.?

Indigenous and folk uses to present include soothing poison oak and all sorts of stings of the outdoors, burns, and insect bites included.?

There may additionally be some antifungal value of jewelweed that constituents related to henna contribute. Some of the constituent overlap or similarity occurs in naphthoquinones,? some of which have the good reputation of being mildly antifungal as well as anti-inflammatory, a good combination for some trickier though common skin issues.?

Among the many Asian species Impatiens balsamina has been used for burns, and so on, and additionally, we know that quercetin and flavonoids have been identified as possible active constituents. Now don't think that these constituents make this species special, it is special, but all plants produce and contain flavonoids and possibly all or close to all plant of the types most are familiar with, make quercetin. Quercetin is in fact anti-inflammatory and has many applications and reducing autoimmune and allergic reactions. It is even used for seasonal respiratory allergies.?

Some of the outlier uses, though not too hard to stomach, have to do with the digestive tract, as demulcents, soothing the mouth, throat, stomach, and lower GI tract, and eliminative organs.

Jewelweed is also said to be known among some Cherokee users as a birthing demulcent, yes to make the birth canal more relaxed and slippery, used only during labor, or I should say right before labor, applied topically, and drunk is an infusion. The internal use may be by more of a reflexive action, which is to say when one mucosal membrane and smooth muscle-lined organ, such as the stomach, is soothed and relaxed, there may be some nervous system influences the same effect on other smooth muscles influenced by the vagal nerve.?

One more use, I don't want to lose sight of it, is as an Iroquois remedy for irritated eyes used as a moistening and soothing poultice applied over the closed eyelids for safety.?

And it has some history of use as a febrifuge and diuretic. Usually, these terms suggest it may be cooling and encourage sweating and elimination during a fever from a cold or flu. This is not the first plant I think of, nor do I have experience using this particular plant in that way or much to say about it. I could suspect that there may be a bit more nuance to this. Perhaps it is instead comforting during a fever and cold for its demulcent hydrating sensation. Sometimes meaning is hastily lost in shorthand when passed from source to source to source. Perhaps if this is a wild plant you know absolutely and grows near home or where you are traveling through, you will try it for yourself one day. It is generally considered safe and gentle in moderate doses, but bear in mind, it could be just a bit laxative due to the naphthoquinones we know occur in this plant. So it is probably best to reserve it for respiratory flu and not during already loose digestive issues.?

Well, that's it for snapweed, another name that a lot of people are familiar with for this plant.

Fellow ‘folk’ users and outdoor enthusiasts, do chime in with your experiences.

Oh! One more cool item for you.?

I almost forgot, the a pink jewelweed mentioned earlier, but only briefly as I don’t have my own experience of it. This is Impatiens glandulifera, also called Himalayan balsam, at least two species are called that, and the name implied where you may find it naturally. This is one of the other species that has been introduced to the East Coast and I think the West Coast of North America, and we may hear from someone who knows the pink jewelweeds in their native range, the Himalayan region, or where it has been introduced more recently.?

Write in with any anecdotes in the comments, or pictures you have of this one too!

Some call it invasive but to those I say: make medicine of it!

I've not personally tried this species, so with caution know that this is Impatiens glandulifera or Himalayan balsam, with many other names! I would guess that it is also used as a topical demulcent and in many other ways too!

-Heather Irvine (Sprig!)