Juniper

This small evergreen is one of several juniper species native to the northern hemisphere. It has the distinction, however, of being the principal flavoring for a commonly used alcoholic beverage, gin.

The aromatic "berries" (actually cones of this evergreen) have also been used in herbal medicine for at least three hundred years and perhaps longer.

Apothecaries once used gin as juniper berries are used to treat kidney ailments. More recently, golden raisins soaked in gin have become popular as a home remedy for arthritis (see page 233).

Active Ingredients

Juniper berries contain up to 2 percent volatile oil and 10 percent resin.

The oil contains more than one hundred compounds including monoterpenes such as alpha- and beta-pinene, myrcene, limonene, sabinene, and an alcohol, terpinene-4-ol, which appears to be responsible for the diuretic properties attributed to juniper berries.

The berries also contain as much as 30 percent invert sugar and small amounts of catechins, flavonoids, and leucoanthocyanidins.

Uses

The traditional use of juniper is as a diuretic and to treat conditions of the bladder or kidneys. Diuretic action of the essential oil is well established and attributed to terpinene-4-ol, which increases the filtration rate of the kidney.

Water-based extracts such as tea may not increase urination, although such an extract did lower blood pressure 27 percent in an experiment in rats. At high doses, however, juniper berries or their extract can be very irritating to the kidney.

It is a component of a number of herbal diuretic mixtures available in Europe.

Another traditional use of juniper berries or their extract is to pique the appetite or to aid digestion.

Extracts apparently increase peristalsis and intestinal tone.

Juniper berries were traditionally classified as "carminative," meaning they can relieve flatulence. This use has not been carefully studied.

The Swedes traditionally used juniper berry extracts topically to treat wounds and inflamed joints.

Juniper tar has been used occasionally in combination with other plant tars to treat psoriasis of the scalp.

Test tube studies show that juniper berries can inhibit prostaglandin synthesis, which suggests that the traditional use for easing arthritis pain may have some scientific basis.

In addition, they apparently inhibit platelet-activating factor (PAF), which would discourage blood clots. This is not a traditional use for juniper berries in herbal medicine.

Juniper berry extract also has antioxidant activity.

Animal studies indicate that juniper berries lower blood sugar in experimentally induced diabetes. It has not been tested for this effect in humans.

Dose

The tea is made by pouring 2/3 cup boiling water over 2/3 teaspoon (2 g) of dried berries, steeping for ten minutes, and straining. This dose is repeated three or four times per day.

The best tea is made from berries rubbed through a sieve not more than one day prior to brewing.

For the tincture (1:5 in ethanol): 1 to 2 ml three times a day.

Juniper berries should be used for a maximum of four weeks except under medical supervision.

Special Precautions

Juniper berries can be irritating to the kidneys. People with kidney problems should avoid them.

Pregnant women should not use this herb. Juniper berries might cause uterine contractions; they prevent implantation in female animals.

Diabetics who choose to try this herb should exercise caution and monitor blood sugar carefully.

Juniper berries lower blood sugar in animals and might result in hypoglycemia.

Dried juniper berries should be kept in a tightly closed metal or glass container (not plastic) and away from light. A desiccant similar to the ones found in many vitamin bottles should be included if possible.

Adverse Effects

Juniper berries or essential oil may be irritating to the kidneys. If the urine begins to smell of violets, the dose is too high or the herb has been used for too long, and kidney damage is a danger.

At high doses or over long periods of time, juniper berries can cause digestive distress, blood in the urine, or irritability and jitteriness. A single large dose can cause diarrhea.

As a topical treatment for psoriasis, juniper tar may increase the risk of skin cancer.

People sometimes develop allergies to juniper pollen or juniper berries. Such allergies are more prevalent in those who handle these plant materials.

Possible Interactions

If juniper berries do turn out to lower blood sugar, they would interact with diabetes medicines such as DiaBeta or Glucotrol and possibly with insulin. Close monitoring of blood sugar is advised.

Because of its effect on PAF, juniper berries may interact with anticoagulants such as Coumadin and possibly with other anticlotting drugs such as aspirin, Plavix, or Ticlid to increase the risk of bleeding. We are not aware of any cases, so this possibility remains hypothetical.

Ginkgo biloba also inhibits PAF, so it might be ill-advised to mix these two botanical medicines.

Copyright (c) 1999 by Graedon Enterprises, Inc. From The People's Pharmacy Guide To Home And Herbal Remedies by Joe Graedon and Teresa Graedon. Reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Press, LLC.

Mythology and Folklore of the Juniper

In the days when both juniper and the Gaelic language were more widespread in the Scottish Highlands, the names for this shrub or small tree were Aittin or Aiten, and Samh. These words are still with us in place names such as Attadale in Wester Ross and Samhan near Mull. The writer Hugh Fife suggests furthermore that juniper was sometimes referred to as mountain yew, and as such some place names incorporating the Gaelic word Iubhair for yew may in fact be referring to local juniper.

Though the more practical uses of juniper have been known to people for several millennia, it features only sporadically in ancient mythology. Juniper was a symbol of the Canaanites' fertility goddess Ashera or Astarte in Syria. In the Bible's Old Testament, a juniper with an angelic presence sheltered the prophet Elijah from Queen Jezebel's pursuit. Similarly a later apocryphal biblical tale tells of how the infant Jesus and his parents were hidden from King Herod's soldiers by a juniper during their flight into Egypt.

It is for its culinary, medicinal and ritual properties that juniper is best known. The first two of these properties relate to the juniper's berries. Strictly speaking these are in fact tiny fleshy cones (like other cones they take two years to mature), and as such they can be crushed and ground for use, as one would do with a peppercorn, as well as pressed for any juice. Its culinary uses are many and varied. The berries were ground and added to sauces and especially to game dishes in England and Scotland to add a bitter, spicy flavour, and were used to flavour bread and cakes in the north of England. Probably the best known use of the berries is in flavouring gin, and indeed the words gin and juniper have a common root. In the nineteenth century Highland juniper bushes were prolific enough for their berries to be collected by the bagful and taken to the Inverness and Aberdeen markets to be exported to the Dutch gin distillers. The berries are also used to flavour other alcoholic beverages such as a Swedish health beer and a French beer-like drink called 'genevrette' made from equal amounts of juniper berries and barley.

In mediaeval times the berries were also used to flavour whisky in Scotland, though the whisky may just have been used as a pleasant way to administer the medicinal benefits of juniper. Similarly juniper berries may also have been added to food for their medicinal properties, as they were said to aid digestion and to be a cure for various stomach ailments. The earliest recorded medicinal use of juniper berries occurs in an Egyptian papyrus dating back to 1500 BC, in a recipe to cure tapeworm infestations. The Romans too used the berries for purification and stomach ailments, while the famous mediaeval herbalist Culpepper recommended them for a wide variety of conditions including the treatment of flatulence, for which juniper oil is still used today. Chemicals in the berries also stimulate contraction of the uterine muscles and could be administered during labour. However the same properties were also used to abort an unwanted pregnancy, and the phrase used in Lothian in the Middle Ages of giving birth "under the savin (an older name for juniper) tree" was a euphemism for juniper-induced miscarriage.

Practical uses of the juniper's wood are few, and it was most commonly used to burn, though not for its heat, but rather for its smoke. Though burning juniper wood gives off only minimal visible smoke, this smoke is highly aromatic, and in ancient times it was used for the ritual purification of temples. The smoke was said to aid clairvoyance, and continued to be burned for purification and to stimulate contact with the Otherworld at the autumn Samhain fire festival at the beginning of the Celtic year. In central Europe juniper smoke played a part in the spring-time cleansing and casting out of witchcraft. Juniper was also burned during outbreaks of the Plague, and in Scotland the disease could be dispelled by fumigating the house with juniper smoke while its occupants were inside, after which the house was aired and the occupants revived with whisky!

Juniper's use in alcoholic drinks and the use of its wood's smoke are drawn together neatly in the tales of illicit Highland whisky stills hidden away in the glens, which used juniper wood for fuel so that the near absence of smoke would not attract the suspicions of the local excise man.

Paul Kendall