White Pine: A Report

Back in September of 2000 I took a week long 'continuing education' course on the subject of Medical Botany. As a final project I was required to write a report on the medicinal uses of White Pine. Because it would have seemed very dry to do otherwise, I wrote the report in the form of a poem. The teacher (who was a poet & songwriter as well as an expert in medical botany) loved it.

From White Pine I’ve obtained this frond...
I have developed quite a bond
And slowly I have come to see
This lovely little Christmas tree
Could give us medicine for free!

Long before Christmas was recognized
The pine was used by MicMac Indian guys.
In it they could quickly see
A very useful remedy
For colds, consumption, coughs and such
To which it gave a healing touch
And furthermore the pine was said
To be a dermatological aid-
Good for swellings, scurvy, or as a hemostat-
Any wise MicMac could tell you that.

Some Indians thought the pine so good
They even used it’s rotten wood!
Made into dust, I’ve heard them say
And used like talcum’s used today.

The White Pine’s gift to treat and cure
Alas did not the years endure
Then pine itself remains the same
The healing power in it’s veins
But if you take the time to look
Into an herbal healing book
At most you will likely see
Perhaps a single remedy
Connected with this lovely tree,
And uses that were seen before
Pushed aside as old folklore.

A cough syrup here
A topical there
Would leave our medicine chest quite bare!
Yet modern cures could make some gains
From all the compounds Pine contains.
In it’s resin, sap and bark
Are chemicals that hit the mark
When it comes to antibiotics,
Cancer preventitives and antithrombotics,
Myorelaxants and antispasmotics.
If we researched them and the rest
We’s surely FILL our medicine chest!

Everyone knows the old Scotch Pine
Has no less chemicals than mine
But only since they’re studied more
Have Scotch Pine cures come to the fore.

And take, for example, the lowly yew
Which always in the forest grew
But in a recent discovery
Was a key to cancer recovery!

Maybe soon someone will find
A fantastic use for the White Pine
Perhaps if we
Researched this tree
We’d make some amazing discovery
And when we’re sure
That it’s a cure
We’d all get million dollar raises
And forever sing the White Pine’s praises!