EXTERNALLY: Seasonal but worth remembering. The low cranberry (and probably the high cranberry will
have the same results) is known to be direct medication for dangerous erysipelas. If applied early this
malady yields at once. Also for malignant ulcers and scarlet fever when applied to the throat. Pound the
berries and spread them in a fold of old cotton cloth and apply over the entire diseased surface; the
inflammation will speedily subside. Its usefulness is universally acknowledged.
HOMEOPATHIC CLINICAL: Tincture of fresh bark, collected in October or November, for after-pains,
cough (of pregnancy), cramps, dysmenorrhea (spasmodic, neuralgia, membranous), ears (painful),
epididymitis, headache, hysteria, labor pains (false), lumbago, menstruation (painful), miscarriage,
ovaries (pain in), paralysis, uterus (cramps in, bearing down in).
RUSSIAN EXPERIENCE: If you attend a Russian concert or listen to one on the radio you will hear a
beautiful heartfelt song that is touching to people in all corners of the globe. It will be Kalina or
Kalinushka, about the beautiful bush known to Native Americans as crampbark. Russians like kalina so
much they plant it in parks as well as for home garden decoration and medicinal use. They feel that its
beauty is only one of its merits, as its deeper significance is as a shrub for health. Ukraine, White Russia,
and Siberia supply the country commercially, but it is grown throughout the land. Folk medicine: In White
Russia, especially, it has a very impressive list of uses. Berries are rich in vitamins, especially C and K,
and minerals. They are used alone, fresh or dried, with honey for high blood pressure, heart conditions
(recommended with the seeds); cough, cold, tubercular lungs, shortness of breath; kidney, bladder, and
stomach conditions; bleeding stomach ulcers. A decoction of the flowers for coughs, cold, fever,
sclerosis, lung tuberculosis, stomach sickness (including stomach cancer). Externally: Children and
adults are bathed with a strong decoction of the flowers for tubercular skin, eczema, and various other
skin conditions. For scrofula a decoction of both berries and flowers in 1–10 parts, used as a tea.
Clinically: Prescribed in doses of 20–30 drops, two to three times a day, in cases of female bleeding,
hysteria, cramps, etc. Industrial: Supplied by commercial farms to the food industry, which uses an
extract and the berries for candy, fillers, pastry, marmalade, and aromatics. Pharmacy uses the bark; folk
medicine uses every part of kalina.