SLIPPERY ELM
Ulmus rubra
COMMON NAMES: Slippery elm, red elm, Indian elm, American elm, moose elm.
FEATURES: The deciduous elm can be found in Central and North America and Asia. There are about
twenty species belonging to the elm family (Ulmaceae). Slippery, or red, elm is smaller than the rest of
the elm family (60 feet or less), with a wide-open crown. The bark and leaves are characteristically
rough, deeply furrowed, underlayers ruddy brown, protecting the white aromatic fibers used medicinally.
Odor, distinct; taste, mucilaginous. The leaves are extremely rough on top, deep yellowish olive-green,
lighter, and sometimes rusty beneath; flowering in March or April before the leaves appear; fruit nearly
round in outline, winged without hairy fringe, ripening in the spring at intervals of two to four years.
MEDICINAL PART: The inner bark (fresh or dried).
SOLVENT: Water.
BODILY INFLUENCE: Demulcent, emollient, nutritive.
USES: Slippery elm is an agreeable emulsive drink in any disease. The finely powdered bark prepared as
an ordinary gruel has shown definite results as a demulcent in catarrhal affection of the entire digestive
and urinary tracts, and in all diseases involving inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach,
bowels, and kidneys, and will sustain ulcerated and cancerous stomach when nothing else will. The bark
may be chewed and the fluid swallowed for irritation of the throat. It has remarkable soothing, cleansing,
and healing qualities on all the parts (internally or externally) it comes in contact with. It is interesting to
learn that its nutritional value is equivalent to oatmeal.
J. Kloss, in Back to Eden, gives us another use for slippery elm bark: “An excellent treatment in female
troubles in the following: Make a thick paste with powdered Slippery elm with pure water, shape into
pieces about one inch long and one inch thick. Place in warm water for a few minutes. These are called
vaginal suppositories. Insert three, afterwards inserting a sponge with a string attached. Let it remain two
days, then remove the sponge and give douche which will remove the Slippery elm. This is an excellent
treatment for cancer and tumours of the womb, all growths in the female organs, fallen womb,
leucorrhoea, or inflammation and congestion of any part of the vagina or womb and as a rectal
suppository, renewed after bowel elimination.”
As a nourishing gruel for children and adults, take 1 teaspoonful of the powder, mix well with the same
quantity of honey or maple syrup, add 1 pint of boiling water, soya bean milk, nut milk, or milk, slowly
mixing as it is poured on. May be flavored with cinnamon or nutmeg to suit the taste. As a tea, 1
teaspoonful of the inner bark to 1 cupful of boiling water, steeped for 1 hour or overnight. Can be
simmered, strained, and then used. This will be like a thick syrup; use small amounts often.
EXTERNALLY: For poultice the ground powder or bark should be used, softened with water containing a
little glycerine. As a mixture: 2 parts slippery elm, 2 parts cornmeal, 1 part each of bloodroot, blue flag,
ragweed, chickweed, and burdock. Mix well, add warm water to required consistency, and use on
abscesses, fresh wounds, inflammation, congestion, eruptions, enlarged prostate, swollen glands of the
neck, groin, etc. If applied to a hairy surface, coat the face of the poultice with olive oil. Always use
clean white cotton and change often if drainage is noticed.