Pine trees have so many uses. The needles, the sap, the roots are all beneficial for medicines, livestock and nutritional purposes. Are you fully utilizing their bounty for healing and home comfort?
You probably have pine trees growing on your homestead.ย There are 34 pine trees or shrubs native to North America, with 9 of them native to Canada.ย Pine trees commonly grow near spruce, fir, cottonwood, aspen, and alder trees.ย If you don’t have pine growing near you, spruce has some of the same medicinal qualities, although the needles of the spruce are stiffer and shorter.ย Shake hands with the tree.ย If the needles don’t give under the pressure of your hand but prick you instead, you are touching a spruce tree.ย Pine needles will lie down in your palm, without pricking you.
Pine has several medicinal actions:
- Antiseptic
- Anti-infectious
- Antifungal
- Antidiabetic
- Neuro tonic
- Decongestant of the lymphatic system
- Parasiticide
- anti-catarrhal
- stimulant
- tonic
The flowers, needles, twigs, and pitch are all used medicinally.
The pine may be used in cases of bronchitis, sinuitis, or upper respiratory catarrh, [cough], both as an inhalant and internally.ย It may also be helpful in asthma.ย The stimulating action gives the herb a role in the internal treatment of rheumatism and arthritis.ย There is a tradition of adding a preparation of the twigs to bath water to ease fatique, nervous debility, and sleeplessness, as well as aiding the healing of cuts and soothing skin irritations.ย (The Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal by David Hoffman, p. 124)
Ponderosa Pine Tree overlooking Osoyoos, BC
Pine Tincture
Take pine twigs in the Spring as the flowers are opening.ย Both male and female flowers will appear on the same branch.ย Take a 6-inch piece of the branch that includes the tip, needles, and flowers.ย Fill a jar with the twigs.ย Top up with Vodka.ย Allow sitting in a warm place or sunny window for 2 to 3 weeks, shaking daily.ย Strain and bottle.ย To use take 2 to 3ml twice daily.
Pine Needle Tea
This is full of vitamin C and was a cure for scurvy.ย Take fresh pine needles and make a decoction by pouring boiled water over the needles.ย Allow it to steep for 15 minutes.ย Drink 3 times daily as a tonic.
Pine Pitch Oil
Pine pitch oil is a wound healer.ย It draws poisons and splinters out of the body and aids in healing serious injuries.ย It acts as a counter-irritant by increasing the flow of white blood cells to an infected area, heightening the body’s own immune response.ย It is also antiseptic and cleanses the tissues.ย In an emergency, a soft pine pitch can be taken directly from the tree and put on a wound, a spider bite, or a sting.ย It will draw the poison out of the wound.
To get a refined product that can be stored in your medicine cabinet, place wads of pine pitch — both the soft, fresh pitch and the hard pieces in a glass jar.ย Fill the jar with olive oil.ย Place in a warm place like a sunny window sill or near a wood stove.ย Shake the jar daily until all the pitch dissolves into the oil.ย When done the oil will take on a piney scent and the pitch will be less hardened.ย It can take several weeks if the pitch is quite hard when it’s put in the jar.ย Strain the oil through cloth and a fine strainer.ย Bottle and use in making first aid salves and healing balms.
Wound Healing salve
2 tbsp. melted beeswax
1/4 cup. pine infused oil
2 tbsp. coconut oil.
Mix and put in a 4 oz. glass jar.ย Label and use for cuts, scrapes, insect stings, and to draw splinters from a wound, or help with an infection.
Other uses of Pine:
Livestock feed:
Pine branches can be used in winter to feed livestock.ย Goats and sheep enjoy them when they are getting bored of hay, especially in February and March.ย Spruce isn’t used in this way as much, as the shorter, stiffer needles can hurt the mouths of livestock.ย ย Goats don’t seem to mind this and will eat spruce as well as pine.
Livestock first aid:
For animals suffering from foot rot, clean the hoof, soak in Epsom salts and dry completely, pack with pine pitch or pine oil.ย Bandage to keep clean and dry.
Coil basketry:
The needles of the Ponderosa Pine are used in coil basketry.ย These are the longest-growing pine needles in Western Canada.ย The needles on different trees of the same species will vary in length, so if you find a tree with especially long needles you will want to remember where you found it.ย Check out my article on weaving pine needle baskets from local materials and tips for weaving pine needle baskets.
Cordage from the roots:
The roots of the pine can be used as survival cordage.
Transplanting baby pine trees:
Expanding the forest is an important action, on your homestead, to mitigate the devastation of the pine bark beetle that we are seeing in Western North America.ย It is also important to the environment.ย Trees exhale oxygen, which mammals need.ย And they absorb carbon, an element that we want to have less of in our environment.ย Pine has a long taproot and doesn’t do well when transplanted, once the tree becomes well established.ย However, you can easily transplant seedlings that you find growing in the wild to other areas on your homestead.ย A pine seedling has a single shoot, without branching.ย The branches grow out in the second year.
We like to take a small tool with us on hikes to pick up the little pine or spruce seedlings and put them where they can grow without being disturbed.ย If you don’t have a tool use a sharp rock or a straight stick.ย Don’t try to dig it up with your fingers as the root will go down almost as deep as the tree is tall.
Uses for Pine Pitch
Pine pitch can be purified by melting it in a can, inserted in a pot of boiling water.ย Use the hardened sap for this.ย It will melt and can be strained to remove impurities.ย Then you can store it in blocks for when you need it.
It can be used to stabilize wood.
Dissolve pitch in vodka or rubbing alcohol and use as a varnish.
Take the pitch and make fiddle rosin.ย Manufacturers of bow rosin have secret recipes that combine tree gum/pitch, beeswax and other ingredients to change the hardness of the rosin.ย You can make your own in a pinch and you might really have fun doing it yourself.ย Take care to remove bubbles from the finished rosin before allowing it to cool and harden.
Glue can be made from pine pitch, and charcoal or wood ash.
Pine pitch can be used as a fire starter.
Grafting wax can be made from 5 parts pine resin, 1 part beeswax, 1 part tallow.
This isn’t an exhaustive list.ย It seems our forefathers found uses for every part of the tree and resin.ย One could almost believe that it is because of the pine tree that the pioneers survived in North America.
Back to you:
How do you use the forest trees growing near you?ย Are you fully utilizing their bounty for healing and home comfort?ย Leave a comment.
Resources to help you on your journey:
Pine Needle Basketry: From Forest Floor to Finished Project
Pine Needle Basketry DVD Collection
Non-Timber Forest Products: Medicinal Herbs, Fungi, Edible Fruits and Nuts, and Other Natural Products from the Forest
Photo credits:ย CC Pine Tree overlookingย Osoyoos from keepitsurreal’s Flickr stream
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I remember my grandfather lighting something up, resin or something similar, and allowing it to drip on a wound or bite…not sure what it was and some in this family have been trying to figure it out for years. Any clues to what my grandfather might have been using?
Could be pine resin. “Pine tar” is used in animal husbandry to seal wounds.
As a general rule, would you dry the needles first if you are infusing them in oil? And if you are making a tincture with alcohol, would you normally use fresh instead of dried?
Yes, dried herbs are safer in the oil. Fresh herbs are generally wilted or dried before tincturing in alcohol. There are exceptions. In the case of pine needles, which are fairly dry to start with I’m not sure it’s essential.
I am so new to this all. I have for the first time made some White Pine tincture. I used fresh and used vodka to draw out the C and A. I read that white pine is full of C and vitamin A. I am wondering if anyone else has done this and how do you know what dosage to take to include it in your everyday maintenance. I believe this is as close to the purest form of C and A you can get. ๐
Thank you, from Upper Michigan!!!
Vitamin C is water soluble. Vitamin A is oil soluble. You will have more vitamin C in your mixture if you make a tea, rather than a tincture.
WOW!!! Great info. Have a pine tree in our yard and several in the neighborhood on the side roads. Going to try to make that pine pitch oil. Sounds fabulous. Loved reading all the other posts. Helpful!!!!
Hi, Marlina, welcome. It’s nice to meet you.
Can pine bark extract be made from any type of pine? ,( maritime pine do not grow in the north east)
Any kind of edible, nontoxic pine species, so that includes spruce, fir, and a few other species. Not yew, which is toxic.
I live here in Florida and have used pine sap for survival situations while out in the Everglades hiking. First, I feel its important to mention the oils from pine needles are great for keeping the nasty mosquitoes away and that is of some importance while in the Everglades. Now while on a really long hike, I was getting low on fuel and I didnt want to use my food stores or lay traps as I was in route to a destination some 15 miles out and daylight was waning. I stopped at a pine tree and punctured the trunk with my knife, the sap began to slowing come out. I collected some on my blade, about a teaspoon, and swallowed it down like thick slightly bitter honey. Within moments I was recharged with energy as the sap is loaded with vital carbohydrates. I do not recommend eating more than a teaspoon as it will cause diarrhea. For emergencies its great to know. Also, I have ringed pine trees(only half way, so as to not kill the tree) and eaten the inner cambium layer. Kind of bland on flavor, but great food source. Pine trees are indeed wonderful! Hope you enjoyed this share. ๐
Good to know, Dawn. I would never have thought of eating the sap for energy. It does make an awesome fire starter, too.
Chris
Yes, Chris it is an awesome fire starter! We used it to make torches one night. It was a first and the torches were short lived, but it was doable with the right raw materials. I lived off of the pine trees and cat tails for alittle bit and it no doubt kept me from getting an infection from the cuts I sustained while making my way through some thick growth.
Peace
Dawn
Fascinating information. We have lots of pine trees here in Florida, so this info is very helpful. My parents grew up in Georgia and a big industry involved “dipping turpentine”…which is collecting pine sap that drained into a reservoir attached to the tree. My mother had a home remedy for stuffy nose and chest by putting turpentine on a rag and hung it on the head of my bed. It worked really well.
That’s really thnnikig at a high level
Thank you for such a great post! I live in Maine and we are COVERED with pine trees. I knew about the pine-needle tea and I love it, but I loved hearing about all the uses for the pitch. I can’t wait to try some of those things. Thanks again!
This is a really fun post! I really enjoyed all the information that you shared. We live in an area with lots of pine trees but though I love to use wild and natural things I haven’t been utitlizing the amazing pine trees. Thanks for your post to help me do better at that.
Great ideas! One caution though, consumption of Ponderosa pine needles by cattle has been linked to being the cause of abortion in those cattle. http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext/INF-BE_cca/INF-BE_cca96/INF-BE_cca9604.html So not all pine needles are ok for all livestock…
I look forward to trying the salve though. I remember my dad used to collect pine pollen(I think) to take to his mom so she could use it for treating wounds. I’ll have to ask him about it ๐
Ponderosa pine needles are safe for sheep and goats, though. Thanks for the link.
Wow! That is amazing! Like Nicole, I stand in awe once again, at the beauty and practicality of Creation.
Thanks so much for sharing these wonderful tips. It’s so fun to walk outside and be surrounded by so many herbs, wildflowers, “weeds” and trees that can help support and heal the body.
Now to find a good pine tree, since we live in the city. ๐
This is amazing! I love seeing what God has put in nature and all of the uses man has figured out from it. What a beautiful creation God has made. I have heard of the pine pitch for it’s healing properties but I certainly did not know the rest. Thank you for this information!
Blessings,
Nicole at Working Kansas Homemaker
Great article. I love the tip on shaking hands with the pine tree to tell what you are dealing with. I sure wish I wasn’t living in the middle of a city when I read posts like this! Thanks so much for all of the tips on using the various parts of the tree ๐
I’m sure you could find pine trees in the city, maybe in a park. Thanks for leaving a comment.
This is great info, thanks! I have heard there are some trees that are better than others for pine nuts. Do you have any info on that as well?
The larger the cone, the larger the pine nuts. There is one variety that is used for commercial production, but the other large coned pines, like ponderosa would work, too. The nuts will be smaller, and you’ll have to compete with the squirrels though. You’ll need to harvest the cones in the Fall when they are still closed. Some varieties need heat applied before the cone opens. Pines are amazing trees.