The American Chestnut!

photo by ana traina

Old fashioned uses for American chestnut leaves
excerpted from
"Leaves in Myth, Magic and Medicine" by Alice Thomas Vitale

The leaves of the native chestnut had practical uses in folk and also scientific medicine. Native Americans drank a tea made with the leaves as a remedy for coughs.  The early colonists also concocted a medicinal tea, which when mixed with honey was a soothing cough syrup. Even in those medically primitive times, the extract from leaves was understood to have a sedative effect on the respiratory nerves.

Later, country folk used the leaves to make astringent poultices for burns, and with the juice of the leaves they quelled the unbearable itching of skin rashes such as poison ivy.  Ingenious and frugal, they also found another proctical use.  They filled their mattresses with dry chestnut leaves, which, because they rustled when lain upon, were humorously know as talking beds.

Between 1873 and 1905 chestnut leaves, known to pharmacologists as extractum castanea fluidum,  were considered so valuable that they were included in the  prestigious U.S. Pharmacopoeia.

Chestnut Pudding Recipe by Mrs. Grieves
Put 12 OZ. of chestnut farina into a stewpan, and add 6 oz. of pounded sugar, a spoonful of vanilla sugar, a pinch of salt, 4 oz. of butter, and a pint of milk; stir this over the fire till it thickens, and then quicken the motion of the spoon until the paste leaves the sides of the stewpan; it must then be removed from the fire, and the yolks of 6 eggs incorporated therewith- then mix in gently the 6 whites whipped firm, and use this preparation to fill a plain mould spread inside with butter; place it on a baking-sheet, and bake it in an oven of moderate heat for about an hour; when done, turn it out on its dish, pour some diluted apricot jam round it, and serve.

Beware Raw Chestnuts -- If you are tempted to eat chestnuts raw, think twice. These nuts must be boiled or roasted before eating due to the high levels of tannic acid. The nuts are cured for about a week to permit their starch to develop into sugar, thus sweetening the meat. They must be cooked completely to avoid digestive discomfort. 

The outer thin shell as well as the inner bitter brown skin is removed before eating. Removing the skin in its raw state is virtually impossible, but with patience, the outer shell can be removed from the raw nuts. It is much easier and recommended to blanch or cook fresh chestnuts before removal of the shell and skin.

Bit of Odd And End: Culpepper says, 'if you dry the chestnut, both the barks being taken away, beat them into powder and make the powder up into an electuary with honey, it is a first-rate remedy for cough and spitting of blood.