African Forest Medicinals: Usnea Tincture, 50ml

Usnea Tincture, 50ml
 

• Powerful Antibiotic
• Anti-Fungal, Anti-Viral, Anti-Tumour
• Immune-Modulating
• Doctrine of Signatures – Lung & Breast Medicine

Other Uses:

• Usnea can be used to treat vaginal and urinary tract infections.  
• It can be used in the form of eyedrops to cure conjunctivitis – but would have to be sufficiently diluted to do this and, as yet, we have been unable to find any recommended ratio for this.  
• Usnea is also an analgesic.  It can also be used topically as a compress to stop bleeding and infection (useful bushcraft to know when out and about!)

Usnea – or “Old Man’s Beard” as it is more often called – is a lichen that is primarily a natural antibiotic and has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years.

•  There are approximately 600 species of Usnea – but the two we use for this tincture are Usnea barbata and Usnea longissima.  
• Usnea’s active constituents are usnic acid and diffractaic acid (with most benefits coming from the usnic acid) – as well as immune-modulating polysaccharides.