Solomon’s Seal is a favorite herb around here. We love it for any kind of sporty injury: sprained ankles, pulled muscles, you name it. The reason we like it so much is that Solomon’s Seal helps connective tissues heal. When you pull a muscle, maybe you think in terms of muscle pain, but it’s not just the muscle that has to heal: there are tendons connecting the muscles to bones, and beyond that the fascia, which is like a web of connective tissues that hold all of your muscles in place throughout your body. These are where Solomon’s Seal shines: ensuring that fluid balance is correct in these areas, making sure nutrients are getting where they’re going, allows these tissues to heal from their pulled-out-of-shape state back to their this-is-where-i-belong state.
Solomon’s Seal has some other great actions, but I want to focus on this one for the moment: this idea that connective tissue that has been stretched out of shape, or has been “atrophied” out of shape, can be nourished back into its shape by balancing the fluids that feed it. Jim McDonald uses the example of stretched leather: if you stretch leather that is old and dry, you damage the leather, and it will be very difficult for the leather to return to its original shape. But if the leather was well cared for, oiled and supple, it can be stretched and will come back to its shape reasonably well.
For any sports injury, you can see where this is a vital function. But there’s another place in the body where connective tissue is at play: it’s what holds your organs in! Let’s say you’re a woman with Uterine Prolapse – Solomon’s Seal is for you! Why? Prolapse is all about connective tissue health. Uterine Prolapse is not caused by pregnancy, it’s not a normal part of aging: it’s a result of poor structural alignment. We sit for so much of our lives that the backs of our legs shorten. This leads to poor standing posture, because the legs aren’t as strong as they need to be to hold us up properly, and because the shortened leg muscles pull the pelvis out of alignment. All of our organs are held in place by connective tissue that is attached to muscles and bone, and when the muscles and bones are out of alignment, they pull the connective tissue that holds the organs in – eventually stretching them beyond the point where they can maintain integrity. That lack of integrity is prolapse.
So obviously, a big part of dealing with prolapse is to get your body aligned properly, but Solomon’s Seal can help drastically decrease healing time by improving the flow of fluids into those stretched out connective tissues.
Hi, thanks for this post – do you have more information on how it actually works in improving the flow of the fluids? Also, if you don’t have solomon seal growing (or it’s winter in Vermont!) where do you recommend finding some? Thanks, Ann
Hi, Ann!
We don’t really understand how it works, which is true for many plants! Here’s what Jim McDonald has to say about it:
So how does it work? Long years ago, I believed that the gooey mucilage in the roots finds its way to the enflamed tissues and coats and lubricates them, which reduces friction and irritation and soothes the tissues themselves. But this certainly can’t be, as it wasn’t long before I Iearned that a.) mucilages aren’t extracted by alcohol very well, and the dosage of tincture is far too small for it to be working on a physical level and b.) mucilages don’t get into the blood stream and thus into joints. Matthew Wood speculated that Solomon’s Seal might stimulate the body to produce cortisone, and my current belief is that it acts on the synovial glands, improving the production or quality of synovial fluid in some way and thus lubrication in the joints. Often you can clearly perceive a notable lessening of friction in the joint shortly after a dose is taken. On a few instances I’ve seen this friction cease entirely for a short period after the dose. But who knows exactly what’s going on; what is clear is that it works, and if that’s the case, understanding why isn’t entirely necessary (though it can be nice). In regards to the aforementioned use of helping tendons/ligaments tighten or loosen as needed, I think this has to do with its moistening effect. Dry tissues loose their pliability; they’re “stiff”… think of an old dried out piece of leather. It doesn’t want to stretch, but if you do stretch it, it doesn’t want to go back to its original shape. But, moisten that leather and its pliability is restored. It can stretch out or tighten back to its natural length.
So the key indication for its use is inflammation associated with dryness. Maybe the dryness causes the inflammation, or maybe vice verse… it doesn’t seem to matter. Solomon’s Seal seems to moisten connective tissues and lubricate joints, and in so doing ease attendant inflammation.
In our own experience, we have found the “restoring connective tissue” aspect to be true both with dryness and without – I’m not certain dryness is absolutely requisite. Here are some examples that come to mind: in the case of a sprained ankle, there’s no particular dryness there (though the sprained ankles in question were in people who were constitutionally dry, now that i think about it). Also in the case of overtight fascia (throughout the body) we’ve used both dry constitutions and reasonably neutral. I’ve used it for a rotator cuff injury in a person with damp constitution. We use it to help folks develop flexibility (emotional/psychological) regardless of constitution. Although I didn’t mention any respiratory aspect in my article, we’ve also seen it used regularly for tightness in the chest related to asthma: here I think this has a good deal to do with the pulmonary fascia, frankly. That case was a damp individual in the extreme. I have not tried Solomon’s in someone with Rheumatoid Arthritis – that would be a good test, though!
That’s probably not the clear-cut answer you would have liked, but perhaps it will be helpful anyway!
As for getting some, try http://www.mountainroseherbs.com – they stock it dried and it’s very good quality. It’d be nicer to make it fresh, but like you say, winter in Vermont (or, in our case, Boston)!
I just want to put this here for reading for anyone that may be thinking about wildcrafting this herb, please learn to do so in a manner that doesn’t kill the plant!
http://www.herbcraft.org/solseal.html
I’m also wondering if anyone knows of a good place around here (Boston area) to buy cost-effective but also effective salve and or tincture. I am starting my own, however, I’d like to start using it asap for my work-related sports injuries, and don’t have the time to wait for my salves and tinctures to mature! Can someone direct me to a good local source? Thank you so much!
Hi, Leelou:
They’re not local, but we *love* the folks at Cortesia – http://www.solomonsseal.net
They make amazing quality stuff, and if we can’t wait for our own, we buy from them.