Yes, this is a serious question…..
I am presuming here that everybody knows what snuff is.
It sounds very odd, but snuff consists of a powder [or mix of powders] that you sniff up your nose. There is usually a reason for doing this. The reason I want to discuss here is using snuff as a form of healthcare. Yes, healthcare….
Recently, to close our Easter School Seminars, we had a guest speaker as usual to round off the week’s study. This year we had Melissa Ronaldson [BSc Hons FNIMH] who is an expert in herbal snuffs. She talked about why using snuff works, how it works, and what it works best for, shared her prescriptions [list of powder mixes] and handed out samples for an experimental communal snuff-taking session.
To understand the logic of herbal snuff, it is important to be familiar with the internal structure of the nose, especially two main things;
- The mucous membrane lining of the nose is thin which gives quick and easy access to the blood vessels just beneath the surface which can transport constituents from the snuff efficiently.
- The nose is close to the sinuses and brain, which suggests possibilities for effective treatment of sinusitis, and possibly mixes to do stuff like clear brain fog or headaches.
I won’t share her mixes here, as that isn’t fair. But I have in the past experimented with snuff mixes myself, although I had forgotten all about it until I heard her championing them as a very effective therapeutic tool. She should know as she has been doing this for years.
What did I experiment with?
One of the mixes I made was for hay fever using powders of elderflower, ribwort, nettle and eyebright.
Another one was for sinusitis and general clogged up noses using echinacea, elderflower, marshmallow and eyebright. I made this when I taught Pharmacy at The School of Herbal Medicine.
Why these herbs?
Echinacea is anti-microbial, anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory
Elderflower is anti-catarrhal, anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory
Marshmallow is anti-catarrhal, demulcent and soothing
Eyebright is anti-microbial, astringent, anti-histamine and anti-inflammatory
Ribwort [Plantain] is anti-histamine, demulcent and a super mucous membrane trophorestorative
Nettle is a mucous membrane astringent, anti-allergic and anti-histamine
I originally bought the powders in for this from online herb suppliers, but now I have my massive grinder [CGoldenwall from Amazon] I can make my own. I dry my herb till crisp then turn the herb into powder.
If you can get hold of herbs, and learn their actions, you can make your own medicine cabinet. Medicinal herbs can be useful in so many ways…
What I would like to know is, have you tried herbal snuffs?
And if you haven’t, would you give them a try??
