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After the colonists arrived in America in the early 1600s, they kept bumping into poison ivy. Herbalists started formulating potions to sooth itchy skin, clinicians tried to figure out how the rash happened when some people never even touched the plants and physicians played around with the leaves to see what in the heck it cured. “Poison ivy cures paralysis,” according to Frenchman Dr. DuFresnoy in 1788, and in 1793, Englishman Dr. Alderson agreed. Apparently, feeling commences with a sensation of pricking, burning and twitching of the affected parts. This startling news was amended by the late 1800s to mean only the paralysis that follows attacks of rheumatism. But still-is this dramatic or what?

In 1870, John Scudder enthusiastically believed that poison ivy was likely to prove one of our most valuable medicines and would be highly prized when its use was learned. Dr. harvey Felter, also a fan, wrote in 1898 that Rhus Toxicodendron (poison ivy) is one of our best medicinal agents. Its range of application, specifically considered, is only excelled by a few drugs.” At one point even the U.S. Pharmacopeia considered poison ivy a drug and listed it as Rhus toxicodendron in their 1880 and 1890 decennial publications.

Medicinal use of poison ivy was not a flash-in-the-pan fad. in Materia Medica and Therapeutics in 1905, Dr. J. Peterson stated, “Rhus tox is a valuable remedy when indicated” and was seemingly undaunted by the possible side effects, which included (take a deep breath here) fever, headache, stupefaction, sense of intoxication, burning, nervous twitching, burning in the throat and mouth, thirst, rheumatic pains, cough, nausea, vomiting, chilliness, delirium, drowsiness, stupor, flushed face, dilated pupils, feeble and rapid pulse, hurried respiration, fainting, convulsions, white-coated tongue with small red points on the upper surface of the tip, cough with burning pain in the chest, restlessness, crying out during sleep in children, and-ta-da-itching.

But-hearken to good news. According to the same Dr. J. Peterson, poison ivy (take another deep breath) relieves cerebral engorgement by “increasing the tone of arteries and strengthens the weakened brain.” It increases the function of terminal nerve filaments, is an ideal sedative, controls the circulation and is valuable for pneumonia and vomiting. It is used to sooth deep or superficial burning pain and rheumatoid stiffness. The plant also works well for diarrhea and typhoid dysentery, is a “fine remedy” in cholera morbus, and a “valuable agent” in pneumonia, bronchitis, la grippe (flu) and phthisis (tuberculosis). Amazingly, poison ivy is “effective” for sciatica and relieves gastric irritation. It is “of service” in herpes and inflammatory skin afflictions like burning and redness (yep, this was not a typo-it cures rashes). And lest we not forget, it also cures rheumatoid paralysis.

It may seem to the skeptical reader that the aforementioned information is a bit over the top-but wait. I have evidence that folks trusted the amazing healing abilities of a plant that should have been called “Super Weed.” In 1887, James Clark White wrote, “Great quantities of poison ivy are gathered for medicinal purposes in all parts of the United States. One dealer in North Carolina offers in his stock of native drugs over three hundred pounds of poison ivy leaves.”

I must give poison sumac its due. It is not often mentioned because it dwells in standing water, and humans do not saunter around ankle-deep when there is a nice path to walk upon. But it contains the same powerful allergen as poison oak and poison ivy. According to Francis Porcher in 1863, an ointment containing the resin of this shrubby tree “acts as an astringent when applied to piles. (It shrinks hemorrhoids by gosh.)

The allergenic oils of all three plants (poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac) are almost identical, so you could make an ointment from any of them. I know the recipe, but I refuse to divulge it because the wildly adventurous out there might actually prepare it and try it out.

References: Scudder, John M. 1870. Specific Medication and Specific Medicines. Wilstach, Baldwin & Co. Printers. Felter, Harvey Wickes, and John Uri Lloyd. 1898. Kings’s American Dispensatory. US Pharmacopedia. 2010. Staff phone interview and e-mail. Peterson, Fred J. 1905. The Materica Medica and Clinical Therapeutics. Self-published. CA.White, James Clark. 1887. Dermatitis Venenata. Porcher Francis P. 1863. Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical and Agricultural. Steam Power Press, VA.

Sandra J. Baker is the author of “The Poison Oak & Poison Ivy Survival Guide: a rash-taming, mystery-solving romp through these amazing plants.”

Read inside the book and see plant photos at http://www.poisonoakandpoisonivy.com