Devil’s Club

A large, strong, well-armored spiny plant, Devil’s Club is a bane to loggers but a true Northwestern tonic treasure. It is related to Eleuthero (Siberian) Ginseng, and shares many of its taste and healing qualities. As a tonic, Devil’s Club is adaptogenic, helping the body deal with all types of stress and adversity.

It is especially well-suited for people of stocky build with some combination of thyroid imbalance, tension and stress, high blood pressure, and blood sugar imbalance. In these types of people, Devil’s club acts to smooth out the body’s swings of response to stresses, helping the whole system to maintain more even and balanced metabolic function.

Devil’s club also has a history of use by Native Americans for adult-onset diabetes, and can be helpful to reduce sugar cravings and balance weight.

Like other adaptogens, Devil’s Club shows benefit in rheumatoid arthritis and related auto-immune disorders, and it is also a strong expectorant and respiratory stimulant, useful at the end stages of a cold or flu.

This Spagyric is featured in my talk Power to the (Plant) People: Herbs to Support Activism & Social Change.