White Pine Medicine
Updated: Dec 2021
White Pine (Pinus strobus) is one of my first and dearest plant allies, and extremely abundant here in the Northeast. My hope is that the monograph on it below will encourage you all to get to know this fantastic bioregional herb and incorporate it into your herbal repertoire! Read on for a full description of this plant, harvest methods, medicinal uses and recipes. Enjoy!
Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)
Family Pinaceae
Part Used: Needles; Resin/ Sap/ Pitch; Inner Bark. I prefer to work with the needles and thin twigs harvested together, from the tips of the branches. These tips are sometimes called “Pine Tops”
Habitat: Very widespread in Massachusetts and New England. Woodlands, forest edges, yards, parks, old meadows. Found all along the Eastern seaboard from New Brunswick to northern Georgia, east to the Great Lakes region and Appalachians.
Cultivation: No need to cultivate this one- it’s very abundant!
Description: An evergreen and the tallest tree in the Northeast, they can reach at least 180ft in height. Their long, slender needles (2-5 inches long) grow in bundles of 5 needles....a good mnemonic device for ID is there are 5 letters in the word "white" and 5 needles per bundle. They grow pine cones that can be quite large-4-7 inches long- and are often covered in resin. Bark is light brown and heavily grooved in older specimens and smooth and brownish-grey in younger trees. They commonly reach 200 years in age and can grow to be over 450 years old.
Herbal Ecology: White pines are the characteristic “old field” species in New England and are known to form even-aged stands in open areas that are left to return to forest. If you see an even-aged stand of white pine there is a good chance that in the distant past that area used to be pasture- a neat plant for “reading the landscape”. It is tolerant of virtually every soil type in New England from wet and boggy to dry and sandy, and frequently establishes itself after all manner of disturbance. The older trees are moderately fire resistant due to their thick bark. The preferred nesting tree for bald eagles.
Collection: The needles can be collected anytime they are green, which is pretty much all year, including winter, however the essential oil content is the highest in the summer. In the fall lose some needles- some turn an orange-rust color and fall. You can wait until after this fall shedding to collect or just tap the boughs before harvesting and any dead needles still attached will fall. The needles, as well as thin twigs may be harvested together. Be sure when you’re harvesting the twigs that you cut the branch in a way such that the remaining twig still has some needles on it, otherwise the branch will die completely and there will be no new growth. Cut the branch in between bundles of needles- more or less where I’m holding the branch in this picture above- and the branch will continue growing. Even better, collect dropped branches from the forest floor after a storm for the most sustainable harvest. If the needles on dropped branches are still green, flexible, and fragrant, they are fine to use for medicine or dry for future use.
Taste: Needles- Sweet, Bitter, Sour; Resin/Pitch/Sap- Bitter, Pungent, Sweet
Energetics: Warm, Dry to Moist (balancing)
Constituents: Vit C (needles), many different acids in needles, essential oils (including terpenes, monoterpenes, sesqueterpenes), resin, starch (and more....)
Herbal Actions: Expectorant, circulatory stimulant, mild diuretic, pectoral, immune stimulant, grief support
White Pine-infused Honey. Cut needles small and add to raw honey, warm lightly to infuse into the honey (do not heat to a boil), then put into a jar and let sit a few weeks. To use, eat by the teaspoon-full, or add to hot water for instant tea. May also be made simply by adding to raw honey (without heat) and letting infuse a few weeks. No need to strain the honey, use it with the needles still in the honey!
Medicinal Uses: Specific for respiratory and bronchial complaints. A tea of the needles, or a decoction of the needles with thin twigs included (the strongest preparation), is helpful to promote expectoration and removal and thinning of mucous from the lungs. Suitable for both wet and dry coughs but when there’s dryness I like to combine it with moistening demulcent herbs (see cough recipe below for a balanced formula). Use for coughs, colds, bronchitis, laryngitis, croup. A pea-sized piece of the pitch can also be chewed to promote expectoration.
I love what herbalist Lisa Fazio of The Root Circle has to say about White Pine- “I use White Pine needles for any upper respiratory infection, but it seems particularly useful when there is green phlegm. It is considered a tissue stimulant as it will stimulate the elimination of mucus by increasing oxygenation to depressed, bogged down, mucus entrenched membranes. It also relaxes by soothing, cooling and calming irritated and inflamed sinuses and lungs. It is great when the infection seems just 'stuck' and with thick, hardened phlegm. White Pine is a superb drawing agent and its resins act to draw out stagnant mucus by attaching to it and then stimulating its release. It will be effective when there is either dry viscous phlegm that needs to be drawn out, or when there is damp, loose phlegm that needs expectoration. Thereby it acts on both damp and dry conditions.”
Gathering White Pine drops after a storm
The needles are widely known to be extremely high in Vitamin C and are a great addition to a tea for the common cold or as a winter immunity tea. Once used to treat scurvy! They are actually reported to be 5x as high as oranges, per volume, in Vitamin C! A deficiency of Vitamin C can also negatively impact the adrenals, as well as the integrity of tissues in the body, and one way I've worked with White Pine in my practice is as a bioregionally abundant and inexpensive source of Vitamin C, especially when combined with Rose Hips. Our local species of Rose here Massachusetts is Rosa multiflora. Of course Vitamin C is heat sensitive, but it is so abundant in both these plants that steeping in hot water as a tea still provides a great source of this vitamin. The needles and twigs also make for a fabulous steam for congestion in the lungs.
The inner bark is the part that was official to the Eclectics (the herbal doctors of the late 1800's and early 1900's) and is very useful as an expectorant as well and can be decocted and sweetened with honey- best used after the infectious, feverish stage of a sickness has passed. An old Eclectic recipe from Squibbs Materia Medica c. 1906 for a cough syrup combines the inner bark of White Pine with Wild Cherry Bark (Prunus serotina), Spikenard Rt* (Aralia racemosa), Balm of Gilead buds (Populus sp including Aspen and Cottonwood), Bloodroot* (Sanguinaria canadensis) , Sassafrass Rt (Sassafrass albidum) and chloroform and morphine sulfate! (*Note- both Bloodroot and Spikenard are threatened woodland medicinals and should not be wild-harvested).
It is also a gently warming circulatory stimulant and I love making bath salts with white pine for a warming winter bath, and also for general aches and pains. It is invigorating and enlivening in nature, and the ample essential oils are quite immune-activating too. You can add oil to the bath salts to make it into a salt scrub, which can be very immune-boosting, as it stimulates lymph flow. To support your lymph, take a palm-sized amount of the scrub and always massage towards the heart. Salt is of course quite detoxifying too. And the oil moistens our skin- our biggest organ of elimination and the biggest protector of our body- so giving it some medicinal, non-toxic love is always a good thing too!
The sap (also known as pine pitch or resin, once it’s hardened) has a whole host of topical applications including splinters, sores, boils, sore muscles and rheumatism, cuts and swellings and is sometimes mixed with butter or fat for this. To remove woody debris and bark that sticks onto collected pitch, gently heat it on low and strain. Pine resin/pitch also dissolves readily into warmed oils, which is a great way to add it to salves- warm the collected resin right in the herbal oil you’re using as a base for your salve and strain-out the woody debris before completing your salve. The sap contains abietic resins, which stimulate topical circulation, inflammatory response and the “foreign body response”- meaning pus and fluids will build up much more quickly on a wound that is dressed with pine pitch. BUT the other side of the coin is that one moves through the healing process much faster and avoids infection.
Wonderful grief support medicine. It brings an expansiveness to the lungs, where many of us hold grief, and can help us move through grief or, rather, let it move through us because it's when it gets stuck that we run into trouble. White Pine can help lift us up and support us in grief when all we want to do is collapse in a heap- not that that's not sometimes necessary- but it's important not to get stuck there. Provides buoyancy and resiliency in times of deep grief.
It's quite important to note that the Eclectics learned of the medicinal properties of this North American native plant from indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee Nation (true name of the Iroquois and is made-up of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas ), Algonquin, Chippewa, Ojibwe, and likely many more. Holds great cultural significance for the Haudenosaunee Nation, to whom it’s known as “The Tree of Peace.”
White Pine & Ginger Bath Salts. Put a 1 inch layer of sea salt or epsom salts on the bottom of a jar, then add an (approximately) 1 inch layer of snipped-up White Pine Needles + a spoonful of Ginger powder in the jar and cover with salt, then add another layer of the pine needles, then salt, and repeat. Finish it with a 1 inch layer of salt on the top. It will be ready in a few days, but can stay in the jar indefinitely. You can strain the needles out when ready if you like, or simply add direct to the Bath and get a strainer cap for the drain of your tub. I like to use at least 2 cups/bath. It can also be easily made into a salt scrub by adding enough olive to give it a nice scoop-able consistency. Take a nice palm-sized amount and rub into your skin in the shower, moving towards your heart to support the lymph. You can also leave-out the Ginger if you’d like.
Preparation: Infusion, Decoction, Infused Oil, Perfume, Steam, Bath Salt/Scrub, Honey, Salve, Chest Rub, Poultice (pitch), Decoction, Syrup, as flavoring for foods
Dosage: Infusion- 1 tsp: 1 cup water, drink freely. Apply salve and oil topically freely as needed. Steam- daily as needed. Syrup- 3-4 tbsp/day when acute. Honey-added to teas, drink freely. Enjoy freely in foods
Contraindications: Avoid tea in HIGH doses if pregnant (due to high Vit C content)
White Pine Cough Syrup
Ingredients:
White Pine needles and twigs (Pinus strobus)- 1 part
Mullein lf (Verbascum thapsus)- 1/2 part
Wild Cherry (Prunus serotina)- 1/2 part
Anise Seed (Pimpinella anisum)- 1/4 part
Rose Hips (Rosa multifora, Rosa spp)- 1/4 part
A few other herbs I sometimes add: Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), Lemon Verbena (Aloysia citrodora), Fir boughs (Abies spp), Eastern Hemlock needles and twigs (Tsuga canadensis), and Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
Raw Honey
Directions:
Add your herbs to a pot. 1 part can be whatever you want- 1 tbsp, 1 cup, etc. Cover the herbs with about 2 inches of water and simmer on low to make a decoction. I keep a lid on it, but use a lid with a small hole in it for some steam to escape. Simmer for about an hour, until the water reduces to just covering the herbs. Then remove from heat and let the herbs continue to steep until the decoction cools. Next, strain it and for every cup of the decoction add 1/2 cup raw honey, and that's it! It's important not to heat the raw honey to a boil, but it is ok to warm it all gently to get the honey to mix. Putting it in a mason jar and then capping it and shaking vigorously is another great way to mix the honey in. An adult dose of this could be 1 tbsp every hour until cough improves- in order for herbs to work in acute conditions you often have to use lots! For kids a tsp (mixed in elderberry syrup if they don't like the flavor) 3x/day will suffice. This will likely last 1-2 weeks but we always use it up before it goes bad. You could also freeze the decoction and thaw and add the honey as needed.
Grief Support Chai
Ingredients:
Mullein Lf (Verbascum thapsus) 1 part
Linden Fl (Tilia cordata) 1 part
Hawthorn Lf + Fl (Crataegus spp) 1/2 part
Marshmallow Rt and/or Lf (Althea officinalis) 1/2 pt
White Pine Needles + Twigs (Pinus strobus) 1/2 pt
Rose Petals (Rosa spp) 1/2 pt
Cinnamon 1/4 pt
Cardamom 1/4 pt
Ginger 1/4 pt
A few other nice additions could be Rose Hips, Hawthorn Berry, Lemon Balm, or Sassafras leaves
Directions:
Combine the dried herbs in a bowl, making 1 part equal whatever you want depending on how much tea you want to make. 1 part could equal 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 3 tbsp, etc. To prepare, steep 1 heaping tbsp: 1 cup/8 oz just-boiled water for 5-10 min (longer is fine). Strain. Sweeten with raw honey and sip when your heart needs a hug.
For more recipes and ideas for medicine-making with White Pine check-out our Winter Tree Medicine post!
