Fever

Fever

The worst fever I ever had laid me low in Darien, Panama, in 1961. I was part of a team that included a geographer, a hydrologist and a world-renowned tropical ecologist, Les Holdridge, Ph.D.

In between forays into the bush to study the vegetation in that wild, frontier area, we stayed in a modest yellow house rented from a German oil man. Sometimes there was pure rainwater to drink, and rarely, when the town
generator ran in El Real, we had electricity. Returning to the house one day, I suddenly developed alternating chills and fever. My buddies told me I was delirious for hours.

In my lucid moments, I assumed that I had malaria, since alternating fever and chills are a hallmark of that tropical scourge. But there was no doctor around, so I couldn't be sure. I took some antimalaria medication, figuring that the pills that suppress the malaria bug might also get rid of all sorts of other microorganisms, any number of which might have found their way into my body. Whatever was causing my fever, the antimalaria pills knocked it out before it knocked me off.

Now it's 35 years later, and I've just retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the job that took me to so many exotic locales. But my beloved database will remain on the Internet, accessible to anyone who's interested. There you can find hundreds of plants that are said to reduce fever. But to save you a hunt in the wild frontier of the Internet (which could give you a fever), I'll review the highlights here.

Cooling the Fevered Brow

Around the world, an extraordinary number of plants have been used to treat fever. In Indonesia alone, 256 plants are folkloric fever fighters. Many of them I've never seen, and I've spent a lifetime in this field.

In my experience, more than half of folkloric medicinal plants live up to their reputations. But I suspect that for fever, the figure is higher. It's fairly easy to tell if an herb actually reduces fever, so the ones that don't work would rarely if ever have developed a reputation for efficacy.

If I developed a serious fever in any other out-of-the-way place and had no access to a physician, you can bet I'd consult the locals, in sign language, and let them feel the heat on my forehead. And I'm sure I could find someone who could lead me to fever-cooling plant medicine, probably growing close at hand.

Bitter Bounty

The world's best-known fever medicine is aspirin, derived from the salicylates in willow bark and many other plants. I've seen willow growing almost everywhere, all the way from Maine, where I give my summer ethnobotany class, to the Amazon, where I hold my winter classes. Willow trees grow from the arctic to the tropics and were used by thousands of ethnic groups long before Bayer decided to turn Nature's aspirin into a pharmaceutical pill.

While salicylates are very familiar to me as a botanist, I must admit that they are also unfathomable. Salicylic acid lowers my temperature, but the very same chemical causes plants to warm up by as much as 20 degrees above the temperature of their surroundings. Salicylates are the reason that snow melts around skunk cabbage in February. Don't ask me to explain it; I'm just telling it like it is.

Salicylates have a bitter taste, as do the vast majority of fever-reducing plant chemicals. It seems to go with the healing territory. My database contains a list of 25 plants used in Oaxaca, Mexico, to treat malaria, and all but one is bitter. So if you're treating fever with herbs, you'll have to brace yourself for a bitter natural pill.

While people rightly regard fever as a sign of infection, attempting to bring it down is sometimes a mistake. Up to a point, fever is a friend. Most microorganisms that cause disease die when exposed to high temperatures, so fever is one of the ways in which the immune system tries to kill them. The trouble is that prolonged high fevers can kill us, too.

A good rule of thumb is: Don't treat every fever right away. Treat it when it starts making you feel uncomfortable. For high fever--above 103°--you'll want to consult a doctor as soon as possible, of course. For milder high temperature--99° to 101°--you may choose to take aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen (Motrin or Advil). One word of caution: Most benign fevers start to let up within a day or two. If any fever, even a mild one, persists for more than 48 hours, see your doctor.

Green Pharmacy for Fever

There are a number of herbs that can help reduce a fever. As a general rule, however, remember that it's not a good idea to give aspirin or aspirin-like herbs to children who have fevers with viral infections such as colds, flu and chicken pox. There is a chance that they could develop Reye's syndrome, a potentially fatal condition that causes liver and brain damage. And if you are allergic to aspirin, you probably shouldn't use aspirin-like herbs.

Willow (Salix, various species). When the eighteenth-century British minister Edward Stone set out to find a cheap substitute for expensive imported cinchona bark, which was used to treat malaria and other fevers, he noticed that willow bark tasted just as bitter and decided to try it.

Willow proved to be a good pain reliever and fever fighter, and its use spread around England, Europe and the Americas. The active compound salicin was isolated in 1830, and the Bayer company tinkered with salicin to create aspirin. The new Bayer Aspirin was released in the 1890s, and it quickly became one of the world's most popular drugs. But you can still use willow bark. I do.

Try making a tea with one to two teaspoons of dried bark steeped in a cup of boiling water for about 20 minutes. You can mask the bitter taste with cinnamon, ginger, camomile or other flavorful herbs.

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria). This is another excellent source of salicin, the chemical in willow bark that fights fever. Commission E, the body of experts that advises the German government about herbs, suggests making a tea with one to two teaspoons of meadowsweet flowers. Try up to three cups a day.

Elder (Sambucus nigra). Commission E endorses using two to three teaspoons of elder flowers a day in tea for feverish chills.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale). In studies with animals, several
compounds in ginger have been shown to have anti-fever value, according to Varro Tyler, Ph.D., dean and professor emeritus of pharmacognosy (natural product pharmacy) at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Neither he nor I know of any human studies of ginger for fever, but it's a safe herb, so it probably shouldn't hurt if you want to brew ginger tea, eat candied ginger or sip ginger ale. Also, ginger's flavor can help make other fever-reducing herb teas more palatable. And it just might help fight fever.

Peppermint (Mentha piperita). Many herbalists recommend
peppermint for relieving fever, suggesting such combinations as elder
and peppermint or willow and peppermint. If I had a fever, I would add peppermint to fever-fighting teas. It would certainly enhance the flavor.

Red pepper (Capsicum, various species), cinnamon (Cinnamomum, various species) and cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon). In my database, red pepper is a fair source of salicylates. Cinnamon and cranberry also have anti-fever reputations. The next time I have a fever, I think I'll try cranberry sauce topped with cayenne and cinnamon.