Pine Needle Tea
We have been getting a lot of requests for pine needle tea in the store. Currently, we don’t carry it.
There has apparently been an Instagram post touting the benefits of this tea. This is perhaps a bad case of what we like to call the “Dr. Google’s”.
Faeve Apothecary is a Modern Apothecary, that means we work with all plant and plant materials that are available. It also means that as either certified, master, clinical herbalist and aromatherapist, everything we do is based in science. We will not tout any type of plant support for conditions unless there is clinical evidence there, and usually a lot of it.
There is no current covid-19 clinical evidence on pine needle tea. In fact, there are numerous types of pine needles and “white pine needle” is not a botanical name. Ingesting the wrong type of pine needles can be toxic.
The plant constituent shikimic acid is what the poster was referring to. Now, this has been tested as far as representing benefits to that of the pharmaceutical drug tamiflu. In these studies, they isolated the acid from the plant and that is what the study is on. Not on actual tea, that type of extraction is something the average person would not be able to achieve at home.
As far as altering DNA and shedding virus components, the science is not there.
Thinking we were missing something, I called two of the largest herbal wholesalers in the US. These are the two largest dispensaries for herbal plants and products that have access to farmers all over the world.
Guess what they don’t have? Pine needle and pine needles tea. When asked why they don’t , I was simply told that there isn’t enough science as to what botanical pine is actually beneficial, because the science isn’t there.
Once science has shown itself to be a safe product we will be sure to carry it. Until then, we’re still searching. The essential oils in the pine spruce family are wonderful for viruses and pain, we know this because science has proved it.
When starting a new plant material regime we ask you to look at the National Institute of Health Website, Pub Med, or any articles that have .edu on it. This will be where you find the information that you are looking for. Please be careful where you get your information.
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