When Lauren Pignatello’s young son Royal was diagnosed with Lyme disease five years ago, she didn’t rush to put him on antibiotics. The Whitefield cheesemaker and herbalist turned away from doctors and toward her garden. Believing in the power of certain herbs such as teasel and solomon seal root to heal the body naturally instead of Western medicine’s “full-on warfare,” she created tinctures and administered them to her 5-year-old in homeopathic doses.
“Teasel is a very intuitive plant. It helps muscularly contract the system to release the spirochete (spiral-shaped bacterium),” which enters the body after a bite from an infected deer tick, she said.
His arthritic symptoms disappeared within weeks, Pignatello said.
Herbal remedies such as the use of teasel to treat Lyme disease fall outside the norms of conventional medicine. Although there is no medical evidence or studies to support the use and effectivity of the treatment, Pignatello stands by its use, having seen how it helped her son. She references the book “Healing Lyme” by Stephen Harrod Buhner, which examines natural strategies.
“When you get a bite from a tick who has Lyme disease, it affects everyone differently. It might give you a fever or make you achy. After a while it retreats from the blood and goes into tissues. If it stays longer, it creeps into organs and then bone marrow,” the owner of Swallowtail Farm and Creamery said.
These anti-inflammatory herbs that grow wild in Maine did the trick.
“Teasel helps the body take care of itself. It brings the bacteria back out into the bloodstream. It’s known as a kidney plant. Through the kidney it deposits the spirochete,” she explained, which is then whisked out of the body naturally.
Pignatello will go deeper into these benefits in June at Herban Herb Fest. Held in her new Portland Milk and Honey Cafe and soon to be apothecary in East Bayside, the June 18-19 festival celebrates “herbs, weeds and flowers and all things green,” over two days.
She floated the idea for an herb fest and it caught fire fast.
“Classes filled in two days, and the marketplace is growing with so many that want to sell their wares,” she said.
Topics include cooking with herbs for daily use taught by chef Frank Giglio, fire cider 101, and herbs for natural beauty. There also will be herb walks and discussions on using herbs for a peaceful pregnancy. The keynote Saturday is wild forager Arthur Haines of western Maine.
The popularity of chaga, a medicinal mushroom believed to help treat everything from the flu to cancer, is leading the resurgence of homeopathic remedies. At the same time, herbalism, the science and study of plants, is getting rediscovered in this do-it-yourself age.
“There is so much attention now. There is a reality show on ginseng. More and more people realize your basic herbs are easy to grow,” said Pignatello, who became interested in herbs as a teenager and has been a consultant for 15 years.
The movement is further buttressed by “farming and the local food movement and the small local agricultural scene. Everyone wants to go to farmers market and learn about sustainable living. There is a lot of attention to foraging,” said Pignatello, who encourages people to get their hands dirty and start small by planting in containers.
“Embrace it on all levels. It can be as simple as red raspberry leaves or chamomile tea. How wonderful to grow your own tea?”
Tickets for Herban Herb Fest are $21 to $36 and can be purchased on Pignatello’s website, swallowtailfarm.
