Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Quercus alba
Pronounced White Oak Bark (WYT OHK BARK); Quercus alba (KWER-kus AL-buh)
Cool, dry, and powerfully astringent: the great tissue-tightener that draws boggy, weeping, over-relaxed membranes back into firm tone and stanches passive leakage.
Insufficient data; internal use not recommended in pregnancy. Modern references (WebMD/NCCIH-aligned, Healthline) state safety in pregnancy is not established and advise avoidance. Brief external use (a dilute sitz bath for hemorrhoids) is traditional but data are lacking; use only on intact skin and under practitioner guidance.
Insufficient data; avoid internal use while breastfeeding. No species-specific lactation data were found; astringent tannins may theoretically reduce secretions. Guidance is precautionary (WebMD/NCCIH-aligned, Healthline).
Avoid internal pediatric use except under professional guidance; tannin sensitivity is higher in children. Classical texts used dilute external washes and baths for debilitated children (King's, 1898); external short-term use on intact skin only. No dosing established for internal pediatric use.
Powerfully astringent and drying: not for dry, atrophic, constipated, or already-depleted constitutions. Its tannins bind and reduce absorption of iron, minerals, alkaloidal and protein/peptide drugs, so oral preparations must be separated from other medicines and supplements by at least 2 hours. Prolonged or high-dose internal use burdens the kidneys and liver and impairs nutrient absorption; keep internal use brief (3 to 4 days) and modest (about 3 g dried bark daily or less). Do not apply to broken or damaged skin, and do not use topically beyond 2 to 3 weeks.
Kidney disease or renal impairment; liver disease; chronic or spastic constipation; dry, atrophic, or exhausted tissue states; broken, damaged, or eczematous skin (topical). Not for long-term internal use. Avoid internal use in active fever with an unresolved exterior pattern, where astringing may trap the pathogen.
Quercus alba is a slow-growing North American hardwood; stripping bark from a standing trunk girdles and can kill a centuries-old tree. Not currently listed as at-risk by United Plant Savers, but harvest only from pruned limbs, storm-fall, thinnings, or sustainably coppiced/managed stands, never by ringing standing trees.
The oak (Hebrew allon; the related elah is usually the terebinth) recurs in Scripture: Genesis 35:8 names the Allon-bachuth, the Oak of Weeping, where Deborah was buried below Bethel, and Isaiah 6:13 likens the faithful remnant to the oak and terebinth whose stump (the holy seed) survives felling. Honest botany: the biblical oaks of the Levant are Mediterranean species (Quercus calliprinos, Q. ithaburensis, Q. coccifera), not the North American Quercus alba. White oak is the New World astringent analogue within the same genus, carried by the Eclectic physicians.
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