Witnessed by: Western
Soapbark (Quillaja saponaria), of the Quillajaceae (formerly Rosaceae) family. Evergreen Chilean tree with thick dark shining leaves and small white flowers, the trunk in heavy fissured bark; native range: The dry central Chilean Andes and their foothills, and into Peru and Bolivia. Globally recognized as quillay, palo de jabón in Spanish, and soapbark, soap tree, Panama bark, quillaia in English. The part used is the inner bark, the outer corky layer removed. Flat, hard, splintery pieces of pale brownish bark, dusty white in the fracture; almost scentless, the taste at first faint and then sharply acrid, and the powder makes the nose and throat sting and sneeze. Shaken in water it froths high and lasts.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
SOAPBARK
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- soapbark
- Scientific name
- Quillaja saponaria Molina
- Family
- Quillajaceae (formerly Rosaceae)
Form
- Part used
- the inner bark, the outer corky layer removed
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Western
- acrid (harsh and scratching in the throat, with no true bitterness)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Western
- lungs · mucous membranes · skin
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Western
- stimulating expectorant, detergent and irritant; sternutatory in powder, and in pharmacy an emulsifying and foaming agent rather than a medicine
Cautions
- Contraindications
- an inflamed or ulcerated stomach and bowel — the saponins irritate; not for use in pregnancy
- Toxicity
- the saponins are irritant to the gut and haemolytic if they reach the blood; large doses gripe, vomit and purge, and the dust is a violent sternutatory that inflames the eyes and airways of those who handle it. Never given in more than the small pharmacopoeial dose.
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