Witnessed by: Western

Northern prickly ash (Zanthoxylum americanum), of the Rutaceae family. Thorny deciduous shrub or small tree with pinnate aromatic leaves and paired stout prickles at the nodes; native range: eastern and central North America, from Quebec and Ontario south to Virginia and west to the Mississippi, in thickets, rocky woods and river banks. Globally recognized as northern prickly ash, toothache tree, yellow wood, suterberry in English. The part used is bark (of stem and root), berries. Curved bark quills, ash-grey without with blackish patches and corky prickle-bases, yellowish within; the small dark berries strongly aromatic and lemon-like when crushed. The taste is aromatic and bitterish at first, then intensely pungent and acrid, leaving the tongue and lips numb and tingling, with a copious flow of saliva.

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.

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