From The Forest

This soft-set ointment is lubricating, antibiotic and antiseptic for use around the vaginal area. It relieves itching and irritation due to yeast or vaginal infections. Usnea sp., Laetiporus sp.

Usnea, also known as old man’s beard, is not a plant but lichen — a symbiotic relationship between an algae and a fungus. The entire lichen is used. Usnea looks like long, fuzzy strings hanging from trees in North American and European forests, where it grows. This particular species of Usnea, common to our area, is medium-sized tufted shrub lichen, pale yellowish green in color. It is highly branched, bearing numerous short side branches, reinforced by a tough, white, central cord. Usnea grows over trees and shrubs, preferring old growth forest conifers in shady areas.

Usnic acid, which gives usnea its bitter taste, acts as an antibiotic.

Constituents: Usnic acid, mucilage.

Sulphur Shelf (also known as Chicken of the Woods), grows on a variety of hardwoods and softwoods throughout much of North America. The mushroom is a popular edible, and easily recognized by its color, soft texture, and absence of gills. The young rosettes and the tender edges from mature clusters are more palatable than the older, tougher specimens.

The brilliantly colored fungi produces antibiotics and has been noted to consume E. coli upon contact. The fungus is also know to speed healing of burns, both first and second degree.

Extracts of cultures of this mushroom are currently the subject of in vitro scan investigations for antibacterial properties based, in part, upon a long history of folkloric use in the Russian Far East.

Ingredients: Dried Laetiporus sulphureus mushrooms infused in olive oil and thickened with beeswax.

Constituents: N-Phenethylhexadecanamide, eburicoic acid.