Interview with Beatrice Beddingfield

Interview with Beatrice Beddingfield

Beddingfield, Beatrice, 1921-2015

Herbs -- Therapeutic use

Alternative medicine

Traditional medicine -- North Carolina, Western

Beatrice Beddingfield of Zirconia, North Carolina, is interviewed as part of the "Native Plants Project"--a research project of the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University. In this interview Beddingfield talks about using herbs and roots for curing various types of ailments and for staying healthy. She mentions learning medicinal uses of plants first from her grandmother and mother while growing up at Rock Creek and later from her mother-in-law. In particular, she talks about the uses of black snake root and yellow root both of which grow in the wild. She mentions using yellow root tea for curing and maintaining kidney health for herself as well as her family. Among other herbal remedies she has used--many of which are no longer easily available--include catnip tea (helping babies sleep); wild touch-me-not/jewelweed (to stop itching); asafoetida (for increasing appetite); and perigord (for curing diarrhea). She also discusses a few home remedies such as using mutton fat for chest congestion relief for children, sugar for stopping bleeding, onion for bee stings, and castor oil for helping babies sleep and relieving colic.

Beddingfield, Beatrice, 1921-2015

WCU Mountain Heritage Center Oral Histories

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

1930s; 1940s; 1950s; 1960s; 1970s; 1980s; 1990s; 2000s (Decade);

1998-07-14

Lower, Emily

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

application/pdf; audio/mp3;

sound recordings

interviews

transcripts

interviews

eng

Sound

Text

35664

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/35664

2015-05-22

All rights reserved. For permissions, contact Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina U, Cullowhee, NC 28723;

Henderson County (N.C.)

North Carolina, Western

00:48:19 (sound recording)(duration)

14 pages (transcript)(duration)

Oral Histories of Western North Carolina