Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron Tulipifera)

Tulip Poplar, Tulipifera Liriodendron, is one of the most strangely beautiful trees of the southeast, thanks to it's elegant growth habits and rather bizarre flowers. The trees grow very tall and straight, and have slightly drooping branches with broad, uniquely shaped leaves. There were several old tulip trees in my backyard when I was a kid. The twigs had a sweet, mysterious scent that I loved.

Revisiting the trees this year, I was intrigued again by the smell of the fresh twigs. I wondered if these magnificent trees have an herbal tradition behind them. 

  
In fact, they do. All parts of the tree, from leaves to seeds to bark to root, seem to have been employed at least some of the time, but the inner bark or root seem to have been the most popular.

The tree seems to have been used in a lot of different ways: as a nervine, tonic, stimulant, anthelmentic, febrifuge, anti-rheumatic, gastrointestinal aid, and anti-diarrheal.The bark was used for intermittent fevers, and it was sometimes used as a substitute for cinchona.

(By the way, cinchona is the stuff that the tonic water of gin-and-tonic fame was originally made of, so of course now I'm wondering what a Tulip Tree gin and tonic would taste like. Sounds like a fun experiment to me!)

Other uses included an ingredient in cough syrup and as a wash or poultice for wounds and broken bones.

From what I read, Cook, in The Physiomedical Dispensatory, 1869, sums up it's uses in the Eclectic literature very nicely:

"The bark of the liriodendron is one of the mildest and least bitter of the tonics, chiefly relaxant and only moderately stimulant, but with no astringency whatever. While it improves the appetite and digestion to a fair extent, and for this purpose is unsurpassed in convalescence, its most valuable action is upon the nervous system and uterus. In nervousness, nervous irritability, hysteria, and chronic pains through the womb, it is an agent of the greatest efficacy–both soothing and sustaining. The menses are not influenced by it; but it proves valuable in chronic dysmenorrhea as well as in leucorrhea, prolapsus of a mild grade, and the uterine suffering incident to pregnancy. By its influence on the nervous system it sometimes promotes the flow of urine; and it favors greater freedom of the bowels, without being in any sense cathartic. If combined with spikenard, boneset, or other agents influencing the lungs, its virtues will be directed largely to these organs; and then is of peculiar service in old coughs and pulmonary weakness. The mildness of its action sometimes suggests inertness, but this is quite an error; for its gentleness increases its value as a peculiar nervine tonic, and makes it very acceptable to the stomach; though it is not an agent fitted to languid or sluggish conditions, or states of depression." 

Translation: Cook thinks it useful for certain female problems, as a digestive tonic useful for improving the appetite and digestion after illness, and that it has very gentle but effective actions on the nervous system. He also states that if it is used with lung supporting herbs it helps with old coughs and helps strengthen the lungs.

Scudder, in Specific Medication and Specific Medicines, 1870, stated that

"It is stimulant and tonic to the digestive apparatus, improving digestion and blood making. It also exerts an influence upon the nervous system, strengthening innervation and relieving those symptoms called nervous."

So, Scudder seconds that it is a nervine and useful as a digestive aid.

I would love to work with this tree when I get the chance. It's not available from any commercial sources that I can tell, so it will have to go on my wild crafting wish list for the time being. I'm sure some of the trees behind my parents' house will drop a few limbs before the summer is over- that seems to be typical for them when summer storms come through, if I remember correctly. Interestingly, the Eclectics believed it could be effectively extracted in either alcohol or with cold water, but that boiling destroyed its active principles.

King's American Dispensatory and Lloyd's Drugs and Medicines of North America have more great info on Tulip Tree, and thanks to Henriette's Herbal web page and blog, they are available to read for free online.
Also, one of my other standby online references, the University of Michigan's ethnobotanical database, turned up a good general list of historical uses: just type 'liriodendron' into the search box to repeat the search.