Poison Oak remedy made of Coyote Brush? (Rhus toxicodendron cured by Baccharis pilularis)

Today I'm trying a possible remedy for poison oak rash that I've never tried before. I mean, seriously, I get poison oak rashes just by looking at the plant. Allergic reactions are so bad for me that I've needed to go to urgent care for steroid shots to help the swelling go down from its sore-oozing state. So, because of these extreme situations, and others like having rashes that itch and even get onto my face, I've decided to write my old go-to regimen (that has proved to rid poison oak 100%) and write about my new experiment I'm trying today. 

Here's my old regimen: 

1) When hiking/or in nature it's best to assume poison oak is always around you and at your feet. Always step around brush (even if you have clothes on because the poison oak oils will stick to your clothes and contaminate you later when handling your clothes.). Stepping away from brush and avoiding touch also eliminates unnecessary breaking or harm to the plants around you, I tend to treat them like people and I try never to bump into them. (I'm sure it's kinda funny to image this, but I do.) 

2) When you get home, assume you acquired poison oak on your clothes and on your person. The first action you take when you're home is to get a bag and take off all your clothes and place them in a bag or just put straight into your washer. (Wash on cold, and instead of detergent put in a little bit of dish soap, preferably Dawn Dishsoap. Do Not Wash other clothes or household linens with this load. Quarantined poison oak clothes ONLY in this load.) Then, directly go into the shower and take a cold bath but wash your body with dish soap. Why cold water and Dish Soap? Dish soap lifts up oils off of your body or clothes and allows it to be swept away by the water and sent down the drain. The cold water is so the fibers of your clothes do not completely open and so your bodies pores do not open up to the poison oak oil (urushiol) that is so hazardous to the human. 

I have tried so many things. I have tried using plants (before, during, and after poison oak exposure) that supposedly resist and counter poison oak. I have used the chemically over the counter expensive product, the not so expensive over the counter products, I have used all-natural over the counter products, and I have even used prescribed steroidal ointments to help itch relief and treatment but have never found relief of a cure

So, at the end of the day, my two step regimen has been my go-to process of ridding poison oak with much success. 

On average (even when I have not been traipsing through the woods) I have at least two dots of poison oak on my somewhere year-around. I absolutely refuse to itch these and any rashes I get, so I'm excited to try out my new experiment with Coyote Brush. I learned about this from a native plant book I was scanning a couple weeks ago, it talked about how the Chumash Indians would make a tea out of it and use it on their skin. Since then I have obsessed over this method and researched it frantically trying to find more detailed information. But, alas, even the internet didn't have much to say about the biological properties of Coyote Brush. After purchasing two books, that left much for the imagination I just decided I would take the plunge and do some trial and error runs. 

My new and untested experiment:

Today I went out and harvested some Coyote Brush Baccharis pilularis leaves. No research that I could find specified whether or not to harvest from the brush before, during, or after the bush is bloom. So this trial records my harvest before the bush is flowering. 

According to Healing with Western Plants by Cecilia Garcia and James D. Adams Jr., I am to make a decoction out of these leaves. This is the only information I can find and not other recipe or step-by-step process is documented that I can find, so I rely on my education through the Rosemary Gladstar Science & Art of Herbalism program to help me be confident in the steps I take. In my herbalist training I was taught that unlike a normal tea or infusion, a decoction is like a long brewed tea but cooked with more than the usual heat so as to procure nutrients through the more tenacious parts of a plant.  

 Below are steps I took for this Decoction:

• 1 parts Coyote Brush leaves (with a couple stems) and 2 parts purified water. 

• Bring water to a boil, add the Coyote Brush, and take water down to a simmer. 
• Seal the lid with saran wrap immediately so all the steam and nutrients stay in the pot. 

 

• Simmer for 30 minutes. (By minute 20 the decoction made my apartment smell like a woodsy pine hill side. It's beautiful!) 
• After about 30 minutes I turned the burner off and let it sit until the decoction reached room temperature (so for about 3-5 hours)
• I strained the water and put it in a mason jar. (As you can see the leaves in the strainer lost their green tint and are now a faded yellow-green, and the strained tea is a very light golden. I'm happy with this outcome as I do not feel the properties were burnt or over boiled.)

 

I dabbed my finger in the tea and placed drops onto the spots of my poison oak rash. Yes, there was immediate relief from the itch, but I did have to reapply the drops on the same rash five minutes later because it started itching again. I also reapplied the drops on my rash before I went to bed because I anticipated my usual increased itchiness at night. This seemed to do the trick. I neither felt itchy at night on any of the spots that I put the decoction on. 

I do plan to up date this post with my continued experience, and I will add to this post when I have made a decoction of the bush during flowering season and after flowering season to see if there is a difference in the strength. For now, I am quite pleased with my experience and decoction recipe. 

I hope this post helps give the internet world a little more detail of poison oak and some of its relief remedies.


**UPDATE May 9, 2019***

Recently I went on a backpacking trip where the poison oak vines were running rapid and overgrown on the trail. I did return with poison oak on my body in about 6 different spots. I decocted another batch of Coyote Brush and put it on my skin. I also dampened the tissue of a bandaid and placed the soaked bandaid on my poison oak spots. The decoction on my bare skin seemed to make it feel like it was drying out the rash quicker but the bandaid technique seemed to make it worse due to constant moisture.
Looking back on my experiences with decocting Coyote Brush I do not feel at peace that this is the exact method Native Americans used. I feel that they used Coyote brush but maybe used it in a poultice or mixed a decoction with other herbs to better give relief for poison oak. Instead of continuing to use this method, I will do broaden my research path and seek an more detail explanation on how Coyote Brush was used for poison oak rashes.