Birch bark#Medical uses

Image:beresta.jpg from the 14th century]]

Birch bark or birchbark is the bark of several Eurasian and North American birch trees of the genus Betula.

For all practical purposes, birch bark's main layers are the outer dense layer, white on the outside, and the inner porous layer (cambium). For vast majority of crafts, the outer bark is used. In many languages it has a separate name. For example, in Russian "birch bark" is "beryozovaya kora", while the outer birch bark is "beryosta".

The strong and water-resistant cardboard-like outer bark can be easily cut, bent, and sewn, which has made it a valuable building, crafting, and writing material, since pre-historic times. Today, birch bark remains a popular type of wood for various handicrafts and arts.

Birch bark also contains substances of medicinal and chemical interest. Some of those products (such as betulin) also have fungicidal properties that help preserve bark artifacts, as well as food preserved in bark containers.

Collection and storage

File:birkebarksaeske.jpg

Removing birch bark from live trees is harmful to tree health and should be avoided. Instead, it can be removed fairly easily from the trunk or branches of dead wood, by cutting a slit lengthwise through the bark and pulling or prying it away from the wood. The best time for collection is spring or early summer, as the bark is of better quality and most easily removed.

Removing the outer (light) layer of bark from the trunk of a living tree may not kill it, but probably weakens it and makes it more prone to infections. Removal of the inner (dark) layer, the phloem, kills the tree by preventing the flow of sap to the roots.

Uses

File:Birch bark longhouse (Whitefish Island) 3.JPG on Whitefish Island in Canada]]

Image:Birch bark fishing net weights.jpg

Image:Vaillancourt.jpg]]

Birch bark was a valuable construction material in any part of the world where birch trees were available. Containers such as wrappings, bags, baskets, boxes, or quivers were made by most societies well before pottery was invented{{Citation needed|date=July 2008}}. Other uses include:

In various Asian countries (including Siberia) birch bark was used to make storage boxes, paper, tinder, canoes, roof coverings, tents, and waterproof covering for composite bows, such as the Mongol bow, the Chinese bow, Korean bow, Turkish bows, Assyrian bow, the Perso-Parthian bow. It is still being used. More than one variety of birch is used.
In North America, the native population used birch bark for canoes,{{Cite video

| publisher = Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies | vauthors = Vennum T, Weber C, Nyholm E | title = Earl's Canoe: A Traditional Ojibwe Craft | access-date = 3 December 2012 | date = 1999 | url = http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/how/find/films/indian/e.html

| url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130104164108/http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/how/find/films/indian/e.html

| archive-date = 4 January 2013 }} wigwams, scrolls, ritual art (birch bark biting), maps (including the oldest maps of North America{{cite book | vauthors = Hayes D | title = Historical Atlas of Canada: Canada's History Illustrated with Original Maps. | location = Vancouver | publisher = Douglas & McIntyre Ltd | date = 2002 | page = 152 }}), torches,{{cite book| vauthors = Boszhardt RF |title=Deep Cave Rock Art in the Upper Mississippi Valley|date=2003|publisher=Prairie Smoke Press|location=St. Paul|isbn=0-9704482-3-6|pages=54–55}} fans, musical instruments, clothing, and more.

In Scandinavia and Finland, it was used as the substratum of sod roofs and birch-bark roofs, for making boxes, casks and buckets, fishing implements, and shoes (as used by the Egtved Girl) similar to bast shoes.
In Russia, many birch bark manuscripts have survived from the Middle Ages.
In India, birch-bark, along with dried palm leaves, were the primary writing supports before the widespread advent of paper in the second millennium CE.{{Cite book|title=The art of the book in India| vauthors = Losty JP |date=1982|publisher=British Library|others=British Library. Reference Division.|isbn=0904654788|location=London|oclc=8653520}} The oldest known Buddhist manuscripts (some of the Gandharan Buddhist Texts), from Afghanistan, were written on birch bark.{{Cite book|title=Ancient Buddhist scrolls from Gandhāra: the British Library Kharoṣṭhī fragments| vauthors = Salomon R, Barnard M, Allchin FR |date=1999|publisher=The British Library|isbn=0712346112|location=London|language=en|oclc = 263439456}}
Neanderthals used birch bark to make a tar adhesive through the process of dry or destructive distillation.{{cite journal | vauthors = Kozowyk PR, Soressi M, Pomstra D, Langejans GH | title = Experimental methods for the Palaeolithic dry distillation of birch bark: implications for the origin and development of Neandertal adhesive technology | language = En | journal = Scientific Reports | volume = 7 | issue = 1 | pages = 8033 | date = August 2017 | pmid = 28860591 | pmc = 5579016 | doi = 10.1038/s41598-017-08106-7 | bibcode = 2017NatSR...7.8033K }}{{cite journal | vauthors = Schmidt P, Blessing M, Rageot M, Iovita R, Pfleging J, Nickel KG, Righetti L, Tennie C | display-authors = 6 | title = Birch tar production does not prove Neanderthal behavioral complexity | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 116 | issue = 36 | pages = 17707–17711 | date = September 2019 | pmid = 31427508 | pmc = 6731756 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.1911137116 | name-list-style = amp | doi-access = free | bibcode = 2019PNAS..11617707S }}

Outer birch bark also makes an outstanding tinder, as it does not soak up water.

= Medical uses =

Filsuvez is a topical medication with birch bark extract as its active ingredient.{{cite web | title=Filsuvez EPAR | website=European Medicines Agency (EMA) | date=13 April 2022 | url=https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/EPAR/filsuvez | access-date=6 July 2022 | archive-date=6 July 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706033550/https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/EPAR/filsuvez | url-status=live }} Text was copied from this source which is copyright European Medicines Agency. Reproduction is authorized provided the source is acknowledged. It is used to treat two types of epidermolysis bullosa, dystrophic and junctional, targeting partial-thickness skin wounds. Common side effects include wound complications, skin reactions, infections, itching, and allergic reactions. Filsuvez was approved in the European Union in June 2022{{cite web | title=Filsuvez Product information | website=Union Register of medicinal products | url=https://ec.europa.eu/health/documents/community-register/html/h1652.htm | access-date=3 March 2023 | archive-date=4 March 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230304070505/https://ec.europa.eu/health/documents/community-register/html/h1652.htm | url-status=live }} and in the United States in December 2023.{{cite press release | title=Chiesi Global Rare Diseases Receives FDA Approval for Filsuvez (birch triterpenes) topical gel for the Treatment of Epidermolysis Bullosa | website=Chiesi Global Rare Diseases | date=19 December 2023 | url=https://chiesirarediseases.com/media/fda-approval-for-filsuvez-topical-gel | access-date=22 December 2023 | archive-date=22 December 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231222000828/https://chiesirarediseases.com/media/fda-approval-for-filsuvez-topical-gel | url-status=live }}{{cite web | title=Novel Drug Approvals for 2023 | website=U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) | date=19 December 2023 | url=https://www.fda.gov/drugs/new-drugs-fda-cders-new-molecular-entities-and-new-therapeutic-biological-products/novel-drug-approvals-2023 | access-date=22 December 2023 | archive-date=21 January 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121035617/https://www.fda.gov/drugs/new-drugs-fda-cders-new-molecular-entities-and-new-therapeutic-biological-products/novel-drug-approvals-2023 | url-status=dead }} It is considered a first-in-class medication by the US Food and Drug Administration.{{cite report | title=New Drug Therapy Approvals 2023 | website=U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) | date=January 2024 | url=https://www.fda.gov/media/175253/download | format=PDF | access-date=9 January 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110032419/https://www.fda.gov/media/175253/download | archive-date=10 January 2024 | url-status=dead }}

References

External links

[http://www.nativetech.org/brchbark/ Birchbark articles] from the NativeTech site.
[http://nrd.kbic-nsn.gov/sites/default/files/GatheringBirchandBirchBark_0.pdf Birch and Birch Bark], an article by John Zasada at a University of Minnesota site.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070607193757/http://www.algonquinsofpikwakanagan.com/Culture%20birch%20bark%20canoe%202004.htm Birch Bark Canoe] page on the site of the Algonquins of Pikwàganagàn.
[http://www.nfb.ca/film/Cesars_Bark_Canoe/ César's Bark Canoe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090125080552/http://nfb.ca/film/Cesars_Bark_Canoe/ |date=25 January 2009 }}—Watch a documentary on how to build a Birch bark canoe
[http://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/Mss/BCIM/BCIM-SC1.shtml Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions Digital Image Collection] at Marquette University; keyword: birch bark.
[https://vimeo.com/145946701 Wiigwaasi-Jiimaan: These Canoes Carry Culture]—Short documentary featuring the building of an Anishinaabe-Ojibwe birchbark canoe in Wisconsin.
{{cite web | url = https://druginfo.nlm.nih.gov/drugportal/name/birch%2C%20betula%20pendula%2C%20ext. | publisher = U.S. National Library of Medicine | work = Drug Information Portal | title = Birch, Betula pendula, ext. }}
{{cite web | url = https://druginfo.nlm.nih.gov/drugportal/name/birch%2C%20betula%20pubescens%2C%20ext. | publisher = U.S. National Library of Medicine | work = Drug Information Portal | title = Birch, Betula pubescens, ext. }}

Category:Writing media

Category:Non-timber forest products

Category:Native American ethnobotany

Category:Combination drugs

Category:Orphan drugs

Category:Betula

Category:Birch bark