Copyright © 1990 - 2023 by Robert Dale Rogers. All rights reserved.
No portion of this book, except for a brief review, may be reproduced, or copied and transmitted, without permission of author. This book is for educational purposes only. The suggestions, recipes and historical information are not meant to replace a medical advisor. The author assumes no liability for unwise or unsafe usage by readers of this book.
HAZELNUT
(Corylus cornuta Marsh.)
(C. rostrata)
CONTORTED HAZEL
CRAZY FILBERT
(C. avellana "contorta")
EUROPEAN FILBERT
(C. avellana)
AMERICAN FILBERT
(C. americana Walt)
PURPLE HAZEL
(C. maxima purpurea)
PARTS USED- nuts, buds, stems, roots and leaves.
The hazelnut is a symbol of happy marriages,
because the nuts grow united in pairs.
ANON
Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts,
Having no other reason, but thou hast hazel eyes.
SHAKESPEARE
The hazel blooms in threads of crimson hue.
Peep through the swelling buds and look for Spring.
JOHN CLARE
O sland’rous world! Kate like the hazel-twig
Is straight and slender, and as brown in hue
As hazel-nuts, and sweeter than the kernels.
SHAKESPEARE
INTRODUCTION
Hazel is from the Anglo Saxon HAESEL meaning headdress or bonnet. Corylus is from the Greek KORYS or helmet, and cornuta from CORNUS meaning horned or beaked.
Hazel is associated with hazy, from the Syrian HAZEH. Hazing rituals may stem from the same root. It may stem from the German HAES, meaning a command, from the ancient use of sticks and switches to keep slaves and livestock in control. The Anglo-Saxon name HAESEL means “hood”.
The closely related Filbert, is the emblem of St. Philibert, whose feast day is August 22.
He was a Benedictine monk who founded the Abbey of Jumieges in 684 AD. Maybe. Philbert is a Norman French word from the 13th century.
Filbert is from the German VOLLBART, meaning full-beard. An old British slang term Gilbert Filbert is derived from the song Gilbert the Filbert, Colonel of the Nuts. Ah, nothing like English humour!
Generally speaking, the hazel is reserved for the wild grown nut, and filbert for the cultivated.
Pliny, the ancient Greek author, mentions “filberts put more fat on the body than one would think at all likely”.
The Greeks dedicated hazel to Mercury; and in Ireland, it was a wand of hazel that St. Patrick used to drive the snakes into the sea. The winged hazel rod, entwined with two serpents is still today the symbol of communication, reconciliation and commerce; as well as the Caduceus, the symbol of healing arts.
Chinese manuscripts over 5000 years old, mention the hazelnut. Cultivation began in southern Europe, and then eastward into Turkey.
Hazel is associated with the number nine, the number of muses, and the sacred number of Gaia.
Hazel is the ninth month of the Celtic tree calendar, and considered the Tree of Wisdom. From the Hazel, fell the nine poetic nuts of knowledge, into a pool of sacred salmon. The metaphor of salmon returning to the sea and back for spawning is related to the passing of wisdom from one generation to the next.
It is the letter C (coll) in the Druid tree alphabet.
Druid masters were said to chew hazelnuts as a way of focusing the mind to compose satirical poems that carry curses or to obtain knowledge of things hidden or lost. In Scotland, the tree was sacred to the Celtic sea god Manannan.
In Sweden, hazelnut twigs were woven into crowns, and worn by those wishing to become invisible. In Wales, twig caps were worn to bring good dreams and wisdom. To fall asleep under hazel will give you prophetic dreams.
It was believed that hazelnut pins driven into the beams protected the building from fire, and made it immune to damage from lightning, as hazel was the handle of the hammer of Thor, and Donar, the God of thunder, war and strength.
A protective wall of hazel was planted around the Goetheanum to ward off evil spirits.
Charcoal made from hazel wood was combined with sulphur and saltpetre to make gunpowder.
Oetzi, the Ice man used hazel wood for his backpack and arrow quiver.
In Bohemia, the presence of a large number of hazel nuts foretells the birth of many illegitimate children.
D. H. Lawrence, in Women in Love, had the hero explain to a lady admirer the function of the "long danglers", and the "little red flames", of the female flower.
Hildegard de Bingen, some six centuries earlier, suggested that hazel represents lasciviousness.
She suggested to "take the shoots, that is, the parts where the flowers first bud. Dry them in the sun and reduce them to a powder. Put this powder where there is scrofula on a person, and he will be healed".
She also recommended hazel shoots, stonecrop along with goat liver and fatty pork as a stew for men with immature sperm.
The expression to “go into the hazelwood” meant to have sex in the woods. A hazel wand was given to “easy” girls on May Day. An old Swiss folk song goes: “Anneli, with the red breast, come, we’ll wend our way into the hazelwood”.
In Scotland, "burning the nuts" was a ritual of lovers to see if they were well matched. Two hazelnuts were placed on embers, and if they burned steadily side- by-side, they were true lovers. If, however, they sputtered and one jumped away, they were ill matched. This may be the source of its symbolic meaning of reconciliation. In the middle ages, hazel was considered the tree of seduction.
Hazel shoots were hung over the bed of infertile couples.
The plant is related to the birth date of April 29th while the nut itself is related to October 20th.
Caledonia, the Gallic name for Scotland is derived from the Cal Dun, or Hill of Hazel. The Gallic term for wisdom, Cnocach, also stems from the word for hazelnut, CNO.
Hallow’s Eve, October 31st, is known as Nutcrack Night, a night when hazelnuts were cracked, accompanied with fortune telling in some traditions.
The forked branches are used for divining water or gold. This was called RHABDOMANCY, from the Greek RHABDOS for rod, and MANTEIA, divination. In the Bible (Hosea IV:12) hazel rods are mentioned for finding concealed objects. The Cornish attributed this power to the influence of pixies.
Ancient Etruscans used hazel wands to find buried springs, and Chinese feng shui masters used them, five millennium ago to detect the flow of “dragon lines” (ley lines?) in the earth.
Forked hazel wands are best cut on Midsummer's Eve.
This stems (sorry, I couldn’t resist) from the Celtic God of love, Aengus mac in Oic, who carried a hazel wand that predicted success or failure in courting.
The lovers placed two hazelnuts in water, and if they remained close, all would be well. Any drifting apart indicated the same. Two nuts joined together was called St. John’s Nut in Scotland, and considered a good omen to carry and protect oneself against the evil eye.
The air surrounding hazel is believed charged with the quicksilver energy of exhilaration and inspiration. It is said that two hazel trees growing together near water form a bridge to the fairy kingdom, and passing through can lead to this other world.
It was believed hazel energy can change weather.
Hazel rods make excellent walking sticks, after seasoning with the peel on for a good six months.
Oetzie, the Ice Man used hazel for the U shape spar of his pack frame and as a quiver stiffener.
The shrubs grow from one to three metres tall, and produce paired nuts that are quickly gathered by squirrels, crows, blue jays, and even bears that love the taste.
Thoreau put it well. “There is not a hazel bush but some squirrel has his eye on its fruit, and he will be pretty sure to anticipate you; for you only think of it between whiles, but he thinks of it all the while. As we say, “The tools to those who can use them,” so we may say, “The nuts to those who can get them.”
In front of my cabin on Lesser Slave Lake, the hazelnuts were variable from year to year. Gloves are a must in harvesting, due to the rough husk; but if your skin is irritated simply rub fresh leaves on the inflamed area. This green husk is quite salty when chewed, indicating another possible source of landlocked sodium salts from plant ash.
The smaller, immature nuts still in the milky stage are soft and sweet. I like them this way, before the squirrels start to gather them.
The Cree call the bush PAKANÂHTIHK, and the nut PAKAN. They used the twig tea for treating heart disease.
Some native people buried the harvested nuts until the husks rotted, by filling the hole with wet mud for up to ten days. After removing the husks, they were shelled and eaten, or stored for later use.
The Lakes people of British Columbia made a special type of relish with hazelnuts. They would crush the nuts and mix them with bear fat and berries, and then form the mixture into cakes to dry or stuffed into an animal’s intestine like a sausage.
Ancient archaeological sites on Colonsay, off the west coast of Scotland reveal shallow depressions where hazelnuts were placed, covered with sand and then subjected to a top fire. This cooking process turns the hard to digest food into a starchy delight that can be eaten in the hundreds at one sitting.
The cooking also preserves them for future use.
Young, straight shoots were prepared by natives of the Canadian prairies for arrows, snowshoes and drumming sticks.
They twisted the peeled shoots to break the fiber and used them as plied rope for lashing and tying.
Spoons were carved from the wood, as they did not have a strong flavour.
A blue dye, used to colour baskets, was made from the buds or root when scraped and exposed to air. It could then be rubbed on, or a decoction was made from soaking either part in water.
One modern member of the Thompson says that chewing the buds of hazelnut will help make one a good singer.
The Iroquois used decoctions of the bark, as part of mixtures to induce vomiting. Smaller amounts of the stem tea, combined with Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) root were given to help ease teething pain in children.
The Chippewa used root infusions to stop hemorrhage of the lungs. The Ojibwa made medicine from the hairs of the husks to expel intestinal worms.
Hazelnut leaves can be made into a poultice, for headaches, skin conditions, as well as tendonitis and other sore muscle pains. The bark, leaves and twigs were boiled together and crushed into poultices for treating skin tumours and ulcers.
Several Algonquian tribes boiled the leaves and twigs for rheumatism, heart disease and intestinal disorders, and the bark to reduce fevers, and relieve hives. The Eastern Cree made a tea of the branch tips to cure heart troubles.
The twigs are good chewing sticks, for maintaining dental health; the astringent bitter properties helping dry and heal bleeding or inflamed gums.
Rousseau mentions that the Mohawk cut the stalk into pieces to make a collar used by babies suffering teething.
According to Midred Fielder, author of Plant Medicine and Folklore, the inner bark of hazelnut acts as a binder to cement the virtues of various tonic herbs together, a property first reported by Smith in 1923.
Various native tribes boiled the nuts and skimmed oil off the top to flavour food, and for soothing toothaches.
Hazelnut oil is also a good mosquito repellent and insecticide, and when rancid can still be used for industrial purposes.
Poultices of the bark were used to promote healing wounds, tumours and skin cancer.
The ripe nuts were burned for divination, to enable visionary prophecy by medicine men and women.
A necklace of the young branches was put around teething babies.
In European folk medicine, the nuts were used to treat hypotension and parotid tumours. Dr. Crato, a 16th century German physician, said that many people were cured of stone and gravel by eating 9-10 hazelnuts before both midday and evening meals.
Culpepper believed "the dried husks and shells, to the weight of two drams, taken in red wine, stays lasks and women's courses, and so doth the red skin that covers the kernels, which is more effectual to stay women's courses".
The wood is in demand for small pieces of turned furniture, walking sticks, barrel hoops, and as a source of charcoal made into gunpowder.
The leaves have been used for smoking like tobacco.
The shelled nuts can be rubbed on articles of wood to polish and oil them.
They were slightly scorched and ground into a powder as a medicine for kidneys and promoting labour.
Crushed and broken shells and husks are burned as fuel.
The bark and leaves have been used for tanning of leather, the boiled bark making a reddish dye for moose hide. The nuts boiled for an hour give a green dye. From the roots and inner bark a blue dye was obtained to colour baskets.
The plant is associated with the Air element, and Mercury. Stringing the nuts together and hanging them in the house was considered good luck. Given to a new bride is a way of wishing her good fortune. Amulets made from the hazelnuts imparted the wearer wisdom.
It was believed that, eaten, the hazelnut imparted wisdom and increased fertility. As the nuts are rich in essential fatty oils and Vitamin E, there is scientific truth to this belief.
While living in Spain, I had the good fortune to taste Salsa Romesco, a sauce of hazelnuts and peppers used with shellfish and salads. Delicious! The Italian liqueur Frangelico is made from hazelnuts.
The fine flour, from freshly ground nuts, is used in cleansing face masks.
A cure for bed-wetting in Spain is to eat 12 nuts just before going to sleep. It seems to work!
Proteolytic enzymes from the nuts improve the flavour of cheese, through better aging.
Ancient herbalists like Pliny recommended hazelnuts for catarrh and chronic coughs. Culpepper suggested powdering and mixing hazelnuts with honey water for the same purpose.
Hazel wood decoctions were used in veterinary medicine to cure fever in cattle; while the foliage was fed to cows to increase butterfat content in milk production.
Contorted Hazel, is a domesticated from for the garden, that is a series of curls and twisted branches, that are used by florists. It rarely produces hazelnuts, but the squirrels usually get them first.
In winter, the bare branches are eerie and silly, the perfect addition to the backyard collection of the unusual.
European and American Filbert as well as Purple leafed Hazel (C. maxima ‘Purpurea’) are fully hardy to the Edmonton region (zone 3). American Filbert is found throughout southern Manitoba but introduced further west.
Healthy specimens are found at the George Pegg Historic Garden near Glenevis, Alberta.
Hybrid hazelnuts from tissue culture cloning, are creating new crop opportunities in Minnesota and Nebraska. Growers plant their hazel rows on eight or ten foot centers for a machine harvested crop. More information may be obtained from Philip Rutter at badgersett.com.
Dr. Bob Bors at the U. of Saskatchewan has developed hybrid hazelnuts suitable for the Canadian prairies. The first cultivars were available in 2004. Contact bob.bors@usask.ca.
Hazelnut is the second most plentiful nut in the world, so markets are already well developed. Annual production is some 600,000 tons.
The hard, inedible shells have high heating value when burned.
German artist, Wolfgang Laib, makes sculptures from small piles of hazelnut pollen. He prefers working with natural substances like milk, beeswax, and various pollens, including buttercup and hazelnut. Since each catkin contains up to four million grains of pollen, and each bush up to several thousand catkins, there is a lot of pollen.
A Turkish hazel, C. colurna var. jacquemontii, has a chromosome number that is quite variable, making it a good choice for breeders wishing to produce vigorous northern hybrids.
Pure Hazelwood is a Quebec-based company that makes necklaces, bracelets as well as ointments and lotions. Testimonials proclaim help for acid reflux, skin conditions, arthritis, etc from simply wearing the jewelry.
MEDICINAL
CONSTITUENTS
Leaves- up to 5% tannins including catechins, flavanoid, 2.58%; including myricitrin 1.35%, and quercitrin, 0.3-0.4%; taraxerol, b-sitosterol, essential oils, glycosides, ferric oxide and sugars. Leaf protein is over 14%, with a nitrogen/sulphur ratio of 14:1; iron (118 ppm), moderate zinc, calcium and boron, and very high manganese content (373 ppm). Italian hazel leaves contain up to 237mcg/gram dry weight of alpha tocopherol.
Meat- 60% fatty oils, protein , vitamin E, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, carotene, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, and copper, gallic acid, p-hydroxyl benzoic acid, caffeic acid (epicatechin) sinapic acid, nontocopherol, enzymes and quercetin, boron as calcium fructoborate, ellagic acid, 121 mg/100 grams of phytosterols, composed mainly of beta sitosterol in levels similar to ground flaxseed.
Hull- protocatechuic acid
Bark- lignoceryl alcohol, betulin, and sitosterol; tannins and organic acids; as well as various flavonoids including kaempferol, quercitin, myricetin, afzelin, quercitrin, and myricitrin, pollen- guanosine (C10N13N5O5) and n-triacosan.
Hazelnut milk is very good for those suffering from coughs and colds. The Chinese use hazelnut milk for those with weak spleen or stomach, frequent diarrhea, loss of weight, and who tire easily.
Eating hazelnuts before bedtime helps ease restlessness, irritability, anxiety and insomnia, due to the rich stores of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus.
Studies by Yuritas et al, in the Journal of Food Science, 2000 65:2 indicate that hazelnuts contain non-tocopherol phenolics with anti-oxidant activity. Oliveira et al, Food Chem Tox 2008 46:5 found extracts exhibit anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial properties against gram positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus species.
Ethanol extracts of the seed clusters and leaves show activity against S. aureus. Borchardt et al, J Med Plants Res 2008 2:5.
Shahidi et al, J Ag Food Chem 2007 55 found antioxidant activity in skin, hard shell, green leafy cover and tree leaves all higher than the kernel itself, suggesting great byproduct potential.
Hazelnuts are a rich source of vitamin E, necessary for reproductive health.
Hazelnuts are also the perfect heart food, helping ensure that the blood vessels remain flexible and blood pressure is reduced.
Circulation is improved, helping those who suffer from cold hands and feet.
Hazelnuts are high in protein and fasts, and low in starch and sugar, making them useful for those suffering blood sugar problems. The nuts are also extremely rich in boron, at 2.72 mg/100 grams. Boron is a very important mineral in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, by playing a key role in controlling calcium excretion and retention.
Hazelnuts are rich in copper, a key mineral in the creation of superoxide dismutase that disarms free radicals that damage cholesterol and other fats. One ounce of hazelnuts supplies 41% of RDI of copper.
Calcium fructoborate, the organic form present in hazelnuts, helps reduce pain associated with osteoarthritis and bone health in general. It is available as an odorless soluble white powder that can be used in beverages, nutritional food bars and meal replacement products. VDF Futureceuticals have a patented form, FruiteX-B, on the market. According to their literature, the product “increases blood levels of vitamin D in individuals suffering from a deficiency, optimizes calcium, magnesium and phosphorus metabolism and improves mental functions such as eye-hand coordination, attention, perception and memory”.
A 50/50 mixture of defatted hazelnut and pea flour possesses protein quality similar to casein from milk.
Hazelnuts contain up to 66 mg/100 gram of ellagic acid. Ellagic acid prevents the activation of carcinogenic substances into cellular toxins, which lose their ability to react with DNA and induce mutations capable of triggering cancer growth. It increases the cells’ capacity to defend itself from toxic aggression by activating its own detoxifying action. It has recently been found to inhibit VEGF and PDGF, two proteins associated with inhibiting angiogenesis, thus denying cancer cells the blood supply they require to survive.
The leaves are diuretic and useful for varicose veins and circulatory problems, usually as a hot infusion, or fluid extract. The hot leaves can be poulticed as a vein tonic, the astringency helping to shrink the tissues.
Externally, the leaves can be decocted and added to baths for hemorrhoids and slow healing wounds.
Studies conducted in Sweden in 1995, indicated that hazelnut plant water extracts exhibited both prostaglandin inhibition and platelet activating factor; proving that the traditional usage for anti-inflammatory activity has a basis in scientific fact.
Anti-oxidant and strong free radical scavenger activity was isolated from flavonoids in related hazel leaves (C. colurna). In the study, conducted by Benov and colleagues in Bulgaria, the leaf flavonoids were found to be strong inhibitors of ischeameia/reperfusion-induced peroxidation in both the brain and liver.
This combined with low toxicity and easily isolated flavonoids, makes further study important and essential.
Hazel leaves, standardized for proanthocyanidin content, may be used in a manner similar to pine bark. Leaf and bark extracts are used for varicose veins and phlebitis.
Further work by Rusu et al, reported in Phytotherapy Research, 1999 13 2 found leaves of Hazelnut (C. avellana) provided hepatoprotective effect against acetominophen-induced liver damage and toxicosis in lab studies.
This appears to confirm some of the traditional usage of the leaf fluid extract for vaso-constriction.
Hazelnut hull extracts possess anti-oxidant activity similar to synthetics such as BHT and BHA. Moure et al, J Ag Food Chem, 2000 48:9.
The burrs or husks can be infused and the water used as a retention enema for hemorrhoids.
Hazel pollen is one of the original eight plant pollens in a well-known prostate health product called Cernilton.
Dr. Larry Daley, in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University has been exploring the potential of taxol in hazelnuts.
Paclitaxel is the active ingredient in the anticancer drug Taxol, a taxane fround in yew trees of the Taxus species. Taxol, as a drug, has been approved for the treatment of ovarian and breast cancers, as well as non-small cell lung cancer.
It may also be of possible benefit in psoriasis, polycystic kidney disease, Multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimers disease.
Recent research of the St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto indicates that paclitaxel may also have application in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
Micellar paclitaxel, which is a soluble form, appears to curb an enzyme that damages the myelin sheath. When damaged, it is harder for nerves to transmit signals to the rest of the body. No tests have been conducted on hazelnut twig extracts, but considering the relative safety would be worth a trial.
Hazelnut contains paxlitaxel in both the twigs and leaves; as well as kernels and shells of the nut.
Various fungal endophytes isolated from the leaves and bark are able to make paclitaxel, setting the stage for cell culture.
What I find most exciting is another natural product that could be part of preventative herbal teas or products, growing wild all across northern Canada.
The recovery of paclitaxel from hazelnut tissues is 10% or less than Pacific yew, but without the toxic components in the latter.
The discovery of taxanes in differentiated and undifferentiated hazelnut tissue, leading to new sources of paciltaxel. Miele et al, Phytochem Reviews 2012 11:1.
Recent work by Zobel and Schellenberger, Pharmaceutical Biology 2000 38:3 found that paclitaxel, when combined with coumarin was able to be used in much higher amounts for treating cancer without extreme clastogenic effects. This raises some interesting possibilities in the herbal world, combining hazelnut paxitaxel with coumarin rich plants such as angelica root, cow parsnip, caraway, dill, lomatium, sweet cicely, and the like.
Work by Ottaggio et al, J Nat Prod 2008 71:1 identified different taxanes in the leaf and shell, including paclitaxel, 10-deacetylbaccatin III, baccatin III, paclitaxel C and 7-epipaclitaxel. Leaf extracts are highest in content of taxanes that inhibit metaphase to anaphase in human tumor cell lines.
Suspension-cultured hazel cells increase taxol production in presence of phenylalanine. The cytotoxic effects of the hazel cell extracts were even stronger than pure Taxol. Bemani E et al, J Nat Med 2013 7(3): 446-51.
As a general rule, the bark is best for fevers, the leaf as a depurative and the catkin as a sudorific.
Hazelnut and soybean allergies may play a role in nighttime bedwetting in children, based on a recent British study.
Hazelnut pollen creates acute allergic response in some individuals. Data suggests the intake of gastric anti-ulcer drugs may lead to induction of immediate type food hypersensitivity toward hazelnut.
GEMMOTHERAPY
Hazelnut tree bud (C. avellana)
The new, spring buds are first and foremost anti-fibrotic; and restore elasticity to the lungs. This makes them useful in treating emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis.
The buds also have a pronounced effect on liver tissue, and are indicated in more severe hepatic insufficiency, and the arthritis that can accompany it.
It is useful for circulatory insufficiency and cases of neuro-vegetative imbalance.
DOSE- 1D of glycerin macerate. Twenty to thirty drops up to three times daily.
NUT OIL
CONSTITUENTS- 70-84% oleic, and minor amounts of linoleic (10-20%), palmitic (3-8%), stearic (1-4%), alpha linolenic acid (<1.5%), and myristic fatty acids, corylin, melibiose, raffinose, and stachyose. The nuts contain over 56% oil; of which 4.8-8.4% is saturated fatty acids.
Cold pressed hazelnut oil is believed first extracted during the Bronze Age. It has the lowest fat content of any nut and contains sizable quantities of Vitamin E. After pressing, the oil is left in vats for one week, to allow sediment to settle. One litre is produced from 2.5 kilos of nuts. The seed meal (19% protein) left over can be substituted up to 40% for soybean meal in egg laying feed for hens.
Like canola oil, it contains a large percentage of mono-saturated fats.
When rabbits were fed a high cholesterol diet all the risk factors began to present, and when hazelnut oil was added to the diet, not only did the levels of oxidized lipids, LDL, and VLDL drop, so did the number of atherosclerotic lesions that had formed in their aortas.
Its true value in cooking is for salad dressings and sauces; as well as nutty cakes. This oil will give your popcorn a buttery taste without the butter.
The oil is very gentle, but effective, in cases of threadworm or pinworm in babies and young children. It is used in Quebec to this day for toothache.
The oil is slightly astringent, and perfect for oily or combination skin in cosmetic care. It also helps acne, dermatitis and seborrheic eczema.
Hazelnut is more easily absorbed than most oils, making it ideal for facial application, as well as a carrier for varicose vein treatment.
Hazelnut oil is used in perfumes and making of soaps; and when rancid for machine lubrication and old watch springs.
Culpepper suggested its use for cold afflictions of the nerves, and gout of the knees.
Hazelnut oil can be modified into structured lipids for use as a human milk fat substitute in baby formulas. Sahin et al, J Ag Food Chem, 2005 53.
From 1971-1982, over 1075 hectares of hazelnut plantations were established in Russia. New hybrids have greater hardiness, earlier maturity and higher yields. There is economic potential in the northern plains that is largely ignored at present.
Specific gravity of the oil is 0.917, with a saponification value of 190-197, and iodine value of 84-90.
ESSENTIAL OIL
Dry Hazelnut (C. avellana) leaves are steam distilled and yield .0425% of a spicey, odorous oil. It contains about 18% palmitic acid and paraffin that melts at 50 degrees C.
Hazelnut absolute is made from the nut by solvent extraction. It is useful in the food and beverage industry, finding a place in baked goods, candies and liqueurs.
Early German settlers used the oil distilled from small hazel branches as a remedy for falling evil (epilepsy), by taking a few drops in linden blossom water. A few drops of oil on some cotton was also used for toothaches; while a few drops in several tablespoons of centaury water was said to kill worms and drive them out with the stool.
HYDROSOL
The young soft shells are trampled and distilled on mid-summers day and anointed on hands and arms when they are scabbed. BRUNSCHWIG
HOMEOPATHY
Hazelnut (C. avellana) is indicated for calming influence in stressful situations, particularly when important decisions have to be made.
Indolence, desire to be lazy, thirst for action, delusion of being old, irritability about trifles, dreams of cats, tigers, erotic, forest or being watched.
Those who have trouble with criticism, who bear pain in heart from always being found at fault.
To rekindle the spark crushed by the rat race of ambition and competition. Remedy for children who are under pressure at school.
Toothache as if from electricity. Allergic reaction to animal dander.
DOSE- 30C potency. Proving reported in the New Materia Medica by Colin Griffith. Peter Alex proved six females and eight males at 12c, 30c, and 200c in 2004. A meditative proving by Evans is also included.
FLOWER ESSENCES
Hazelnut flower essence is the antidote for loneliness. Spiritually, there is often need for a time of loneliness and solitude.
Many individuals isolate themselves, in attempts to protect their fragile hold on reality.
Hazelnut flower essence strengthens one's desire to be part of the world, and protect onefrom the need to succumb to the influence of other people who need to"show the way".
The road less traveled does make all the difference. PRAIRIE DEVA
Crazy Filbert (C. avellana 'contorta') essence assists us in releasing a dislike and helps us see that there is no need to hold on to negative emotion. The essence also brings us understanding of the underlying emotion that may create this dislike. FALLING LEAF
Davy Filbert (C. avellana “daviana”) essence is for those who are obsessive about improving their physical appearance with makeup, beauty treatments, cosmetic surgery, exercise programs, etc. The essence releases the underlying self-rejection that drives this obsession. FALLING LEAF
Hazel flower essence is for intuitive or creative blockage; or when you need to concentrate on your gifts and talents. It helps bring ideas to the surface through meditation, poetry and divination. OGAM
Essence of Hazel flowers is used to assist “the flowering of skills”. It aids the ability to receive, process and communicate wisdom, and the ability to take in information and helps all forms of study, bringing stability and focus to the integration of useful information.
This debris is released from the soles of feet, so when taking it try walking barefoot in the grass…to release it back into nature. OLIVE
Hazel flower essence is for helping reconnect with skill of old ways, and renewing ancient ways. It helps to ground the skill and idea. BRYNEHERB
PERSONALITY TRAITS
The Gods took pity and sent the two sons of Zeus (Jupiter), Apollo and Mercury (Hermes) down to the earth with gifts. Mercury gave Apollo a tortoise shell from which to make a lyre, and received in exchange a hazel rod which had the power to inspire with a love of virtue, and to reconcile hearts divided by hatred and envy.
Apollo sang of eternal wisdom and the gentle influence of charity towards all men. Then Mercury touched all with the wand given to him by Apollo. He set free their tongues and taught them to express thought in words. He told them that nothing could be obtained from the earth without mutual aid. This hazel wand, decorated with two light wings and surrounded by serpents, is the Caduceus, still the symbol of healing, given to the god of eloquence by the god of harmony to bring peace and reconciliation. POWELL
The Haselwurm, a white serpent with a golden crown, was believed to live under a very old hazel tree…This mysterious serpent is connected to the archaic brain stem, including the entire limbic system, which appears in the minds of those deep in meditation (the crowned snake-head). The instincts are anchored here in this most ancient part of the nervous system. Sexuality, fertility, premonitions and emotions have the physiological basis here as well. The hazel is able to transmit subtle impulses to the center. MULLER-EBELING
There are wood of the same family that are infected with a fungus that persuades the Corylus species to produce taxanes, an anticancer drug of immense importance in breast cancer and other reproductive cancer treatment.
BERESFORD-KROEGER
MYTHS AND LEGENDS
A man sat on the shore of a lake cracking hazelnuts. He cracked them with a small stone on a big stone. He found a little nut that was hard to hold and as he struck it, it bounded off into the sand. He picked it up and struck it again, and a second time it sprang away. "You are brave", said the man as he picked it up. "but I'll break you anyway". This time the nut leaped far into a grassy hollow and the man couldn't find it.
Some nights later a little Indian boy was searching in the moonlight for his guardian spirit. He heard a tiny voice from the grass say, "Boy, look at me." The boy separated the grass at his feet and there was a little hazelnut. "I am your guardian spirit", said the nut, " and I can give you strength. Do as I bid you and you will have my power. An enemy may catch and try to hold you but you can spring from his grasp and disappear." The boy told no one. But he carried the nut in his pocket and listened to its directions. Soon the Indians noticed that he had strange powers. In time he became chief of his tribe and a great warrior with the help of the hazelnut. GUILLET
In olden days the shepherds picked long, leafy branches of hazelnut trees in spring. They held these up or tied them around their faces to make disguises. Then, on White Friday (nine days before Easter) they went to church and tried to fool their sweethearts. The branches were blessed and after the leaves had dried and fallen off, the shepherds used the sticks to prod and guide their sheep for the remainder of the year. The next spring they repeated the process.
PALLOWSKI
MacColl, which means “son of the hazel”, was one of three brothers, the last of the godlike race, the Tuatha De Danaan, who once ruled Old Ireland. MacColl and MacCeacht, son of the plow, and Mac Greine, son of the sun, were married to three ancient goddesses, Banbha, Eire, and Fodhla. The great Irish hero, Finn MacColl, also bears the name of the sacred tree. Legend tells that his Druid master captured the Salmon of Wisdom and planned to eat it to gain knowledge of all that was happening in Ireland.
While preparing the dish for his master, Finn burst a blister on the side of the cooking salmon with his thumb. To soothe the pain, he put his burned thumb in his mouth and thus Finn received the fish’s gift in place of his master.
GIFFORD
VICTORIAN FLOWER ORACLES
UPRIGHT- Reconciliation with a person or specific situation is close at hand. While the clouds may have loomed for quite some time, new information is going to allow people to reconsider harsh words or judgments. While you may have felt somewhat persecuted, an apology is definitely in sight if you can be patient. When it comes, try and accept it graciously and allow forgiveness to become a healing salve.
REVERSED- A difficult situation is about to get worse. The feeling behind this card is that no matter what you say or do, it seem to get garbled and tempers burn fierce.
The counsel of this card is to know when you can speak effectively and when to remain still. Sometimes in the quiet we find our greatest answers...you may not have been listening to your own best advisor: your heart.
TELESCO
RECIPES
HAZELNUT EYEWASH- Take 6 large fresh leaves and cover with one litre of water. Bring to boil, turn down to simmer for twenty minutes. Remove from heat, strain and cool. Refrigerate, and use within one week in a sterile eyecup.
Freeze as ice cubes, to store for longer.
HAZELNUT MILK- Take 500 grams of kernels, equal sugar and one litre of water. Grind into a pulp and then simmer. Drink two large soupspoons full morning and evening.
HEARTBURN TEA- Combine one part coltsfoot leaf with four part hazelnut catkins and two parts pineapple weed. Steep in boiling water when still warm, and drink after meals.
LOW SPERM COUNT- Take hazel catkins, a third as much stonecrop, a fourth as much bindweed as stonecrop, and a bit of common pepper. HILDEGARD
DIVINING- To look for hidden water, grip a fork in each hand and pull them apart until you feel pressure. Focus your intent on water (or whatever you are searching for), and you will feel the stick bend back and turn as you pass over the source. Buried treasure, and various mineral sources can also be divined, and up to the 17th century, was used in England to determine guilt in cases of murder and theft.
COLD PRESSED OIL- Take one tablespoon every morning on an empty stomach for 15 days; for intestinal worms.