Juniperus virginiana L.
Source: James A. Duke. 1983. Handbook of Energy Crops. unpublished.
- Folk Medicine
- Yields and Economics
- Biotic Factors
Berries of some cedars have been roasted as substitutes for coffee or tea.
Hemmerly (1970) gives an interesting account of the economic uses: In 1970 the
uses of this species included fence posts, furniture, cedar oil, ornamental
Plantings, Christmas trees, souvenirs, novelties, kindling, shavings, etc.
Plastic bags of cedar shavings were used as bedding for pets. The bark of the
tree is useful as tender in starting fires Boy Scout style. According to
Guenther cedarwood oil comes from Juniperus, but white cedarwood and
cedarleaf oil from Thuja. Cedarwood oil is used in insect repellants,
perfumes and soaps. Cedar chips have been used as moth repellants. The oil
also shows up in furniture polish. Refined oil is used in microscopy.
Chippewa Indians used strips of bark in matting. They used the red inner bark
as a source of a red dye. Widely used for boundary markers, reforestation,
shelterbelt, and wild life plantings.
According to Hartwell (19671971), the powdered leaves are used in folk
remedies for venereal warts and other excrescences. Reported to be
abortifacient, diaphoretic, diuretic, emmenagogue, stimulant, sudorific, and
taenifuge, red cedar is a folk remedy for arthritis, bronchitis, catarrh,
debility, dropsy, rashes, rheumatism, skin ailments, venereal diseases, and
warts (Duke and Wain, 1981). Cedar "apples" (see illustration), the fungal
excrescences of red cedar are used as an anthelmintic. Leaves used as a
stimulant, emmenagogue, and taenifuge. In Appalachia, a mixture of nuts,
leaves, and twigs is boiled and inhaled as a treatment for bronchitis. In New
Mexico, some Spanish-speaking people use a boiled mixture of bark and water to
treat skin rash. Rappahannock used an infusion of the berries with wild ginger
for asthma. Cree used the leaves as diuretic. Powdered leaves used for
venereal warts and excrescences. Dakota, Omaha, Pawnee, and Ponca burned the
twigs and inhaled the smoke for head colds, while patient and fumigant were
enclosed in a blanket. Comanche regarded juniper as depurative; Creek used the
fumes for neck cramps. Cedar decoctions or steam were also used to promote
delivery. Chickasaw heated the limbs with elder in hot water and applied
topically for headache. Chippewa decocted the twigs for rheumatism, Dakota
used for cholera, cold, and cough; Pawnee used juniper smoke for bad dreams and
nervousness, Ojibwa took bruised leaves and berries for headache. Delaware
steamed juniper for rheumatism; Fox decocted the leaves to strengthen
convalescents. Western Indians believed that juniper berry tea taken on three
consecutive and appropriate days was considered contraceptive. Scully relates
that in 18491850 there was an Asiatic cholera among the Teton Dakotas, killing
many of them. After failing with many other medicines, Chief Red Cloud
succeeded with a decoction of red cedar leaves (which does contain germicides).
Oil from the leaves contains borneol, cadinene, d-limonene, and a-pinene
(Guenther, 1948-1952). Hager's Handbuch adds sabinene, g-terpinene,
elemoacetate, 3-carene, myrcene, 4-terpineol, citronellol, elemol, eudesmols,
estragole, safrole, methyleugenol, elemicine, traces of thujene, cymene, and
linalool (List and Horhammer, 19691979). The cedarwood oil contains ca 80%
cedrene, some cedrol and pseudocedrol, and cedrenol. Juniperus
virginiana contains the poisonous antitumor compound called podophyllotoxin
(Lewis and Elvin-Lewis, 1977).
Medium sized tree to 30 m, broadly pyramidical to narrowly columnar. Bark
brown, shredded, short scale leaves in close overlapping pairs, forming 4-sided
twigs; (juvenile leaves are longer, flat, pointed, more distant and in whorls
of 3) leaves vary from yellowish green to bluish green; fragrant. Male cones
34 mm long, on tips of small twigs, shedding pollen as early as January, as
late as March; female cones small, inconspicuous, on tips of short branches,
generally receptive for pollen several days after the cones on male trees have
started shedding pollen; mature as bluish black, glaucous "berries" by
OctoberNovember of first year (Radford et al., 1968).
Reported from the North American Center of Diversity, red cedar, or cvs
thereof, is reported to tolerate acid soils, frost, limestone, poor soils,
sands, and slope (Duke, 1978). (2n = 22)
Southwest Maine, west to Northern New York, Southern Quebec, Ontario, Michigan,
Wisconsin, to Southwest North Dakota, south to West Kansas, Okalahoma to
Central Texas, and east to Georgia, the most widespread and common juniper in
the eastern US.
No specific data available. Estimated to range from Warm Temperate to Boreal
Dry to Moist Forest Life Zones, and to tolerate annual precipitation of 4 to 16
dm and annual temperature of 5 to 13°C. Although said to "prefer"
calcareous soils, it thrives on dry hillsides and in swampy land.
Germination is delayed in most junipers because of embryo dormancy. Cold
stratification for 30120 days at 5°C is commonly recommended. Freezing temperatures during stratification have either arrested
germination in after-ripened seed (for 3 months) or damaged them beyond
germanability. Seeds should be fall-sown or stratified and spring- or
fall-sown. Seeds may be drilled 67 mm deep in rows 1520 cm apart, or
broadcast, and seedlings should be shaded during the first summer. Do not be
alarmed if seedlings turn purple in fall, but be prepared for frost heave.
Fruits may start bearing at age 10, and can be stripped, for seed purposes
thereafter in the fall. Hemmerly (1970) mentions a Shelbyville Lumber Company
in Tennessee for making oil from cedar stumps, then paying only $2/ton for
stumps which were dried, chipped, and pulverized, and then steam-distilled and
condensed with the oil rising to the top. The company was turning out nearly
150 kg oil per day using only three workers.
In 1950, when oil was derived almost exclusively from shavings and refuse from
cedar wood utilization, more than 200 MT oil were produced. Chips and dust
yield 22.5% oil. Following the Civil War, poor farmers along Mississippi
tributaries solidified their fiscal positions by floating cedar logs to New
Orleans where they were cut into staves destined for French wineries. At one
time, red cedar was used for split rail fences, but the value of the wood for
pencils became so high that fences were cut down and sold by the pound
Not a fast grower, trees 2030 years old being only 68 m tall and 57.5 cm in
diameter, this is not a productive firewood species, though the wood burns
well. The residues after oil extraction (or pencil production) should make
excellent fuels, enough to feed the distillation or sawmill.
According to Ag Handbook 271, few insects damage the trees seriously.
Occasionally boring insects feed on living trees and bagworms eat the foliage.
As an alternate host of cedar-apple rust, Gymnosporangium
Juniperi-virginianae, red cedar is the enemy of apple growers. The
following are reported to affect red cedar: Aleurodiscus nivosus,
Botryosphaeria ribis, Caliciopsis nigra, Cenangella deformata, Cercospora
sequoiae var. juniperi, Chloroscypha cedrina, Coccodothis sphaeroidea,
Cytospora cenisia, Daedalea juniperina, D. westii, Dothidella juniperi, Fomes
annosus, F. juniperina, F. pini, F. roseus, F. subroseus, F. texanus,
Gymnosporangium bermudianum, G. clavipes, G. corniculans, G. davisii, G.
effusum, G. exiguum, G. exterum. G. floriforme, G. globosum, G
juniperi-virginianae, G. nidus-avis, G. trachysorum, G. tubulatum, Lenzites
vialis, Lophodermium juniperinum, Macrophoma,juniperina, Pestalotia funerea,
Phomopsis juniperovora, Phymatotrichum omnivorum, Physalospora abdita, P.
cupressi, P. obtusa, Pithya cupressina, Poria pupurea, P. subacida,
Stagonospora pini, Streptothrix spp., Trametes americana, T. carnea, T.
septum, and Valsa cenisia (Browne, 1968; Ag Handbook 165).
Pratylenchus penetrans is one nematode pest. (Golden, p.c., 1984)
Complete list of references for Duke, Handbook of Energy Crops
- Agriculture Handbook 165. 1960. Index of plant diseases in the United States.
- Agriculture Handbook 271. 1965. Silvics of forest trees of the United States.
Forest Service, USDA. USGPO. Washington.
- Browne, F.G. 1968. Pests and diseases of forest plantations trees. Clarendon
- Duke, J.A. 1978. The quest for tolerant germplasm. p. 161. In: ASA Special
Symposium 32, Crop tolerance to suboptimal land conditions. Am. Soc. Agron.
- Duke, J.A. and Wain, K.K. 1981. Medicinal plants of the world. Computer index
with more than 85,000 entries. 3 vols.
- Guenther, E. 19481952. The essential oils. 6 vols. D. van Nostrand Co., Inc.
Toronto, New York, London.
- Hartwell, J.L. 19671971. Plants used against cancer. A survey. Lloydia 3034.
- Hemmerly, T.E. 1970. Economic uses of eastern red cedar. Econ. Bot.
- Lewis, W.H. and Elvin-Lewis, M.P.F. 1977. Medical botany. John Wiley &
Sons, New York.
- List, P.H. and Horhammer, L. 19691979. Hager's handbuch der pharmazeutischen
praxis. vols 26. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
- Radford, A.E., Ahles, H.E., and Bell, C.R. 1968. Manual of the vascular flora
of the Carolinas. UNC Press, Chapel Hill.
Last update Wednesday, January 7, 1998 by aw