FOLKLORE: Many Native Americans used Pleurisy Root; it was one the most important medicines of the Menominee tribe.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION :
Latin Name: Asclepias tuberosa
Alternate Names: Butterfly Weed, Butterfly Milkweed, Immortal, Canada Root, Wind Root, Swallow Wort
Parts Used: Root.
Properties: Anodyne, Antispasmodic, Bronchial Dilator, Carminative, Diaphoretic, Diuretic, Expectorant, Febrifuge, Sudorific.
Internal Uses: Asthma, Bronchitis, Colds, Diarrhea, Dysentery, Emphysema, Fever, Flu, Indigestion, Measles, Pleurisy, Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, Typhoid
Internal Applications: Tea, Tincture, Capsules.
Named after its ability to help reduce the pain and inflammation of the disease pleurisy. It also helps improve lymphatic drainage and relaxes the capillaries. Pleurisy Root is a relaxing diaphoretic that works gradually.
Topical Uses: Wounds
Topical Applications: Poultice on wounds.
Culinary uses: Young shoots, immature seed pods and roots can be cooked as a vegetable.
Energetics: Bitter, Cool
.
Chemical Constituents: Glycosides (asclepiadin), bitters (asclepione), resin, sterol (phytoestrogen), cardenolides, flavonoids (kaempferol, quercitin, rutin).
Contraindications: Do not use during pregnancy. Use only dried root. Large doses or uncooked plant may cause vomiting and diarrhea. A large dose may be emetic and cathartic. Do not use if one has a heart condition.
Comments: The beautiful orange flowers have been made into a yellow dye. Bowstrings were once made from the stalks by some tribal people. Monarch butterflies feed upon this plant, which causes birds that eat the butterflies to vomit afterwards, thus discouraging birds from eating the butterflies.
Cut and sifted. Price is per ounce.
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