Botanical.com Home Page
|
Wild Sarsaparilla
(Aralia nudicaulis LINN.)
Click on graphic for larger image
|
Sarsaparilla, American
Botanical: Aralia nudicaulis (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Araliaceae
---Synonyms---False Sarsaparilla. Wild Sarsaparilla. Shot Bush. Small Spikenard. Wild Liquorice. Rabbit Root.
---Part Used---Root.
---Habitat---Canada to the Carolinas.
---Description---A herbaceous perennial, with large, tortuous, fleshy, horizontal, creeping, long roots, externally yellowy brown, from which grows a large solitary compound leaf. Leaflets oval, obovate, acute, finely serrate. Flower-stem also comes from root, naked, about 1 foot high, terminating in three small many-flowered greenish umbels, no involucres. Fruit a small, black berry the size of elderberry. The root has a sweet spicy taste, and a pleasant aromatic smell.
---Medicinal Action and Uses---Alterative, pectoral, diaphoretic, sudorific. Used as a substitute for Smilax Sarsaparilla is useful in pulmonary diseases and externally as a wash for indolent ulcers and shingles. It is said to be used by the Crees under the name of Rabbit Root for syphilis and as an application to recent wounds. It contains resin, oil, tannin, albumen, an acid, mucilage and cellulose.
Fluid extract, 1/2 to 1 drachm.
[Top]
Common Name Index
A MODERN HERBAL Home Page
Bear in mind "A Modern Herbal" was written with the conventional wisdom of the early 1900's. This should be taken into account as some of the information may now be considered inaccurate, or not in accordance with modern medicine.
© Copyright Protected 1995-2024 Botanical.com
|
