Porteranthus stipulatus (Muhl.) Britton (Syn. Gillenia stipulacea Nutt.) is found in similar situations as P. trifoliatus, but generally farther west, its range extending from western New York to Indiana and Kansas, south to Alabama, Louisiana and Indian Territory. The general appearance of this plant is very similar to that of P. trifoliatus. It grows to about the same height, but is generally more hairy, the leaflets narrower and more deeply toothed, and the flowers perhaps a trifle smaller. The stipules, however, will generally serve to distinguish it. These are large, broad, ovate, acute at the apex, sharply and deeply notched and so much like leaves that but for their position at the base of the leaf stems they might easily be mistaken for them.
With the exception of the name American ipecac applied to this plant, the common names of Porteranthus trifoliatus are also used for P. stipulatus. The roots of both species are collected and used for the same purpose.
Description of Roots — The root Porteranthus trifoliatus is thick and knotty, with many smoothish, reddish brown rootlets, the latter in drying becoming wrinkled lengthwise and showing a few transverse fissures or breaks in the bark, and the interior white and woody. There is practically no odor and the woody portion is tasteless, but the bark, which is readily separable, is bitter, increasing the flow of saliva.
Porteranthus stipulatus has a larger, more knotty root, with rootlets that are more wavy, constricted or marked with numerous transverse rings, and the bark fissured or breaking from the white woody portion at frequent intervals.
Collection, Prices and Uses — The roots of both species are collected in autumn. The prices range from 2 to 4 cents a pound.
Indian-Physic or bowman's root, as these names imply, was a popular remedy with the Indians, who used it as an emetic. From them the white settlers learned of its properties and it is still used for its emetic action. This drug was at one time official in the United States Pharmacopoeia, from 1820 to 1880. Its action is said to resemble that of ipecac.
Other Common Names — False sarsaparilla, Virginia sarsaparilla, American sarsaparilla, small spikenard, rabbit's-root, shotbush, wild licorice.
Habitat and Range — Wild Sarsaparilla grows in rich, moist woods from Newfoundland west to Manitoba and south to North Carolina and Missouri.
Description of Plant — This native herbaceous perennial, belonging to the ginseng family (Araliaceae), produces a single, long-stalked leaf and flowering stalk from a very short stem, both surrounded or sheathed at the base by thin, dry scales. The leafstalk is about 12 inches long divided at the top into three parts, each division bearing five oval, toothed leaflets from 2 to 5 inches long, the veins on the lower surface sometimes hairy.
The naked flowering stalk bears three spreading clusters of small, greenish flowers, each cluster consisting of from 12 to 30 flowers produced from May to June, followed later in the season by purplish black roundish berries, about the size of the common elderberries.
Description of Rootstock — Wild Sarsaparilla rootstock has a very fragrant, aromatic odor. Rabbits are said to be very fond of it, whence one of the common names, "rabbit's-root," is derived. The rootstock is rather long, horizontally creeping, somewhat twisted, and yellowish brown on the outside. The taste is warm and aromatic. The dried rootstock is brownish, gray and wrinkled lengthwise on the outside, about one-fourth of an inch in thickness, the inside whitish with a spongy pith. The taste is sweetish and somewhat aromatic.
Collection, Prices and Uses — The root of Wild Sarsaparilla is collected in autumn, and brings from 5 to 8 cents a pound.
This has long been a popular remedy, both among the Indians and domestic practice, and was official in the United States Pharmacopoeia from 1820 to 1880. Its use is that of an alterative, stimulant and diaphoretic and in this it resembles the official sarsaparilla obtained from tropical America.
Similar Species — The American spikehead (Aralia racemosa L.), known also as spignet, spiceberry, Indian-root, petty-morrel, life-of-man and old-man's-root, is employed like Aralia nudicaulis. It is distinguished from this by its taller, herbaceous habit, its much-branched stem from 3 to 6 feet high and very large leaves consisting of thin, oval, heart shaped, double saw-toothed leaflets. The small, greenish flowers are arranged in numerous clusters, instead of only three as in nudicaulis and also appear somewhat later, namely, from July to August. The berries are roundish, reddish brown, or dark purple.
The rootstock is shorter than that of nudicaulis and much thicker, with prominent stem scars, and furnished with numerous, very long, rather thin roots. The odor and taste are stronger than in nudicaulis. It is also collected in autumn, and brings from 4 to 8 cents a pound.
The American spikenard occurs in similar situations as nudicaulis, but its range extends somewhat farther South, Georgia being given as the Southern limit.
The California spikenard (Aralia californica Wats.) may be used for the same purpose as the other species. The plant is larger than Aralia racemosa, but otherwise is very much like it. The root is also larger than that of A. racemosa.
Synonym — Archangelica atropurpurea Hoffn.
Other Common Names — Angelica, purple-stemmed angelica, great angelica, high angelicam, purple angelica, masterwort.
Habitat and Range — American Angelica is a native herb, common in swamps and damp places from Labrador to Delaware and west to Minnesota.
Description of Plant — This strong-scented, tall, stout perennial reaches a height of from 4 to 6 feet, with a smooth, dark purple, hollow stem 1 to 2 inches in diameter. The leaves are divided into three parts, each of which is again divided into threes; the rather thin segments are oval or ovate, somewhat acute, sharply toothed and sometimes deeply cut, and about 2 inches long. The lower leaves sometimes measure 2 feet in width, while the upper ones are smaller, but all have very broad, expanded stalks. The greenish white flowers are produced from June to July in somewhat roundish, many-rayed umbels or heads, which sometimes are 8 to 10 inches in diameter. The fruits are smooth, compressed and broadly oval. American Angelica root is branched, from 3 to 6 inches long, and less than an inch in diameter. The outside is light, brownish gray, with deep furrows, and the inside nearly white, the whole breaking with a short fracture and the thick bark showing fine resin dots. It has an aromatic odor, and the taste at first is sweetish and spicy, afterwards bitter. The fresh root is said to possess poisonous properties.
The root of the European or garden angelica (Angelica officinalis Moench) supplies much of the angelica root of commerce. This is native in northern Europe and is very widely cultivated, especially in Germany, for the root.
Collection, Prices and Uses — The root is dug in autumn and carefully dried. Care is also necessary in preserving the root, as it is very liable to the attacks of insects. American Angelica root ranges from 6 to 10 cents a pound.
American Angelica root, which was official in the United States Pharmacopoeia from 1820 to 1860 is used as an aromatic, tonic, stimulant, carminative, diuretic and diaphoretic. In large doses it acts as an emetic.
The seeds are also employed medicinally.
Other Common Names — Symphytum, healing herb, knitback, ass-ear, backwort, blackwort, bruisewort, gum-plant, slippery-root.
Habitat and Range — Comfrey is naturalized from Europe and occurs in waste places from Newfoundland to Minnesota, south to Maryland.
Description of Plant — This coarse, rough, hairy, perennial herb is from 2 to 3 feet high, erect and branched, with thick, rough leaves, the lower ones ovate lance shaped, 3 to 10 inches long, pointed at the apex, and narrowed at the base into margined stems. The uppermost leaves are lance shaped, smaller and stemless. Comfrey is in flower from June to August, the purplish or dirty white, tubular, bell shaped flowers numerous and borne in dense terminal clusters. The nutlets which follow are brown, shinning and somewhat wrinkled. Comfrey belongs to the borage family (Boraginaceae.)
Description of Root — Comfrey has a large, deep, spindle-shaped root, thick and fleshy at the top, white inside and covered with a thin, blackish brown bark. The dried root is hard, black and very deeply and roughly wrinkled, breaking with a smooth, white, waxy fracture. As it occurs in commerce it is in pieces ranging from about an inch to several inches in length, only about one-fourth of an inch in thickness, and usually considerably bent. It has a very mucilaginous, somewhat sweetish and astringent taste, but no odor.
Collection, Prices and Uses — The root is dug in autumn, or sometimes in early spring. Comfrey root when first dug is very fleshy and juicy, but about four-fifths of its weight is lost in drying. The price ranges from 4 to 8 cents a pound.
The mucilaginous character of Comfrey root renders it useful in coughs and diarrheal complaints. Its action is demulcent and slightly astringent.
The leaves are also used to some extent.
Other Common Names — Inula, inul, horseheal, elf-dock, elfwort, horse-elder, scabwort, yellow starwort, velvet dock, wild sunflower.
Habitat and Range — This perennial herb has been naturalized from Europe, and is found along the roadsides and in fields and damp pastures from Nova Scotia to North Carolina, westward to Missouri and Minnesota. It is a native also in Asia.
Description of Plant — When in flower elecampane resembles the sunflower on a small scale. Like the sunflower, it is a member of the aster family (Asteraceae). It is a rough plant, growing from 3 to 6 feet in height, but producing during the first year only root leaves, which attain considerable size. In the following season the stout densely hairy stem develops, attaining a height of from 3 to 6 feet.
The leaves are broadly oblong in form, toothed, the upper surface rough and the under side densely soft-hairy. The basal or root leaves are borne on long stems, and are from 10 to 20 inches long and 4 to 8 inches wide, while the upper leaves are smaller and stemless or clasping.
About July to September the terminal flower heads are produced, either singly or a few together. As already stated, these flower heads look very much like small sunflowers, 2 to 4 inches broad, and consist of long, narrow, yellow rays, 3 toothed at the apex, and the disk also is yellow.
Description of Root — Elecampane has a large, long, branching root, pale yellow on the outside and whitish and fleshy within. When dry the outside turns a grayish brown or dark brown, and is generally finely wrinkled lengthwise. As found in commerce, elecampane is usually in transverse or lengthwise slices, light yellow or grayish and fleshy internally, dotted with numerous shining resin cells, and with overlapping brown or wrinkled bark. These slices become flexible in damp weather and tough, but when they are dry they break with a short fracture. The root has at first a strongly aromatic odor, which has been described by some as resembling a violet odor, but this diminished in drying. The taste is aromatic, bitterish and pungent.
Collection, Prices, and Uses — The best time for collecting elecampane is in the fall of the second year. If collected later than that the roots are apt to be stringy and woody. Owing to the interlacing habit of the rootlets, much dirt adheres to the root, but it should be well cleaned, cut into transverse or lengthwise slices, and carefully dried in the shade. Collectors receive from 3 to 5 cents a pound for this root.
Elecampane, which was official in the United States Pharmacopeia of 1890, is much used in affections of the respiratory organs, in digestive and liver disorders, catarrhal discharges and skin diseases.
Other Common Names — Gravelroot, Indian gravelroot, joe-pye-weed, purple boneset, tall boneset, kidney root, king-of-the-meadow, marsh-milkweed, motherwort, niggerweed, quillwort, slunkweed, trumpetweed.
Habitat and Range — This common native perennial herb occurs in low grounds and dry woods and meadows from Canada to Florida and Texas.
Description of Plant — The stout, erect, green or purple stem of this plant grows from 3 to 10 feet in height and is usually smooth, simple or branched at the top. The thin, veiny leaves are 4 to 12 inches long, 1 to 3 inches wide, ovate or ovate lance shaped, sharp pointed, toothed and placed around the stem in whorls of three to six. While the upper surface of the leaves is smooth, there is usually a slight hairiness along the veins on the lower surface, otherwise smooth. Toward the latter part of the summer and in early fall queen-of-the-meadow is in flower, producing 5 to 15 flowered pink or purplish heads, all aggregated in large compound clusters which present a rather showy appearance. This plant belongs to the aster family (Asteraceae).
Another species which is collected with this and for similar purposes, and by some regarded as only a variety, is the spotted boneset or spotted joe-pye-weed (Eupatorium maculatum L.) This is very similar to E. purpureum, but it does not grow so tall, is rough-hairy and has the stem spotted with purple. The thicker leaves are coarsely toothed and in whorls of three to five and the flower clusters are flattened at the top rather than elongated as in E. purpureum.
It is found in moist soil from New York to Kentucky, westward to Kansas, New Mexico, Minnesota, and as far up as British Columbia.
Description of Root — Queen-of-meadow root, as it occurs in commerce, is blackish and woody, furnished with numerous long dark-brown fibers, which are furrowed or wrinkled lengthwise and whitish within. It has a bitter, aromatic and astringent taste.
Collection, Prices and Uses — The root is collected in autumn and is used for its astringent and diuretic properties. It was official in the United States Pharmacopeia from 1820 to 1840. The price ranges from 2 1/2 to 4 cents a pound.
Other Common Names — Wild hydrangea, seven-barks.
Habitat and Range — Hydrangea frequents rocky river banks and ravines from the southern part of New York to Florida, and westward to Iowa and Missouri, being especially abundant in the valley of the Delaware and southward.
Description of Plant — Hydrangea is an indigenous shrub, 5 to 6 feet or more in height, with weak twigs, slender leaf stems and thin leaves. It belongs to the hydrangea family (Hydrangeaceae). The leaves are oval or sometimes heart shaped, 3 to 6 inches long, sharply toothed, green on both sides, the upper smooth and the lower sometimes hairy. The shrub is in flower from June to July, producing loose, branching terminal heads of small, greenish white flowers, followed by membranous, usually 2-celled capsules, which contain numerous seeds. Sometimes hydrangea will flower a second time early in fall.
A peculiar characteristic of this shrub and one that has given rise to the common name "seven-barks", is the peeling off of the stem bark, which comes off in several successive layers of thin, different colored bark.
Description of Root — The root is roughly branched and when first taken from the ground is very juicy, but after drying it becomes hard. The smooth white and tough wood is covered with a thin, pale-yellow or light-brown bark, which readily scales off. The wood is tasteless, but the bark has a pleasant aromatic taste, becoming somewhat pungent.
Collection, Prices and Uses — Hydrangea root is collected in autumn and as it becomes very tough after drying and difficult to bruise it is best to cut the root in short transverse pieces while it is fresh and still juicy and dry it in this way. The price ranges from 2 to 7 cents a pound.
Hydrangea has diuretic properties and is said to have been much used by the Cherokees and early settlers in calculous complaints.
Pharmacopeial Name — Berberis.
Other Common Names — Rocky Mountain grape, holly-leaved barberry, California barberry, trailing Mahonia.
Habitat and Range — This shrub is native in woods in rich soil among rocks from Colorado to the Pacific Ocean, but is especially abundant in Oregon and northern California.
Description of Plant — Oregon grape is a low-growing shrub, resembling somewhat the familiar Christmas holly of the Eastern states, and, in fact, was first designated as "mountain-holly" by members of the Lewis and Clark expedition on their way through the western country. It belongs to the barberry family (Berberidaceae), and grows about 2 to 6 feet in height, the branches sometimes trailing. The leaves consist of from 5 to 9 leaflets, borne in pairs, with an odd leaflet at the summit. They are from 2 to 3 inches long and about 1 inch wide, evergreen, thick, leathery, oblong or oblong ovate in outline, smooth and shining above, the margins provided with thorny spines or teeth. The numerous small yellow flowers appear in April or May and are borne in erect, clustered heads. The fruit consists of a cluster of blue or bluish purple berries, having a pleasant taste, and each containing from three to nine seeds.
Other Species — While Berberis aquifolium is generally designated as the source of Oregon grape root, other species of Berberis are met with in the market under the name grape root, and their use is sanctioned by the United States Pharmacopoeia.
The species most commonly collected with Berberis aquifolium is B. nervosa Pursh, which is also found in woods from California northward to Oregon and Washington. This is 9 to 17 inches in height, with a conspicuously jointed stem and 11 to 17 bright-green leaflets.
Another species of Berberis, B. pinnata Lag., attains a height of from a few inches to 5 feet, with from 5 to 9, but sometimes more, leaflets, which are shining above and paler beneath. This resembles aquifolium very closely and is often mistaken for it, but it is said that it has not been used by the medical profession, unless in local practice. The root also is about the same size as that of aquifolium, while the root of nervosa is smaller.
Some works speak of Berberis repens Lindl. as another species often collected with aquifolium, but in the latest botanical manuals no such species is recognized, B. repens being given simply as a synonym for B. aquifolium.
Description of Rootstock — The rootstock and roots of Oregon grape are more or less knotty, in irregular pieces of varying lengths, and about an inch or less in diameter, with brownish bark and hard and tough yellow wood, showing a small pith and narrow rays. Oregon grape root has a very bitter taste and very slight odor.
Collection, Prices and Uses — Oregon grape root is collected in autumn and brings from 10 to 12 cents a pound. The bark should not be removed from the rootstocks, as the Pharmacopoeia directs that such roots be rejected.
This root has long been used in domestic practice thruout the West as a tonic and blood purifier and is now official in the United States Pharmacopoeia.
The berries are used in making preserves and cooling drinks.