Buy poke root or pokeweed for lymph nodes, eczema and more

Buy poke root or pokeweed for lymph nodes, eczema and more

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Phytolacca Americana

Phytolaccaceae (Pokeberry family)

This powerful medicinal plant has a number of regional names: pokeweed, scoke, poocan, garget, pigeonberry, pigeon's blood, poke lettuce, crab root and crab jalape. His Latin name,Phytolacca, refers to the family to which it belongs:phyto, which means plant, andlac, meaning a crimson dye;Americanaspeaks for itself and identifies the species as native. This common perennial grows from Maine to Florida and Mexico and throughout the West except the Dakotas.

Mature poke plants, multi-branched with ruby ​​red stems and stems in late summer, can grow up to three meters tall. Previously, small flowers appear in long, often curved or drooping towers. Each tiny greenish-white, petal-like sepal ripens into a purple-black, fleshy berry. After the frost arrives, it dies back to the ground.

The genus of Poke includes about twenty-five species of coarse herbs, shrubs and tree-like perennials native to the tropics and warm regions. The Brazilian wayPhytolacca dioica, is an evergreen tree that can grow up to sixty feet tall and develop a thick trunk. Two East Asian species,P. acinosaandP. esculenta, are grown as ornamental plants and herbs. American Poke is one of our most robust and long-lasting herbs with many historical and contemporary uses.

Traditional Uses:

American Indians utilized all parts of plants at optimal strength in their specific seasons. All winter long, even all year round, the often huge taproots, fresh or dried, were stamped and wrapped on wounds, tumors, bruises, rheumatic swellings and sore breasts. Poke root has been crucial in many cancer and diabetes treatments.

Poke root tea was used to treat rheumatism, arthritis and other joint diseases; The warm tea was helpful as a skin wash for bruises, swelling and sprains. Many believed that this spring tonic was also an effective preventative medicine.

Young spring shoots of American Poke provided delicious, asparagus-like vegetables for our ancestors and still do for us. If they are only 15 cm high, they are easy to collect and steam as a herb pot. The cooking water should be brought to a boil and drained at least once to remove the dark, bitter elements.

The plant's simple, egg-shaped, alternate leaves emit bright green ink when crushed or crushed. Crushed pokeberries produce one of nature's most brilliant magenta colors. Exciting ranges of inks and dyes come from some of the poke species, but unfortunately they are not sunfast. If not over-dyed, the colors will fade.

Modern applications:

Contemporary herbalists view poking with respect and caution. A tincture of sac root is used in very small quantities as a blood purifier and is also taken to relieve lymphatic congestion and swollen lymph nodes. American pokeweed contains numerous alkaloids and complex chemicals, some of which are quite harmful to the human organism. A pokeweed mitogen is being studied in anti-tumor immunity research because it appears to stimulate cell transformation. Poke root is used in several herbal cancer remedies, including Essiac and Floressence.

Precautions:

The whole plant is poisonous. Never use during pregnancy. Pokeweed sap can cause dermatitis in very sensitive people.

Growth requirements and reproduction:

Poke grows easily from seeds and root cuttings. The main effort is to keep this plant under control in the garden, where it grows like a shrub, towering six to three meters tall from mature roots.

Companions:

Poke grows well with almost anything, especially yarrow and strawberry. It appears to promote the growth of pumpkins.

Take the berries of pokeweed or kokum, squeeze their juice, add it to the same amount of cream and simmer until the consistency of an ointment. If this is used in the early stages of the disease [cancer], it is a safe and easy cure. It should be rubbed in every six or eight hours until it has some effect.

– John Williams, a “celebrated Indian physician,” in his 1828 book New and Valuable Recipes for the Cure of Many Diseases

For sprains and bruises, a bag root was boiled and pureed and applied as a poultice.

– David Williams, Oneida Herbalism, Oneidatown, 1912

Inspired by Cary Heather