Astragalus (Astragalus membranaceus)

Common names: Huang qi

Parts used and where grown: Astragalus is native to Northern China and the elevated regions of the Chinese provinces Yunnan and Sichuan. The portion of the plant used medicinally is the four to seven year old dried root collected in the spring. While there are over 2,000 types of astragalus worldwide, the Chinese version has been extensively tested, both chemically and pharmacologically.1

In what conditions might astragalus be supportive?

Alzheimer’s disease chemotherapy support common cold/sore throat immune function infection

Historical or traditional use: Shen Nung, the founder of Chinese herbal medicine, classified astragalus as a superior herb in his classical treatise Shen Nung Pen Tsao Ching (circa A.D. 100). The Chinese name huang qi translates as Òyellow leader,Ó referring to the yellow color of the root and its status as one of the most important tonic herbs. Traditional Chinese medicine utilized this herb for night sweats, deficiency of chi (e.g., fatigue, weakness, and loss of appetite), and diarrhea.2

Active constituents: Astragalus contains numerous components, including flavonoids, polysaccharides, triterpene glycosides (e.g. astragalosides I&endash;VII), amino acids, and trace minerals.3 Research conducted by the M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas, confirms this herbÕs immune-potentiating actions. Astragalus appears to restore T-cell (a specific type of white blood cell that is part of the lymphocyte family) counts to relatively normal ranges in some cancer patients.

How much should I take? Textbooks on Chinese herbs recommend taking 9-15 grams of the crude herb per day in decoction form. A decoction is made by boiling the root in water for a few minutes and then brewing the tea. Supplements typically contain 500 mg of astragalus. Two to three tablets or capsules or 3-5 ml of tincture three times per day are often recommended.

Are there any side effects or interactions? Astragalus has no known side effects when used as recommended.

References:

1.Leung AY, Foster S. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics,2d ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996, 50&endash;3. 2.Foster S, Chongxi Y. Herbal Emissaries: Bringing Chinese Herbs to the West. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 1992, 27&endash;33.
3.Shu HY. Oriental Materia Medica: A Concise Guide. Palos Verdes, CA: Oriental Healing Arts Press, 1986, 521&endash;3.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Asafetida Botanical: Ferula foetida (REGEL.)

Family: N.O. Umbelliferae

—Synonyms—Food of the Gods. Devil’s Dung.

—Part Used—An oleogum-resin obtained by incision of root.

—Habitat—Afghanistan and Eastern Persia.

—Description—A coarse umbelliferous plant growing up to 7 feet high, large fleshy root covered with bristly fibres, has been for some time successfully cultivated in Edinburgh Botanical Gardens; stem 6 to 10 feet, numerous stem leaves with wide sheathing petioles; flowers pale greeny yellow, fruit oval, flat thin, foliaceous, reddish brown with pronounced vittae, it has a milky juice and a strong foetid odour; was first found in the sandy desert of Aral in 1844, but has been known since the twelfth century. Several species of Ferula yield Asafetida. The bulk of the drug comes from the official plant, which is indigenous to Afghanistan and grows from two to four thousand feet above sealevel. These high plains are arid in winter but are thickly covered in summer with a luxuriant growth of these plants. The great cabbage-like folded heads are eaten raw by the natives. June is the month the juice is collected from plants about four years old. The roots of plants which have not flowered are exposed and slashed, then shaded from the sun for five or six weeks and left for the gummy oleoresin to leak out and harden. It is then scraped off in reddish lumps and put into leather bags and sent to Herat, where it is adulterated before being placed on the market. The fruit is sent to India for medicinal use. A very fine variety of Asafetida is obtained from the leaf bud in the centre of the root, but this does not come into European commerce, and is only used in India, where it is known in the Bazaars as Kandaharre Hing. It appears in reddish-yellow flakes and when squeezed gives out an oil.

—Constituents—Its chief constituent is about 62 per cent of resin, 25 per cent. of gum and 7 per cent oil. The drug also contains free ferulic acid, water, and small quantities of various impurities.

—Medicinal Action and Uses—The odour of Asafetida is stronger and more tenacious than that of the onion, the taste is bitter and acrid; the odour of the gum resin depends on the volatile oil. It is much used in India and Persia in spite of its offensive odour as a condiment and is thought to exercise a stimulant action on the brain. It is a local stimulant to the mucous membrane, especially to the alimentary tract, and therefore is a remedy of great value as a carminative in flatulent colic and a useful addition to laxative medicine. There is evidence that the volatile oil is eliminated through the lungs, therefore it is excellent for asthma bronchitis, whooping-cough, etc. Owing to its vile taste it is usually taken in pill form, but is often given to infants per rectum in the form of an emulsion. The powdered gum resin is not advocated as a medicine, the volatile oil being quickly dissipated.

—Dosages and Preparations—Emulsion, Asafetida 4 parts, water 100 parts. Tincture, 1/2 to 1 fluid drachm. In pills, 3 grains of the oleogum-resin to a pill

—Adulterants—Asafetida is admittedly the most adulterated drug on the market. Besides being largely admixed with inferior qualities of Asafetida, it has often red clay, sand, stones and gypsum added to it to increase the weight.

—Other Species—The Thibetan Asafetida (Narthex Asafetida) is closely allied to the Ferulas. The umbels have no involucre, the limb of the calyx is suppressed, the stylopods depressed and cup-shaped, styles recurved, fruit compressed at back, dilated at margin. This variety produces some of the Asafetida used in commerce.

Scorodosma foetida, another gigantic umbelliferous plant found on the sandy steppes of the Caspian, also supplies the market. The Persian Sagapenum, or Serapinum, a species of Ferula which was formerly imported from Bombay, is in appearance very similar to Asafetida, but does not go pink when freshly fractured, and in smell is less disagreeable than Asafetida. This species is an ingredient of Confection Rutea, British Pharmacopceia Codex.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Arrowroot Maranta arundinaceae (LINN.)

Family: N.O. Marantaceae

Synonyms Indian Arrowroot. Maranta Indica. Maranta ramosissima. Maranta Starch or Arrowroot. East or West Indian Arrowroot. Araruta. Bermuda Arrowroot.
Part Used The fecula or starch of the rhizome.
Habitat Indigenous in the West Indian Islands and possibly Central America. Grows in Bengal, Tava. Philippines, Mauritius. Natal. West Africa.

Description—The name of the genus was bestowed by Plumier in memory of Bartommeo Maranto (d. 1559, Naples), a physician of Venosa in Basilicata. The popular name is a corruption of the Aru-root of the Aruac Indians of South America, or is derived from the fact that the plant is said to be an antidote to arrow-poison.

The product is usually distinguished by the name of the place from which it is imported. Bermuda Arrowroot was formerly the finest, but it is now rarely produced, and the name is applied to others of high standard.

It was introduced into England about 1732 though it will only grow as a stove plant, with tanners’ bark. The plant is an herbaceous perennial, with a creeping rhizome with upward-curving, fleshy, cylindrical tubers covered with large, thin scales that leave rings of scars. The flowering stem reaches a height of 6 feet, and bears creamy flowers at the ends of the slender branches that terminate the long peduncles. They grow in pairs. The numerous, ovate, glabrous leaves are from 2 to 10 inches in length, with long sheaths often enveloping the stem.

The starch is extracted from rhizomes not more than a year old. They are washed, pulped in wooded mortars, stirred in clean water, the fibres wrung out by hand, and the milky liquor sieved, allowed to settle, and then drained. Clean water is again added, mixed, and drained, after which the starch is dried on sheets in the sun, dust and insects being carefully excluded. The starch yield is about one-fifth of the original weight of the rhizomes. It should be odourless and free from unpleasant taste, and when it becomes mouldy, should be rejected. It keeps well if quite dry. The powder creaks slightly when rubbed, and feels firm. Microscopical examination of the starch granules is necessary for certainty of purity. Potato starch, which corresponds in chemical and nutritive qualities, is sometimes substituted, but it has a somewhat unpleasant taste, and a test with hydrochloric acid brings out an odour like French beans. Sago, rice and tapioca starches are also found occasionally as substitutes.

The jelly is more tenacious than that of any other starch excepting Tous-les-mois.

Arrowroot is often used simply in the form of pudding or blanc-mange. The roots could be candied like Eryngo.

–Constituents—An 1887 analysis of the root of the St. Vincent Arrowroot gave starch 27.17 per cent, fibre, fat, albumen, sugar, gum, ash, and 62.96 per cent water. Of the starch was given: starch 83’70 per cent., fibre, fat, sugar, gum, ash and sand, and water 15.87 per cent.

The official granules, according to Pereira, are ‘rarely oblong, somewhat ovate-oblong, or irregularly convex, from 10 to 70 microns in diameter, with very fine lamellae, a circular hilium which is fissured in a linear or stellate manner.’

—Medicinal Auction and Uses—Arrowroot is chiefly valuable as an easily digested, nourishing diet for convalescents, especially in bowel complaints, as it has demulcent properties. In the proportion of a tablespoonful to a pint of water or milk, it should be prepared by being first made into a smooth paste with a little cold milk or water, and then carefully stirred while the boiling milk is added. Lemon-juice, sugar, wine, or aromatics may be added. If thick, it will cool into a jelly that usually suits weaning infants better than other farinaceous foods.

It is said that the mashed rhizomes are used for application to wounds from poisoned arrows, scorpion and black spider bites, and to arrest gangrene.

The freshly-expressed juice, mixed with water, is said to be a good antidote, taken internally, for vegetable poisons, such as Savanna.

—Other Species—

Maranta ramosissima is the M. arundinaceae of the East
M. allouya and M. nobilis are also West Indian species. The term arrowroot is applied to other starches.
BRAZILIAN ARROWROOT, or Tapioca Meal, is obtained from Manihot utilissima (bitter) and M. palmata (sweet) . It is also called Bahia Rio, or Para-Arrowroot. See MANDIOCA.

TAHITI ARROWROOT is from Tacca oceanica (pinnatifida). It is a favourite article of diet in the tropics, being found in the Sandwich and South Sea Islands, and is said to be the best arrowroot for dysentery.

EAST INDIAN ARROWROOT is from Curcuma augustifolia, or longa.

TOUS-LES-MOIS is from Canna edulis and C. achiras, of the West Indies, called Indian Shot, from their hard, black seeds, used as beads, and Balisier, from the use of their leaves for packing, in Brazil.; OSWEGO ARROWROOT, used in America, is from Zea Mays, Indian Corn. ;MEXICAN ARROWROOT is from the seeds of Dion edule. ;CHINESE ARROWROOT is said to be from the tubers of Nelumbium speciosum. ;PORTLAND ARROWROOT was formerly obtained from Arum maculatum, but it was acrid and not very satisfactory.; M. dichotoma has stems used, when split, for making shade mats in India.

M. Malaccensis has poisonous roots used as an ingredient in a Borneo arrow-poison.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Arnica (Arnica montana)
Compositae Composite family

Parts Usually Used: Flowers, rootstock

Description of Plant and Culture

Arnica is a perennial plant; the horizontal, brown, branched rootstock sends up a slightly hairy, simple or lightly branched stem that reaches a height of 1-2 feet. Basal leaves are oblong-ovate and short-petioled; upper leaves are smaller and sessile. Each plant has 1 to 9 large, yellow, daisy-like flowerheads, 2-2 1/2 inches wide, whose rays are notched on the outer tips. The flowers appear from June to August.

Arnica is also commonly called leopard’s bane. The arnica plant has a bright yellow, daisy-like flower that blooms around July. Preparations made from the flowering heads have been used in homeopathic medicine for hundreds of years. It is popular in Germany and over 100 drug preparations are made from the plant. Arnica is a perennial that is protected in parts of Europe.

Medicinal Properties: Diaphoretic, diuretic, emollient, expectorant, stimulant, vulnerary

The active components in arnica are sesquiterpene lactones, which are known to reduce inflammation and decrease pain. Other active principals are thymol (an essential oil), flavonoids, inulin, carotenoids and tannins.

Arnica works by stimulating the activity of white blood cells that perform much of the digestion of congested blood, and by dispersing trapped, disorganized fluids from bumped and bruised tissue, joints and muscles.

Uses: Arnica is used externally mostly. Used as a salve or tincture, helps heal wounds, bruises, arthritis, and irritations. Only very dilute solutions of the tincture should be used (the herb can cause blistering and inflammation). Used as a poultice but not often. Native Americans used the ointment for stiffened, cramped muscles, poor appetite, hair loss, and arnica tincture to open wounds and gashes, sprains. It is typically rubbed on the skin to soothe and heal bruises, sprains, and relieve irritations from trauma, arthritis and muscle or cartilage pain. Applied as a salve, arnica is also good for chapped lips, irritated nostrils and acne.

Arnica is known to stimulate blood circulation and can raise blood pressure, especially in the coronary arteries. The plant is used externally for arthritis, burns, ulcers, eczema and acne. It has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory qualities that can reduce pain and swelling, improving wound healing.

Part Used: Extract of the blossoms

Formulas or Dosages: Use professionally prepared remedies when possible.

Infusion: use 1 tsp. dried flowers with 1/2 cup boiling water. Take in 3 equal portions during the day for diaphoretic, diuretic, or expectorant action.

External wash: steep 2 heaping tsp. flowers in 1 cup boiling water. Use cold.

Tincture: use a dilute solution of 1 to 2 tbsp. to a cup of water.

Ointment: heat 1 oz. flowers in 1 oz. olive oil or lard in a water bath (in a double boiler) for a few hours. Strain through several layers of cheesecloth.

Warning: One reference cautions not to use arnica on broken skin. This herb can cause blistering and inflammation. An irritant to the stomach and intestines, can cause serious damage to the heart; and fatalities from poisoning have been reported.

Arnica should not be used for any purpose without medical supervision.

Toxicity: The internal use of Arnica is not suggested. It can cause vomiting, weakness, increased heart rate and nervous disturbances.

Bibliography

American Folk Medicine, by Clarence Meyer, pg., 283.
The Complete Medicinal Herbal, by Penelope Ody, pgs., 130-131, 146-147, 180.
Healing Plants, by Mannfried Pahlow, pgs., 141-142.
The Herb Book, by John Lust, pgs., 101-102, 477, 478, 490, 529.
Earl Mindell’s Herb Bible, by Earl Mindell, pgs., 43-44.
Herb Gardening, compiled by The Robison York State Herb Garden, pgs., 132, 163. I
ndian Herbalogy of North America, by Alma R. Hutchens, pgs., 15-17.
The Nature Doctor, by Dr. H.C.A. Vogel; pgs., 12, 26, 27, 33, 50, 120, 122, 129, 135, 139, 144, 152, 186, 324-325, 349, 358, 384, 395. The Rodale Herb Book, edited by William H. Hylton, pgs., 351-352.
Webster’s New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, Victoria Neufeldt, Editor in Chief, pg., 75.
The Yoga of Herbs, by Dr. David Frawley & Dr. Vasant Lad, pg., 193.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.