- Botanical Name(s): Avena Sativa
- Parts Used: Seeds
Description: Oats are an erect, annual grass, with elongated flat rough leaves. The seeds are golden in color and spindle-shaped.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Autumn Crocus
- Botanical Name(s): Colchicum autumnale
- Popular Name(s): Autumn Crocus, Colchicum, Meadow Saffron, Naked Ladies
- Habitat: Autumn crocus is found in meadows.
Australian tea tree
- Botanical Name(s): Melaleuca Alternifolia
- Parts Used: Essential oil, the leaf
- Habitat: Native of Australia.
Description: Tea tree is a small tree, growing to a height of 22 feet, with narrow, soft, alternate leaves and yellowish flowers the shape of bottlebrushes. The capsule-like seeds follow the flowers.
Uses: The oil can be used neat on minor wounds and small infections, as well as plantar warts, as well as rubbing it into the scalp to get rid of nits (the eggs of head lice), but for other applications must be diluted in a suitable carrier oil. Wounds and scrapes can be washed out with a mixture to disinfect the area. It also helps to soothe sore muscles and generally fortifies the body.
Atropa Belladonna
- Botanical Name(s): Atropa belladonna
- Popular Name(s): Black Cherry, Deadly Nightshade, Poison Black Cherry
- Parts Used: Leaves, tops and berries
- Habitat: Belladonna is native to Europe, North Africa and Western Asia.
Description: Belladonna is a perennial plant with erect, leafy stem that splits into three branches and attains a height up to 5 feet. Its ovate leaves grow in pairs with uneven sizes and possess dull green colour. The flowers are solitary, bell-shaped and dull brown to dark purple in colour which yield black, shiny berries measuring approximately 1 cm in diameter.
Deadly nightshade is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa. Herba bella dona, or "herb of the beautiful lady" is known for its poisonous effects (belladonna increases heartbeat and can lead to death), like many other plants it is an important and beneficial remedy when used correctly. Belladonna contains atropine used in conventional medicine to dilate the pupils for eye examinations and as an anesthetic. In herbal medicine, deadly nightshade is mainly prescribed to relieve intestinal colic, to treat peptic ulcers and to relax distended organs, especially the stomach and intestine. Deadly nightshade is also used as an anaesthetic in conventional medicine.
Atimadhuram
- Botanical Name(s): Glycyrrhiza Glabra
- Popular Name(s): Licorice, Yashtimadhu, Mulathi, Liquorice, Atimadhuram, Liquorice, Sweet Wood, Sweetwort
- Parts Used: The dried roots are used
- Habitat: It is a native of Mediterranean countries
Asclepias Tuberosa
- Botanical Name(s): Asclepias tuberosa
- Popular Name(s): Butterfly-weed, Swallow-wort, Tuber Root, Wind Root, Orange Milkweed
- Parts Used: Root
- Habitat: Pleurisy Root is found in North America.
- Description: Pleurisy Root is a perennial plant which grows to a height of 1 -2 feet. The leaves are spirally arranged, lanceolate with a length of 5-12 cm and breadth of 2-3 cm. The plant bears clustered orange or yellow flowers. The rootstock is spindle-shaped, has a knotty crown and is slightly but distinctly annulated.
Uses: Pleurisy Root has antispasmodic, diaphoretic, expectorant and carminative properties. It possesses a specific action on the lungs and is effective in all chest complaints. It mitigates the pain and relieves the difficulty of breathing. It is used to cure diarrhoea, dysentery and acute and chronic rheumatism.Pleurisy root is a native of North America. Pleurisy root was long in use by Indians and pioneers. Powdered and mixed into a paste, the root was spread on sores. The Indians of several regions brewed a tea from the leaves to induce vomiting in certain rituals. Both settlers and Indians made a tea from the root to induce perspiration and expectoration in severe respiratory ailments, including pleurisy, whooping cough, and pneumonia. Stronger doses were given as an emetic and purgative. In the 19th century the U.S. Pharmacopeia listed pleurisy root. Although its most specific usage is relieving the pain and inflammation of pleurisy, pleurisy root has other applications. Pleurisy root is useful for hot, dry, and tight conditions in the chest. Pleurisy root promotes the coughing up of phlegm, reduces inflammation, and helps reduce fevers by stimulating perspiration. The root is also taken for chronic diarrhea and dysentery.
Artemisia Vulgaris
- Botanical Name(s): Artemisia vulgaris (LINN.)
- Popular Name(s):Felon Herb, St. John's Plant, Cingulum Sancti Johannis
Description: Mugwort is a shrubby and a tall-growing plant. The stem grows to a height of about 3 feet and its roots are 8 inches long. The leaves are smooth and have a dark green tint on the upper surface. The flowers are in small oval heads and greenish yellow in colour.
Uses: Mugwort leaves are edible, though having a bitter taste. It helps in digestion. It has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and diuretic properties. An infusion of its leaves and flower-tops is used to correct indigestion. It is used in alternative medicine to expel intestinal worms, asthma and sterility. The infusion is used as a gargle also for sore throat.
The mugwort has a large number of uses, and has been traditionally used to treat digestive disorders, and it has also been used as a tonic for various remedies. The mugwort is known to be milder in action than most other species of Artemisia, and this means that long periods of time, in small dosages. The elimination of worms within the body is achieved, and whenever needed, it can be used to be a uterine stimulant, but this idea is in direct opposition to the Chinese concept of using mugwort to prevent miscarriage in a woman, and also to reduce and to stop excessive and heavy menstrual bleeding. The herb is also widely used as an antiseptic, and is known to provide relief in cases of malaria.
Artemisia Absinthium
- Botanical Name(s): Artemisia Absinthium
- Popular Name(s): Green Ginger
- Parts Used: The complete herb
- Habitat: Common Wormwood is found in Europe, Siberia and United States of America.
Description: Common Wormwood is a perennial with leafy stems. Its flowering stem is 2 to 21/2 feet in length, whitish in colour and is covered with fine silky hairs. The leaves are 3 inches long and 1 1/2 inches broad. The flowers are greenish-yellow in colours which bloom from July to October.
Uses: Common Wormwood yields a volatile oil. It is used as tonic, stomachic, febrifuge and as anthelmintic. It is used as a nervine tonic also which is used in falling sickness.
Artemisia Abrotanum
- Botanical Name(s): Artemisia Abrotanum
- Popular Name(s): Wormwood, Absinthium, Green Ginger, Absinthe and Southernwood
- Habitat: Native to Europe, N. Africa and Western Asia.
Description: The plant grows from 2 to 4 feet in height. The numerous flower heads are short-stemmed and hang in a many-flowered panicle. The capitula are small, globular, inclined and 3 to 4 mm wide and almost as long. The bracts are gray, silky-pubescent with a rounded tip. The flowers are yellow and fertile. The fruit is about 1.5 mm long.
Uses: The chief use of Southernwood is as an emmenagogue. It is a good stimulant tonic and possesses some nervine principle. Used for indigestion, especially when due to a deficient quantity or quality of gastric juice. It is a powerful remedy in the treatment of worm infestations, especially roundworm and pinworm. It may also be used to help the body deal with fever and infections. It benefits the body in general.
Arnica Montana
- Botanical Name(s): Arnica Montana
- Popular Name(s): Leopard's Bane, Mountain Tobacco, Mountain Arnica, Common Arnica and Wolfsbane
- Habitat: It is native to Central Europe.
Description: The leaves form a flat rosette, from the center of which rises a flower stalk, 1 to 2 feet high, bearing orange-yellow flowers. The rhizome is dark brown, cylindrical, usually curved, and bears brittle wiry rootlets on the under surface.
Arctium Lappa
- Botanical Name(s): Arctium Lappa
Description: A stout handsome plant, with large, wavy leaves and round heads of purple flowers. The whole plant is a dull, pale green and the stem about 3 to 4 feet and branched, rising from a biennial root. The lower leaves are very large, on long, solid footstalks, furrowed above, frequently more than a foot long heart-shaped and of a gray color.
Apricot Vine
- Botanical Name(s): Passiflora Incarnata
- Popular Name(s): Maypops, Wild Passionflower and Apricot Vine
- Parts Used: Leaves and whole plant
- Description: Passionflower is a perennial climber with deeply lobed, finely toothed leaves, with fragrant lavender to white flowers appearing in summer. Edible fruits follow the flowers of passionflower.
Apocynum Androsaemifolium
- Botanical Name(s): Apocynum androsaemifolium
- Popular Name(s): Catchfly, Flytrap, Honeybloom, Milk Ipecac, Milkweed, Mountain Hemp, Spreading Dogbane, Western Wallflower, Dogbane
- Parts Used: The dried rhizome, roots
- Habitat: Bitterroot is widely found in North America.
Description: Bitterroot is a perennial herb which grows to a height 5 or 6 feet. Its leaves are opposite, roundish to oblong-ovate or ovate, dark green at above and lighter and hairy at the bases. Its flowers are white, tinged with red and grow in terminal cymes.
Uses: Bitterroot has cathartic, diaphoretic, emetic and expectorant properties. It is used as an alterative in rheumatism, syphilis and scrofula. It is used to cure dyspepsia, constipation, fever, gallstones and dropsy.
Apium Graveolens
- Botanical Name(s): Apium Graveolens
- Popular Name(s): Celery, Celery Seeds, Smallage, Garden Celery, Wild Celery, and Marsh Parsely
- Habitat: Grows wild in salty soils of North and South America, Europe and Africa.
Description: It is an aromatic biennial with bulbous fleshy roots and solid grooved stems, pinnate divided leaves, up to 50 cm long. Gray-brown seeds follow umbels of green-white flowers.
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