The Niobrara River Breaks in Sioux Healing County. Plants of cauterization, bandaging, splints, sucking, enemas, cutting, scraping and suturing.” Though most Native Americans the Prairie knew commonly used plants, only By Gerry Steinauer, Botanist highly trained medicine men and women possessed specific knowledge n a hot July afternoon in Native American of the many other medicinal plants 2010, five members of the Healing Traditions and their uses. This wisdom developed OUniversity of Kansas (KU) over thousands of years of trial-and- Native Medicinal Plant Research Prior to Euroamerican settlement, error use of plants as medicine – some Program scoured the rugged Niobrara Plains Indians (and all other New healing traditions may have arrived River Breaks in Nebraska’s Sioux World peoples) depended on native with the original aboriginal immigrants County. They clipped and bagged the plants for medicine – knowledge from Asia some 13,000 years ago. stems of silver-leaf scurf pea, prairie of the healing powers of plants was The Pawnees, for example, burned the sagewort and other sought-after plants. critical to their survival. In 1932, stems of yarrow and leadplant as short In the riverbottom they dug the deep, anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka wrote in punks on rheumatic joints to relieve sprawling roots of wild licorice from Disease, Medicine and Surgery among pain. Known as moxa, this practice the sunbaked soil. In the KU medicinal the American Aborigines: “In every is commonly used in Asian medicine chemistry lab this plant material would tribe the older women and men knew today, which suggests it originated later be subjected to high-tech analysis scores of herbs … They knew poisons, there. in search of valuable medicinal emetics, cathartics, antifebriles, tonics, Knowledge of medicinal plants and compounds – an effort that continues a narcotics and hemostatics, cleansing healing methods was passed down millennia-long tradition of Great Plains solutions, healing gums, and powders. orally from generation to generation inhabitants seeking healing compounds They had antidotes. They employed of Native Americans. Elders took from prairie plants. massage, pressure, scarification, young disciples afield, teaching them the characteristics and habitats of BY KANSAS BIOLOGICAL SURVEY PHOTO Hillary Loring (left), Quinn Long, Kirsten Bosnak and Kelly Kindscher of the University of Kansas Native Medicinal Plant Research specific plants, the proper time of Program hold the excavated root of wild licorice dug from a meadow in the Niobrara River Valley in Sioux County. harvest, and methods of preservation, preparation and use. The lessons were strove to document the remaining and symbolism.” annual of sandy soils, “was boiled precise, as many plants ingested as knowledge before “the death of all the Gilmore described how the tribes and the decoction drunk by young medicine contained toxins. Locoweeds old people who alone possess it.” used the macerated root of purple mothers whose flow of milk was and some milkvetches, for example, coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia), scanty or lacking, in order to remedy contain potentially toxic alkaloids a prairie wildflower found nearly that condition.” This may be an and selenium, which could be deadly Early Ethnobotany statewide, as an antidote for snakebite example of the “belief in signs,” where if the remedies were not properly In his classic 1919 book Uses of and other venomous bites and characteristics of a plant reveal its prepared or the correct dosage used. Plants by the Indians of the Missouri stings. To ease toothache, a piece potential medical use – spurges have Native Americans’ knowledge of River Region, ethnobotanist Melvin of macerated root was placed on the a white, latex-like sap and therefore herbal medicines perhaps equaled or R. Gilmore described the medicinal, painful tooth – the root contains a were thought suitable for nursing even surpassed that of modern man’s food and utilitarian uses of nearly 150 novocaine-like substance that has mothers in need of increased milk expertise with natural drugs. native plants by the Ponca, Omaha, numbing effects. Gilmore reported that production. Of thyme-leaf spurge, The arrival of Euroamericans on Pawnee, Winnebago and Sioux tribes. a Winnebago “often used the plant to Gilmore wrote: “An Omaha informant the Plains in the mid-1800s brought A Valley, Nebraska, native, Gilmore make his mouth insensible to heat, so said it was used as a remedy in case of foreign diseases, war and displacement earned his doctorate in botany from the that for show he could take a live coal dysentery and abdominal bloating in to reservations. As our aboriginal University of Nebraska in 1919 at the into his mouth.” Purple coneflower children. For this purpose the leaves populations crashed and their cultures age of 46. For his book, an outcome was also used in a smoke treatment for of the plant were dried and pulverized crumbled, a wealth of medicinal plant of his graduate work, he interviewed headaches in people and for distemper and applied after first cross-hatching knowledge was lost. In the late 19th native elders who had gathered and in horses. the skin with the head of a certain th

NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY RG1289.PH2-2 HISTORICAL NEBRASKA STATE and early 20 centuries, ethnobotanists used plants when the tribes still roamed A Ponca informed Gilmore that plant. Then the pulverized leaves were Nebraska ethnobotanist, Melvin R. Gilmore, pictured in 1907 with an Omaha tribe (those who study a people’s traditional the unsettled plains, and who still thyme-leaf spurge (Euphorbia rubbed by hand on the abraded surface. member and children at an archeological summer camp. knowledge and customs of plant use) remembered their “old names, uses, serpyllifolia), a small, sprawling It was said to cause a painful, smarting

16 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2013 APRIL 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 17 Institute and co-founder of Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists, a leading drug company based in Cincinnati. To demonstrate his product’s potency, Meyer offered to bring a rattlesnake to Cincinnati and have it bite him in

the presence of Lloyd. Lloyd declined PHOTO BY QUINN LONG, KANSAS BIOLOGICAL SURVEY the invitation and dismissed Meyer, having serious doubts about the purifier’s professed healing powers. King, however, later convinced Lloyd Brothers to put an Echinacea tincture on the market. Part of King’s confidence in Echinacea stemmed from the fact that it was the only drug that gave his wife relief from the pain and discharge of her ovarian cancer. In 1917, Lloyd wrote that the Echinacea tincture was a “therapeutic PHOTO BY MICHAEL FORSBERG favorite with many thousand American The wild tomatillo, which grows nearly statewide in Nebraska prairies and disturbed sites, contains steroids with known antimicrobial, physicians, and which is consumed in antitumor and anti-inflammatory properties. larger quantities today than any other American drug introduced during the past thirty years.” Apparently the tincture was most effective when the ground root was mixed with four parts alcohol to one part water. Purple prairie coneflower growing at Spring Creek Prairie in Lancaster County. Extract from the plant was the key ingredient in During the 1920s, however, the use Meyer’s Blood Purifier, and compounds from the plant are now used in modern medicines. of Echinacea fell into decline. This was sensation and to act powerfully upon variety of preparations. For unknown remedies. Purple coneflower was one a time of discord between doctors who the bowels through the intervening diseases, perhaps cancers, they often of the few Native American medicinal favored the new lab-synthesized drugs tissues and to give relief.” relied entirely on the spirit for healing. plants adopted for use by Plains and those who favored herbal remedies. Of butterfly milkweed (Asclepias Modern science is discovering that settlers. The herbalists were losing. With tuberosa), a now uncommon many plants used by Indians in Purple coneflower remained little World War II came the development of wildflower in tallgrass prairies and medicines contain medicinally active more than a folk remedy until 1871, modern antibiotics, which was a near open woodlands in eastern Nebraska, compounds, potentially explaining their when patent medicine salesman H.C.F. deathblow for the use of Echinacea as Gilmore penned: “The root was eaten healing powers. The healing power Meyer of Pawnee City included a medicine. raw for bronchial and pulmonary of other Native American medicinal coneflower extract in a tonic called The herbal revival of the 1970s, PHOTO BY MICHAEL FORSBERG trouble. It was also chewed and plants remains suspect; perhaps some “Meyer’s Blood Purifier.” He boasted however, brought about a rebirth put into wounds, or pulverized medicines were effective placebos. that his secret purifier had “cured of Echinacea’s popularity, both as when dry and blown into wounds. 613 cases of rattlesnake bite in men a botanical antibiotic and immune It was applied as a remedy for old, and animals.” The purifier’s label system stimulant. The first modern obstinate sores. In the Omaha tribe Purple Coneflower professed: “This is a powerful drug scientific research into Echinacea’s the ceremonials connected with the Unfortunately, little of the medicinal as an alternative and Antiseptic in all medicinal properties began in the digging, preparation, consecration, and plant knowledge possessed by Native tumorous and Syphilitic indications; 1950s and continues today. Much of Native Americans commonly used butterfly milkweed, a now uncommon wildflower distribution [of the plant’s roots for Americans was passed on to early old chronic wounds, such as fever this research has been conducted in in eastern Nebraska prairies and open woodlands, as a medicinal plant. medicine] occupied four days.” white settlers, as most Indians had sores, old ulcers, Carbuncles, Piles, Germany, a country with considerable Spirituality was integral to Native been isolated to reservations at the eczema, wet or dry, can be cured scientific interest in medicinal plants with mild antibiotic activity against system, while other coneflower extracts American healing, and medicine men time of settlement, and the greatly quick and active … It will not fail in and with liberal laws concerning the disease-causing Streptococcus have anti-inflammatory properties. and women often used ritual, song, differing spiritual views that underlay Gangrene … It relieves pain, swelling their use. Pale purple coneflower (E. and Staphyloccus aureus bacteria. A Purple coneflower plants also drumming and prayer, in addition to the health systems of the two groups and inflammation, by local use, internal pallida) and eastern purple coneflower pentane-extracted oil from purple and contain compounds with potential as plants, to heal. They believed the spirit made exchange and acceptance of and external.” (E. purpurea), species common to the pale purple coneflower roots inhibits insecticides, one compound being toxic healed the individual, and the plant was native healing traditions difficult. The Seeking an endorsement for his south and east of Nebraska, have also Walker carcinosarcoma and a type to mosquitos and house flies. Today, the vehicle through which it worked. few plants that white settlers used to purifier, Meyer sent a sample to been subjects of investigation. of lymphocytic leukemia. Highly coneflower roots are still widely used For known conditions, such as fevers, treat ailments tended to be from outside Dr. John King, a prominent doctor The research indicates the active polysaccharide molecules in herbal remedies, the plants being congestion and stomach ailments, the region or were cultivated plants; in Cincinnati, and John Uri Lloyd, Echinaceas have active medicinal from purple and eastern purple commercially grown or harvested from healers used specific plants for a they also relied heavily on non-plant a professor at the Eclectic Medical components, including compounds coneflowers stimulate the immune prairies.

18 NEBRASKALAND • APRIL 2013 APRIL 2013 • NEBRASKALAND 19 Department of Medicinal Chemistry Reservation is located). Believing Modern and the Kansas Biological Survey. that plant species previously used Founded in 2009, its goal is to identify by Native Americans are good leads Ethnobotany medicinal compounds in Great Plains for containing compounds useful in Kelly Kindscher is one of the Great plants for use in natural remedies, modern medicines, program leaders are Plains’ few ethnobotanists. A native foods, pharmaceuticals and veterinary choosing to concentrate their collecting of Newton, Kansas, Kindscher spent products. and testing on those species. much of his childhood summers in Since 2010, Kindscher and other All plant species produce numerous Nebraska on his family’s farm along chemical compounds; the most the Republican River in Webster abundant, called primary compounds, County. Here, in bluff prairies and help plants grow and reproduce. Plants

“By educating PHOTO BY HILLARY LORING, KANSAS BIOLOGICAL SURVEY wooded bottoms, Kindscher’s father, also produce secondary compounds, a teacher by trade, taught young people about so called because they occur in minute Kelly about native plants. He can still native plants and amounts and were once thought by recall the first plant name he learned science to have no function. Secondary – Carolina anemone. His childhood their uses, I hope compounds, however, have recently interest in plants persisted and evolved been found to have many functions, to include ethnobotany. Kindscher later they will learn primarily protecting plants from studied botany at the University of to appreciate environmental stressors. For instance, Kansas, earning a Ph.D. in 1991. For some secondary compounds screen his 1992 book Medicinal Wild Plants their values and out damaging ultraviolet rays, others of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical work to conserve are toxic or distasteful and dissuade Guide, Kindscher reviewed the writings browsing mammals and foraging of early Plains ethnobotanists and them.” insects, while still others fight disease- interviewed Lakota medicine men and – Kelly Kindscher causing bacteria and fungi. Because University of Kansas Native Medicinal Plant Research Program staff spread collected women on the Rosebud Reservation in they promote plant survival, many plant material on the floor of a Sioux County barn to begin the drying process. South Dakota who still used medicinal secondary compounds are designed plants in traditional healing. program staff have undertaken plant to affect the cells, tissues, and medicinal compounds.” The group active compounds found in plants. kill healthy human cells they cannot be Kindscher is now a senior scientist collecting expeditions across the physiological function in competing harvests about 20 pounds of fresh Morphine, for example, cannot be used as treatments). The Kansas group with the Kansas Biological Survey, Great Plains from Montana to Texas, microorganisms, plants and animals. plant material of each species at each created in the lab and must be derived also recently discovered promising professor in environmental studies, including the 2010 trip to Sioux Some exert their action in ways similar location. Once dried, this will provide from the opium poppy. When chemists anti-cancer agents in several species of as well as co-leader of the KU County and excursions to the Sandhills to human hormones, neurotransmitters the two pounds of material needed for can synthesize botanical compounds, Plains milkweed. Native Medicinal Plant Research in Thomas County and to Thurston and other compounds and thus have chemical analysis. it is often in minute quantities and Kindscher’s goals for the medicinal Program, a joint effort between KU’s County (where the Omaha Indian potential medicinal value for humans. At KU’s medicinal chemistry lab, more expensive than procuring the plant program go beyond the practical Secondary plant compounds, or the chemists first grind the plant material compounds directly from the plants application of new medicinal molecules modeled after them, are the to the consistency of dried oregano, that naturally manufacture them. compounds. He hopes to honor the source of 25 percent of the prescription then add solvents to break down the A high point of the KU medicinal traditional knowledge of Native drugs used in the United States today. material into a thick liquid. They use plant program’s recent efforts includes Americans and to conserve native Plants of the semi-arid western Plains complex techniques, such as liquid- the discovery of 14 previously plants. Over much of the Great Plains, are adapted to climatic extremes and liquid partition and reverse-phase unknown medicinal compounds native landscapes – and the plants intense grazing and therefore thought chromatography, to isolate and then (called withanolides) in the wild they support – are fast disappearing,” to contain more secondary compounds identify individual compounds from tomatillo or common ground-cherry he said. “By educating people about than plants of the wetter, eastern Plains. the liquid. Promising compounds, such (Physalis longifolia).” A member of native plants and their uses, I hope to Western prairies, therefore, are a prime as potential antioxidants or anti-cancer the nightshade family, along with encourage them to appreciate the value collecting area for Kindscher. agents, are further tested. tomatoes and potatoes, the wild of these plants and work to conserve “We collect whatever plant parts Great Plains prairie plants likely tomatillo grows nearly statewide them.” ■ the Native Americans used, whether contain many medicinal compounds in Nebraska prairies and disturbed it be the roots, stems, leaves, flowers waiting for discovery, but is the intense sites. Withanolides are steroids with Much of the material for this or all parts,” said Kindscher. “We effort needed to find these compounds previously known antimicrobial, article came from also try to collect the same species justified? Why not just create new antitumor and anti-inflammatory from several locations, as populations compounds in the lab? Though properties. In tests on mice, the newly- Kelly Kindscher’s book may differ genetically and contain chemists can artificially synthesize discovered withanolides shrank, and Medicinal Wild Plants unique secondary compounds. At millions of compounds in the lab, most in some cases completely dissolved, of the Prairie: An some locations, we also collect the do not interact well with biological aggressive cancers without side effects Ethnobotanical Guide PHOTO BY DAVID MCKINNEY/KU MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS BY DAVID PHOTO In the University of Kansas High Throughput Screening Laboratory, Peter McDonald, same species during different seasons systems and therefore have limited or toxicity to normal cells (in high and other articles by Ph.D., uses a signal detection instrument to screen hundreds of plant extracts for as growing conditions may affect medical value. Chemists also struggle concentrations many plant compounds Kindscher. antioxidant activity. the presence or quantity of potential to lab-synthesize the medicinally will kill cancer cells, but if they also

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