A Quide Ti MEDICINAL PLANTS of Appalachia
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> on ^Y O "TI > Xi -"H a quide ti MEDICINAL PLANTS of appalachia AGRICULTURE HANDBOOK NO. 400 FOREST SERVICE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE S3 o FOREWORD THE MEDICINAL or therapeutic uses of the plants described in this guide are not to be construed in any way as a recommendation by the authors or the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some of the dried crude drugs, which must be modified considerably before commercial use, can be extremely poisonous when not used properly. Readers are cautioned against using these plant drugs for purposes of self-medication. Besides descriptions of 126 medicinal plants of the Appalachian region, this guide includes a glossary of the terms used, a reference list of publications, and a listing of additional source material. This book was originally published as U.S.D.A. Forest Service Research Paper NE-138, 1969, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Upper Darby, Pa. Issued March 1971 MEDICINAL PLANTS off Appalachia by Arnold Krochmal Russell S. Walters Richard M. Doughty USDA, National Agricultural übraiy Beltsviile. MO 20705,2351 _d Agriculture Handbook No. 400 FOREST SERVICE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $1.75 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 PLANT DESCRIPTIONS 3 Identification 3 Names ^ COLLECTING PLANTS ^ Time of year ^ Areas ^^ Tools 10 PROCESSING 11 Cleaning H Drying ..•.••; ]\ Packaging and storing ^^ COLLECTING POLLEN 15 Methods 15 Drying 1^ Grass pollen 1 ' REFERENCES 18 GLOSSARY 21 GUIDE TO THE PLANTS 27 INDEX OF COMMON PLANT NAMES 281 INTRODUCTION DESPITE INCREASES in the production of synthetic drugs, natural plant drug materials are still economically signi- ficant in the United States, and large quantities are harvested in the southern Appalachian region each year for medicinal purposes. A 1962 survey of 328,599,000 new prescriptions written in the U. S. showed that 25 percent were for drugs from natural plant products. However, during the past 30 to 50 years, fewer and fewer people have been harvesting wild plants in Appalachia, which is the principal American source, mainly because of families emigrating to more prosperous areas. Between 1950 and 1960, the southern Appalachian region lost through emigration more than a million people, nearly a fifth of the population. Increases in local blue-collar employment opportunities, a growing reluctance to work in the fields and forests, scarcity of some plants because of over-collecting, and land-use changes have also reduced the natural plant harvests for drug materials. To locate, collect, and prepare plants for market is time- consuming work. Some collectors do not know all the useful plant species and the best markets for them. This manual was prepared to help collectors identify, collect, and handle plants, plant parts, and pollen. Not all the plants listed are marketable at aU times; so the collector would do well to write to one of the collecting houses listed (table 1) for prices and information about market demand. Buyers of such material are helpful in providing other useful information on collecting. ^ . ON o o OÍ oo 00 CN O SO CO . < o o 2 c« \D w -í^ o 00 Soo c ^ C/0 < c -^ c C oí CNJ u CO < <U > O vO oí o 00 0 U CN u z 2^00 U ÖJOZ ■M ^ öß u-t c o r-^ ó < < "E(U o C *í-l JS >^ < -^ o •> .ä ^ C/3 H oo o u '^ « ^ (A O O c < U O 4-> S «« o d 1, o O < 3 (/3 oí PQ 0) 0 ■M 3 q^ ^ Vi z rt 00 - O O) «u <u <u 1^ C/0 O o c 00 o 00 <U o x,\u /I» - o PQ W o g o ■> p^ < c^ Zí o „ U 3 < S ^ 0 o: y H 2 o a> C/5 O u:s s C/5 (U ^ <u PQ w ■j-T > > e¿ ^ u 4-> cu < < T—t ^ -c g <n CO OS ^ Û <N 'Tí Ç J4 >>^ O O 00 £ Z !^ ^ 2 Û PQ .Í2 hJ < ;a r- o <u 0 d^ z -d 'ra O ■Ö . o oa PQ í;^ C PQ oí < ■o W <^ . S¿ 00 < (O O ^^ T—1 T-H m X C/0 ÖS§ r^ >< O d c^ o Û Ï SO ■o <N O . 00 00 rO ^ w o o w c C^ C/3 Ä <N PQ O-, n tn ON ÇU PQ < û cu O c (D w (/> > 00 0} < O PQ E 0^ (O Z u w I < X p c X û H ^ CU z ^ 00 < o oí W o et o, S u o 'Ti O. SU »í B c c O CU û o oí oJ O U Û ss O) o ^ S s o ^ O o o U U Mn <L> î^ ^ o rt QÛ z OH '—' <U ct >■ X X w 2 5 o o > -Scïiu 'S PQ ^ O . ¿H ^H aj J¿ £ CQUUtlnOOZOoO II X 00 O X £ PLANT DESCRIPTIONS Identification To help the collector identify plants, brief descriptions are given in this guide. Some closely related plants, such as Lobelia (Indian tobacco), are difficult to identify before the seed capsules have developed; so as a further aid in identification, sketches or photos accompany every plant description. A collector who wants to identify a plant known only by a common name should locate that name in the index and then refer back to the descriptions and illustrations to identify the plant. If the same common name is applied to more than one plant, this will be shown by the page numbers next to the common name in the index. Names Plant names can be confusing. A plant may have many common names, and the same common name may be applied to several unrelated plants. We have tried to show as many common names as possible, listing first the preferred common name suggested by the Subcommittee on Standardization of Common and Botanical Names of Weeds. If this list did not include names for a plant, we used Standardized Plant Names, Other references used were Flora of West Virginia, Manual of Cultivated Plants, Flora of the Northeastern United States, and State experiment station bulletins. Scientific names are also given to simphfy proper identifi- cation of plants. Although a number of common names may be in use for a given plant, only one scientific name is used. COLLECTING PLANTS Time of Year It is important to collect at the time of the year when the drug contents of the plants are at their peak. Roots are collected either very early in the spring before growth has begun, or late in the fall. Herbs (the part of the plant above ground) are usually collected during the blooming- fruiting period. Leaves are usually collected before blooming begins and can either be removed from the plant in the field, or the plants can be harvested and the leaves can be removed later at a collection area. Seeds and fruits are best harvested when ripe. Bark should be collected when it slips most easily, during the dormant season or in early spring. The parts of each plant collected are shown in table 2. X X • X X xxxxxxxxxxxxxx X X Pi c/^ 00 H II II II II » CO 00 H X X 1 O O c a *^o ^^ Q. II II II II 03 SI I \1^ X H-»l-l Csi « 2 JS VM OH 0.0). ij v> c« »H -M o '^oJ ii oJ '^ 3 '5 C '3 ÎH pq pq pQ W PH S 'o ^ . u § J\ c¿ D (x, "TA pq pq pq W liH s sîS 3^ 1uJ u-i ^ V. »^ 'S -2 <^ c^ -^ s s - - 3 s s s Q o o s s s s s g .§ .§.? ^^ ta •2 -^ -S OH SX, ^ QÎ^ .§1 3 i .Î2 .Î2 ^ u o s a. çx, Cl, S V3 V} ra ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ '^ '^ "^ ^ '^ ^ ^ ^ ^ "^ ^ ^ ^^t:: cq T-HCNcOTi-ir)vor^oooNO^c^c<^Tfunvor^ooaNOT-HÇMco T-HT^T-<T-HT-HT^T-H^^^ÇSICMÇSIC<I 00 X • X X X XX x xx xxx . X • X X X XXX 0^ X X ^ fc X X fe Pu X • X ÇQ Ci ö g Cl. SX, ;^ I o n ^ 2 s s U ^ <ij -s -s .i¿ I »^ r-e ^ r^ ^ .- ^11 CN O O U O U O tq pq tq tq tin tis Ü Q w Dg H o u XXX XXX XXX X X XXX X XX X X u JU' ^ Qj5^ —-Q ^^* mua;*'a: H X • X XXX XXX XXX X X X X ^3 XXX (U X X Pu X X X X X X PQ X X pq X X X X . X X w <u . 1 S ^ û-So-* i-i J 2. g ■uM'^ .S c « S uo *^ Î3 s s.s « « ^ ^ u u I ^^cSfÎ^iSiÇ oooNOTHCMcnTtmvoi^oooNOi-HCScnTfLnvor^oooNO^c^coTf (0 r^r^ooooooooooooooooooooosONONONONasONONONOsOOOOo X X X ' X 'XX XX • • X X X • X X X X X X X X X X X X X X • X X s £ • • 2 _j . J-ii«láiii;iiii III il Jill invot^o6osorHCNÍc<S'<:í-uSvor^ooaNOrHC^íc<^Ti-ii^\¿ OOOOO^rHrHtHrHTHTHrHT-HrHÇSinCMCSICNCSICM Only four plants are listed from which sap is collected. Lactuca scariola provides a milky juice; the plants are collected in summer for extracting the juice from the stems. The other three are trees. Liquidambar styraciflua (sweetgum) exudes balsam into natural pockets between the bark and the wood. Excrescences on the bark are cut for collecting the sap.