The plants included in this bulletin are burdock, dandelion, the docks, couch grass, and pokeweed (principally root drugs); foxglove, mullein, lobelia, tansy, gum plant, scaly grindelia, boneset, catnip, hoarhound, yarrow, fleabane, blessed thistle, jimson weed, and poison hemlock (of which either the leaves, flowers, herb, or seeds are used in medicine); and also wormseed, and black and white mustards, of which the seeds only are used.
Descriptions of these plants follow, together with the common names by which they are known in different localities, the habitat (or, in other words, the kinds of places or soils in which they are likely to be found), their geographical range, information as to the parts to be collected, their uses, the extent to which they are imported and the prices usually paid by dealers.
The principal uses for which these plants are employed in medicine are briefly indicated, but none of the drugs mentioned should be taken without the advice of a physician.
With the exception of the figures for dandelion and mustard, which were obtained from the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor, the imports are based on estimates furnished by dealers, and the prices per pound, while serving to give an idea as to what may be expected for the drugs, will vary from year to year, depending principally upon supply and demand.
There are of course a large number of plants used in medicine that are not included in this bulletin, which is intended to cover only such medicinal plants as may be classed as weeds.
Other common names.—Cockle button, cuckold dock, beggars’ buttons, hurr-bur, stick button, hardock, and bardane. (Fig. 1.)
Fig. 1.—Burdock (Arctium lappa L.). Flowering plant.
Habitat and range.—Burdock is one of the most common weeds. It was introduced from the Old World, and is common and often very abundant in the Eastern and Central States and in some scattered localities in the West, growing along roadsides, in fields, pastures, and waste places.
Description.—This is a coarse, unsightly biennial weed of the aster family (Asteraceæ), which produces during the first year of its growth only a rosette of large, thin leaves (fig. 2) and a long, tapering root having a diameter of from one-half to 1 inch. When full grown it measures from 3 to 7 feet high. The round, fleshy stem is branched, grooved, and hairy, with very large leaves, even in the early stages of the growth of the plant, the lower leaves often measuring 18 inches in length. The leaves are alternate, on long, solid, deeply furrowed leafstalks; thin, roundish or oval, but usually heart-shaped; with even, wavy, or toothed margins; smooth above, and pale and woolly on the under surface. The flowers are purple, in small, clustered heads, appearing in the second year, from July to frost. These flower heads are armed with hooked tips, and the burs thus formed are a great pest, attaching themselves to clothing and to the wool and hair of animals. The seed of burdock is produced in great abundance, one plant bearing as many as 400,000 seeds.
Parts used.—The root alone is recognized in the United States Pharmacopœia, but there is a limited demand for burdock seed, and the leaves also are employed. Burdock roots and seeds are used in blood and skin diseases, and the leaves externally as a cooling poultice for swellings and ulcers, the latter being employed only in the fresh state.
Fig. 2.—Burdock. First year’s growth.
Burdock has a large taproot, about 12 inches long, fleshy, the outside blackish-brown or grayish-brown, the inside light in color and spongy in the center. It is to be collected in the fall of the first year. The roots must be washed, split lengthwise, and carefully dried. Drying causes the root to lose about four-fifths of its weight, and to become scaly, and wrinkled lengthwise. Sometimes the bases of the leafstalks remain at the top of the root in the form of a small, white, silky tuft. The odor of the root is weak and unpleasant.
The seeds are oblong, curved, flattened, and angular, dark brown and sometimes spotted with black, and have no odor. These should be collected when ripe or nearly so.
Imports and prices.—About 50,000 pounds of lappa or burdock root are imported annually, and the best root is said to come from Belgium, where great care is exercised in its collection.
The price of the root ranges from 3 to 8 cents per pound, and that of the seed from 5 to 10 cents.