BITTERROOT
Apocynum androsaemifolium
COMMON NAMES: Dogbane, milkweed, westernwall.
FEATURES: Indigenous to North America, growing in many of the states and Canada, depending on the
species, of which there are sixty in North America.
The large milky root is quite bitter (the bitter outside slips off when boiling, as for food), though
edible, starchy but nutritious, and was an important food among Native Americans. Bitterroot is
perennial, almot stemless, with a rosette of oblong fleshy leaves. The flower appears in the center, is rose
or white colored, and generally remains open only in the sunshine from May to August.
MEDICINAL PART: Root.
SOLVENTS: Alcohol, though more especially water.
BODILY INFLUENCE: Emetic, diaphoretic, tonic, laxative, expectorant.
USES: Bitterroot is a celebrated remedy among Native Americans for the treatment of venereal diseases
and is regarded as almost infallible. Has been recommended in the treatment of Bright’s disease. It is also
highly praised for rheumatic gout of the joints and has been known to relieve cardiac dropsy when
everything else has failed. Parkinson quotes it as a “sovereign remedy against all poisons and against the
bites of mad dogs”; hence it derives it’s name dogbane.
Bitterroot will help to rid the system of other impurities, including worms, and is influential in treating
diabetes.
Bitterroot is a very bitter stimulating tonic, acting chiefly on the liver, emptying the gall ducts, securing
a free discharge of bile, and thereby causing activity of the bowels. For jaundice, gallstones, and chronic
sluggish conditions of the liver bitterroot is unequaled. It should not be employed in irritable conditions
of the stomach.
When used as an alternative to act on the liver, or for dyspepsia, a dose would be 10 grains twice a day
(5–6 drops of the extract). This remedy has been employed by some practitioners for nervous headache,
for which it is said to be one of the most prompt and effective remedies in use. Large doses cause
vomiting but tendency to gripe can be eliminated by adding peppermint (Mentha piperita), calamus
(sweet flag), fennel (Foeniculum officinale), or other carminatives. Take 2–5 grains thrice daily as a