BLACK ROOT
Veronicastrum virgin icum
COMMON NAMES: Culver’s physic, tall speedwell, leptandra, Culver’s root.
FEATURES: Black root is indigenous to North America and is from the figwort family.
The soil in which the plant is grown significantly affects its virtues. It can be seen in new soil, moist
woods, swamps, etc. Limestone soil improves the medicinal value, assuring the user of its attributed
influence. Taste: very bitter acrid. Autumn of the second year is the proper time for gathering. The dried
root is the most accepted procedure (fresh root being too irritable), but it has to be used with extreme
care.
The plant obtains heights of 2–5 feet with simple, straight, smooth, herbaceous stems. Leaves are short
and finely serrated, whorled in fours to sevens. The flowers are white, nearly sessile, and very numerous.
Calyx: four-parted corolla, small and nearly white. Stamens: two. The fruit is a many-seeded capsule.
MEDICINAL PART: Dried root.
SOLVENTS: Water, alcohol.
BODILY INFLUENCE: Emetocathartic, cholagogue, alterative, tonic, antiseptic.
USES: Black root is a long-established Native American remedy. As white man’s medicine it was
introduced as a medicinal agent by Dr. Culver and is admirably called Culver’s physic.
The leading significance of black root is as it acts on the intestines in chronic constipation when there
is insufficiency of biliary flow, and it is very much used in chronic hepatic diseases. It operates mildly
and without depressing the system, as is so common to other purgative medicines.
In fevers it removes the morbid matter from the bowels without weakening their tone or leaving behind
that poisonous sting so often remaining after the use of calomel. It is used very effectively in the care of
pleurisy and also in some forms of dyspepsia. As a cathartic in dysentery it is one of the best medicines
known when given in moderate doses. In such cases combine with a little rhubarb root (Rheum
palmatum) and give the decoction in doses of 3–4 tablespoons, repeating every three hours until
passively relaxed.
Formula for Liver Disorders
1 ounce of black root (Veronicastrum virginicum)
2 ounces of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis)
2 ounces of senna (Cassia marilandica)
2 pints of distilled or boiled water.Boil until reduced to 1 pint. Take 2 tablespoons three or four times a day, increasing the quantity if it fails
to operate gently or decreasing if it operates too much. Bowel action should not be more than perceptible.
In this you have a herbal medicine superior to most of the popular preparations and one that has been
used for generations.
DOSE: Leptandrin is the extract made from the root; it should be used in lesser amounts, from ¼ to 1 grain,
adjusting according to age and case. Dose of the powder, as a cathartic, 20–40 grains.