GINGER, WILD
Asarum canadense
COMMON NAMES: Canada snake root, Indian ginger, Vermont snake root.
FEATURES: Ginger, being of many species, differs in appearance according to habitat; Africa, India,
Pakistan, China, Jamaica, Japan, etc., have their own special native herb.
Native ginger is a beautiful little plant found growing in rich woods during April and May from Maine
to Michigan and southward. The root of the plant is round and fleshy, with dividing stem supporting a
heart-shaped, soft, woolly, and handsomely veined leaf, deep green above and light below, there being
two to a plant. The flower occurs one to a plant, small and of a brownish purple color, growing only a
few inches high and sometimes becoming covered by the dead leaves that carpet the woods. Odor:
gingerlike, or recalling serpentaria. Taste: pungent, bitter.
MEDICINAL PART: Root.
SOLVENT: Boiling water.
BODILY INFLUENCE: Stimulant, carminative, tonic, diaphoretic, diuretic.
USES: As a carminative it is useful in all painful spasms of the bowels and stomach, also to promote
perspiration, in all cases of colds, female obstructions, whooping cough, and fevers. Practitioners of the
American Physic Medical School hold that this root exerts a direct influence on the uterus and prescribe it
as a parturient when nervous fatigue is observed. It can be made into a tea and administered in small
doses, frequently repeated, as large doses are apt to nauseate the stomach.
DOSE: As a cordial made with a tincture and syrup of molasses it is most agreeable; 1 teaspoonful of the
granulated root to 1 pint of boiling water, 2 tablespoonfuls at a time, as often as required. Of the tincture,
2–5 minims. Powder may be taken dry, 20–30 grains.
HOMEOPATHIC CLINICAL: Tincture of root and whole fresh plant (Asarum europum) for alcoholism, anus
(prolapse of), catarrh, cholerine, diarrhea, dysmenorrhea, eyes (affections of, operations of), fidgets,
headache, hysteria, levitation (sensation of), typhus.
RUSSIAN EXPERIENCE: Kopiten (ginger) grows wild in West Siberia and European Russia, and the Far
East. There is a special time for collecting the different sections of the well-known plant. Leaves in the
early spring, rhizomes when the flower begins to form, roots in the fall. Folk medicine: The different
parts of the plant have important specific uses, or perhaps combinations for certain ailments. In
Bellorussia (White Russia) the properties of the rhizome are used as an expectorant, for jaundice and
dropsy, to promote milk for the nursing mother, for heart trouble, lung tuberculosis, nerve excitement,