|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Echinacea
Root
(Echinacea
august folia and Echinacea purpurea)
COMMON NAMES: Kansas’s nigger-head, narrow leaves purple coneflower, Sampson root.
MEDICINAL PART: Rootstalk.
DESCRIPTION: This native herbaceous perennial plant grows from the prairie states northward to Pennsylvania. The stout, bristly, stem bears hairy, linear-lanceolate leaves, tapering at ends, the lower on long petioles, and the upper sessile. The distinctive flower features 12 to 20 large spreading, dull purple rays and a conical disk made up of numerous purple, tubular florets. Flowering time is June to October.
PROPERTIES AND USES: Antiseptic, sepurative, digestive. Echinacea is one of the “blood purifying” plants used for conditions such as eczema, acne, and boils thought to indicate contaminants in the blood. It also promotes proper digestion and can be tried for fever. Used external in combination with myrrh, it is said to be good for typhoid fever. The rootstalk may also help to dispel flatulence.
Excellent blood cleanser. For blood poisoning, fevers, carbuncles, boils, peritonitis, syphilitic conditions, bites and stings of poisonous insects or snakes, erysipelas, gangrenous conditions, diphtheria, tonsillitis, pus formation, sores, infections, wounds, gargle for sore throat. An excellent remedy to combine for all these purposes with myrrh. This is powerful to cleanse the morbid matter from the stomach and to expel poisonous, toxins, and pus or abscessed formations.
PREPARATION AND DOSAGE: Do not use the rootstalk once it has lost its odor.
Decoction: Use 1 tsp. rootstalk with 1-cup water. Take 1 tbsp., 3 to 6 times a day.
Tincture: Take 15 to 30 drops in water every 1 to 3 hours, as indicated.
