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Contents:
Common Names
Parts Usually Used
Plant(s) & Culture
Where Found Medicinal Properties
Uses
Formulas or Dosages
Bibliography
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Common Names
Dog-tooth violet
Erythronium
Lamb's tongue
Rattlesnake violet
Serpent's tongue
Snake leaf
Trout lily
Yellow erythronium
Yellow snakeleaf
Yellow snowdrop
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Parts Usually Used
Bulb, leaves
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture
Adder's tongue is a perennial plant to 1 foot high; its bulbous root is light
brown on
the outside and white inside. It grows two leathery, basal, lanceolate, pale
green,
mottled leaves with purplish or brownish spots; and one drooping, miniature,
lily-like, yellow flower, petals strongly curved back, nodding from the top
of a central stem, appears in April or May. The narrow spike somewhat resembling
a snake's tongue gave the plant the common name of adder's tongue. The petals
partially close at night and on cloudy days; the plant diminishes
with the heat of summer. The fruit is a capsule.
Other varieties: E. californicum;
E. giganteum or watsonii;
E. hendersonii; E. dens-canis (dog tooth violet), White trout-lily (E. albidum)
flowers
are white, leaves seldom mottled; found in Ontario to Georgia; Kentucky, Arkansas,
Oklahoma to Minnesota; E. grandiflorum is a plant that grows in
western North America, been shown to be slightly antimutagenic.
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Where Found
Grows in thin moist woods or open areas, moist meadows, with rich soil all over
the United States. Nova Scotia to Georgia; Arkansas, Oklahoma to Minnesota.
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Medicinal Properties
Emetic, expectorant, anti-scrofulous, antiscorbutic, emollient, antiscorbutic,
nutritive when dry
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Uses
Used for scrofula and other skin problems. Make a poultice for external application
and take the infusion at the same time. Mix the expressed juice with cider for
internal use if preferred, it probably tastes better. Poultice used for old
or scrofulus
ulcers, wounds, and tumors, draw out splinters, reduce swelling. Fresh root
simmered
in milk helps dropsy, hiccoughs, vomiting and bleeding from the lower bowels.
Water extracts are active against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.
Native Americans used the root tea for fevers. Iriquois women ate raw leaves
to prevent conception.
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Formulas or Dosages
The plant must be used fresh.
Infusion: use 1 tsp. fresh leaves or 2 tsp. fresh root with 1 cup boiling water. Daily dose is 1 cup, a mouthful at a time. (May use dried in same proportions)
Poultice: use crushed leaves, or simmer
the root in milk to get the proper consistency. Apply 3-4 times a day. Take
with the tea internally.
