Herba Cana - Northeastern Illinois University

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© 2004 by CRC Press 540 Florida Ethnobotany southeastern tribes making their largest canoes of poplar. Southeastern people also used the wood to make stools, doors of houses, and fire sticks. Populus deltoides wood more recently has been used for paper pulp, cases and crates, tubs and pails, excelsior, veneer for plywood, musical instruments, dairy and poultry supplies, laundry appliances, and fuel (Vines 1977). There are numerous records of ‘‘poplar’’ being used among indigenous people for a variety of medical treatments. Many of those references are impossible to pin to a species. Probably Duke et al. (2002) have made the best choice by listing them all under the name ‘‘poplar’’ (Populus spp.). Caution is advised, however, because reports of ‘‘popular’’ include both Liriodendron and Nyssa. Since the Populus species all contain salicin, it seems likely that they were used similarly in medicines. The Populus deltoides was used by several southeastern tribes and by some in the northeast. The Catawba used an infusion of the bark, along with wild cherry and dogwood to treat expectant mothers (Vogel 1970). The Chickasaw boiled cottonwood and willow roots to make a drink to treat dysentery and fever (Swanton 1928a). The Choctaw boiled leaves and bark to treat wounds and made a combination of stems, leaves, and bark to cure snakebite (Bushnell 1909). The Creeks used a decoction of cottonwood to treat sprains and fractures and a decoction of roots as a remedy for dropsy (Swanton 1928a, Taylor 1940). The Delaware combined cottonwood with black haw and wild plum bark to make a woman’s medicine (Moerman 1998). The Iroquois made a vermifuge of the plants (Hocking 1997). The Ojibwa used the cottonwood in two distinct ways. Buds were stewed with bear fat and used to treat earache, while the cotton from fruits was used as a absorbent on open sores (Vogel 1970). Porcher (1863) wrote of P. heterophylla, ‘‘Upon examining the excrescences caused by an insect in large numbers on the leaves of the cotton-wood tree ... I find them possessed of great bitterness, and suggest an examination into their tonic properties.’’ No other indication has been found of others following this lead. However, Porcher (1863) recommended using P. deltoides extract as a substitute for quinine in treating what was called at the time as ‘‘swamp fever,’’ now known as malaria (Hocking 1997). Early in its history another North American Populus became confused with tropical Bursera. Because of that confusion, P. balsamifera became known as tacamahaca (Vogel 1970, Bremness 1994). That Aztec name was originally applied to Bursera (see Bursera: Gumbo Limbo), but the literature on common names now largely associates it with Populus. In another oddity, the European P. alba became official in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia between 1895 and 1936 as a source of salicin, but native North American species were never listed (Vogel 1970). To fill that gap, Eclectic physicians recommended several native Populus (Culbreth 1910, Felter 1922). Prenanthes (From Greek prenes, drooping, and anthe, flower) Prenanthes serpentaria. From Britton and Brown 1898. Hasenlattiach (hare’s lettuce, German) lattuga montana (mountain lettuce, Italian) prenanthé (French) Prenanthes serpentaria (old name for various plants used to treat snakebite) cancer weed [white] canker weed [cankerweed, canker-root] (‘‘canker’’ came from Old Northern French cancre, and appeared in English by about A.D. 1000; the word is cognate with ‘‘cancer’’; historically, the disease was a malady of the mouth, perhaps a reference to thrush or Candida infection) dado’cabodji’bik (milk root, for P. alba, Ojibwa) DeWitt snakeroot; rattlesnake root; snake-gentian; snakeweed (names given alluding to use against snakebite) drop flower (it is not clear if this English name gave rise to the genus created by Linnaeus in 1753, or vice versa) earthgall [gall of the earth] (used since about A.D. 1000 for Centaurium pulchellum, alluding to it being bitter like bile; later applied to Prenanthes)
© 2004 by CRC Press The Ethnobotany 541 laitue blanc (white lettuce, Quebec); weisser Lattich (white lettuce, German); white lettuce [ivy, joy] leaf lion’s foot (used for a Helleborus, Ranunculaceae, by Turner in 1538; and for Alchemilla, Rosaceae, by 1610; later applied to other plants); ped d’leon (lion’s foot, French) milkweed (usually applied to Asclepias, but also to others with white latex) Two of the Prenanthes that Linnaeus ([1753] 1957) knew were from the New World, and the other five were from Europe and Siberia. However, it was not until 1814, when Frederick Pursh published his Flora America Septentrionale, that P. serpentaria was added to the list. Now there are 30 species known from the north temperate region, and the European plants have been reduced to a single species (Mabberley 1997). This was one of the many plants used by the indigenous tribes to relieve the bites of snakes and other venomous animals. There are many more poisonous snake species in eastern North America than in Europe, and the settlers were quick to rely on the local remedies for these problems. Accounts are common in the literature of the time of a person being bitten by a reptile and recovering after chewing, ingesting, and/or applying a poultice of some plant. Writing in 1728, William Byrd gave a typical account of the time. Not only were his observations dubious, but he also clearly had no regard for the safety of his dogs. He wrote: ‘‘The rattle-snake, has an utter antipathy to this plant, insomuch that if you smear your hands with they juice of it, you may handle the viper safely. Thus much I can say of my own experience, that once in July, when these snakes are in their greatest vigor, I besmear’d a dog’s nose with the powder of this root, and made him trample on a large snake several times, which, however, was so far from biting him, that it perfectly sicken’d at the dog’s approach, and turn’d its head away from him with the utmost aversion’’ (Coffey 1993). James Adair listed several snakebite plants, including P. serpentaria, in a book about his trading among the Creeks along the Mississippi River in 1775. Prince Maximilian listed as a remedy a plant called ‘‘lion’s heart’’ among the Delaware in the 1830s (Vogel 1970). In the eastern states, several tribes used Prenanthes as a snakebite remedy. At least P. alba, P. altissima, P. aspera, P. serpentaria, andP. trifoliata were utilized (Moreman 1998). These all went under the name ‘‘snakeroot,’’ ‘‘lion’s foot,’’ or ‘‘gall of the earth.’’ <strong>Northeastern</strong> tribes certainly applied P. alba, and there are records of both the Iroquois and Ojibwa using it on snakebite (Densmore 1928, Moerman 1998). The Iroquois also used P. altissima and P. trifoliata (Moerman 1998). However, indigenous people did not confine the plant to those uses. In the south, the Choctaw used P. virgata (reported as Nabalus asper, and P. aspera, corrected by Joanne Birch) as an anodyne and as a diuretic, and for other problems (Campbell 1951). The Cherokee used both P. serpentaria and P. trifoliata roots in stomachache medicine (Hamel and Chiltoskey 1975). The Cherokee also cooked and ate the leaves of these two herbs. Porcher (1863) did not say much about Prenanthes. He wrote simply of P. alba, ‘‘The root is excessively bitter; it is used in domestic practice in this state as a tonic. I would invite further examination.’’ Millspaugh (1892), on the other hand, had a lot to say about the plants. First, he complained, ‘‘This botanically difficult species ... includes in itself what were once considered to be 17 distinct species and varieties; and affords an interminable field of work for a botanist of Rafinesquian tendencies.’’ He continued, ‘‘As Gall of the Earth, it has been known in domestic practice from an early date, and is said to be an excellent antidote to the bite of the rattlesnake and other poisonous serpents*/one who searches through the domestic literature of medicinal plants, wonders why the bite of snakes ever has a chance to prove fatal.’’ He recommended the species for relieving dysentery, anemic diarrhea, and as a stomach tonic. Hocking (1997) added that the plants were used as a bitter tonic, an astringent, and ‘‘to relieve hypertension in Negroes.’’ The genus is not listed by Bremness (1994), Bown (1995), or Duke et al. (2002). Millspaugh (1892) recorded that chemical studies of the plants had found resins, tannins, gums, and waxes. Hocking (1997) agreed that they contained tannin, and that it was known as <strong>Herba</strong> Nabali serpentariae among the homeopathics. The Latin pharmaceutical name was based on the old generic name Nabalus. There were no papers listed on the genus in either PubMed or AGRICOLA in January 2003. Prunus (Classical Latin name of the plum, P. /domestica; Greek proumne) Prunus americana (of America) ciruela (Mexico) kande (kande-hi, plum tree, Omaha-Ponca); kante (kante-hu, plum tree, Dakota); kon’-dse xo-dse (kon’-dse, plum, xo-dse, gray, Osage); kantsh (kantsh-hu, plum tree, Winnebago)
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Herba Cana - Northeastern Illinois University

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