Goldenseal Root,Echinacea's partner, broad-spectrum herbs and its uses.
Contents
Goldenseal History.:
Goldenseal root was used medicinally by American Indians of the Cherokee, Catawba, Iroquois, and Kickapoo tribes as an insect repellent, a diuretic, a stimulant, and a wash for sore or inflamed eyes.It was used to treat arrow wounds and ulcers,as well as to produce a yellow dye. Early settlers learned of these uses from the Indians and the root found its way into most 19th century pharmacopeias.
Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) is one of the most popular herbs sold on the American market. But why is it so popular? What is it used for? And where is the science to back it up? Answers to those questions are as ambiguous as the scientific literature on the plant. One of the big questions facing the future of goldenseal is whether there is enough supply, especially of wild-harvested root, to meet the demand.
Golden seal is found growing in shady woods, in rich soils, and damp meadows in different parts of the United States and Canada, but is more abundant west of the Alleghanies. It flowers in May and June. The root is the officinal part. Its virtues are imparted to water or alcohol. The root is of a beautiful yellow color, and when fresh is juicy, and used by the Indians to color their clothing, etc.
Western knowledge of goldenseal begins about 200 years ago. Benjamin Smith Barton's Essays Towards a Materia Medica of the United States (published in three parts from 1798 to 1804) is one of the first sources of information on goldenseal. In the first part of his Essays in 1798 he observed that the Cherokee used it as a folk cancer remedy, which is also one of the earliest observations of the occurrence and treatment of cancer among American Indian groups. An important historical use of goldenseal root is as an eye wash for various eye problems, such as conjunctivitis. In the third part of his Essays (1804), Barton notes use as a bitter tonic (in "spirituous infusion") and as a wash for eye inflammations in a cold water infusion. "The Hydrastis is a popular remedy in some parts of the United States, " he observed nearly two hundred years ago.
Use of goldenseal arises from American Indian usage. The Cherokee used the roots as a wash for local inflammations, a decoction for general debility, dyspepsia, and to improve appetite. The Iroquois used a decoction of the root for whooping cough, diarrhea, liver disease, fever, sour stomach, flatulence, pneumonia, and, with whiskey, for heart trouble.
By the late 1700s, it was popularly used as a bitter stomach digestive (to help stimulate digestion and improve appetite), to treat skin inflammations, and those of the eyes. It was also used for inflammation of the mucous membranes of the throat and digestive system. It's popularity as an "herbal antibiotic" has continued to the present day, despite the fact that there has been little scientific research on the plant. Those who know it by reputation, however, swear by its use.
Unfortunately, one aspect of goldenseal that has driven the market in recent years is the notion that goldenseal will somehow affect the outcome of urinalysis for drug testing. This practice is a part of American folk culture, evolving from a novel by pharmacist John Uri Lloyd. Stringtown on the Pike, the most popular of his eight novels, was published in 1900. In the plot goldenseal bitters are erroneously mistaken for strychnine in a chemical test by an "expert" chemical witness in a murder trial. The accused murderer is convicted on the testimony, though the stomach of the deceased did not contain strychnine at all, but goldenseal, from the victim's morning habit of drinking digestive bitters. As a result, goldenseal became a part of American folklore associated with chemical testing errors. It has been used on occasions in this century to an attempt to mask the use of morphine in race horses (without success). Because of the practice of ingesting goldenseal to affect the outcome of drug testing, some drug testing labs are now testing for presence of goldenseal in urinalysis. If this use of goldenseal subsided, it would return to a more rational place in herbal medicine as an antiinflammatory and antibiotic.
The Eclectic medical movement was particularly enthusiastic in its adoption of goldenseal for gonorrhea and urinary tract infections. The widespread harvesting of Hydrastis in the 19th century, coupled with loss of habitat, resulted in depletion of wild populations.
In 1997, Hydrastis was listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which controls exports of the root to other countries. The final listing included roots or live plants but excluded finished products. As an alternative to wild harvesting, goldenseal was cultivated in the Skagit Valley of Washington state and is being promoted as a cash crop in New York ,North Carolina and Canada. Because of its high price, goldenseal, like other expensive herbs, has often been adulterated. Common adulterants include species of Coptis and Xanthorrhiza,both of which also contain large amounts, of the yellow alkaloid berberine. The popular notion that goldenseal can be used to affect the outcome of urinalysis for illicit drugs evolved from the novel Stringtown on the Pike by pharmacist John Uri Lloyd, in which goldenseal bitters are mistaken for strychnine in a simple alkaloid test by an expert witness in a murder trials Goldenseal can be variously ingested prior to testing added to the urine sample after collection. It is one of several adulterants commonly detected in urinalysis samples.
Reference:
-
- 1.Goldenseal Root,Echinacea's partner, broad-spectrum herbs and its uses.
This article written and edited via herbalist of MDidea Extracts Professional. They run a range of online descriptions about this herb,including general information related and summarized updating discoveries from findings of professional scientisits this field related.Describe style aimed to form a useful detecting literature space where the intertwined threshold and related questions raise out and visualize themselves.
♣ last edit date:20th,Oct.2010.
