Herbs & Herbal Remedies @ Green Papaya

Dryopteris Filix-mas

POLYPODIACEAE

male fern, knotty brake, male shield-fern, sweet brake, shield root, marginal shieldfern, European aspidium

This plant has definite medicinal value which has been recognized for centuries and which entitles it to its present place in the United States Pharmacopoeia. Properties found in the rhizome of this fern are definitely deadly to intestinal worms, and it is therefore valuable as an anthelmintic, teniacide, or worm medicine. Containing a poison, the drug must be used with certain cautions.

The male fern is found growing everywhere in the United States and Europe. For medicinal purposes the useful species include not only D. Filix-mas but also the similar marginal shield-fern or evergreen woodfern, D. marginalis. The roots of the fern are dug in the autumn and carefully cleaned of all the root hairs} old leaf bases, and dirt, and then split and dried carefully at a temperature of 70 degrees F. The best extraction of the oleoresin is obtained through the use of ether. Meyer’s Herbalist says that infusions may be made and taken a little at a time. Better medical practice indicates the use of an ethereal extract given at night in capsule form at the rate of a single dose of one drachm, to be followed by a purgative other than castor oil. A cathartic should be taken some time before the dose is administered, and complete fasting should be observed for one or two days. Such a treatment should effect a cure in one dose. However, all instructions must be carefully followed to avoid poisoning. Also, the roots lose their potency after a year.

The seeds (spores) of this fern are so tiny as to be almost invisible, and the “Doctrine of Signatures” states that use of the fern will confer invisibility. Hence, in Henry IV, act 2, scene I} IIWe have the receipt of fern seed; we walk invisible.”