Herbs & Herbal Remedies @ Green Papaya

Erigeron Canadensis

COMPOSITAE

Canadian fleabane, horse-weed, hog-weed, butter-weed, pride weed, colt’s tail

Fleabane is a purely American plant which was taken to Europe around 1640 and became so well known that mention of it appears in seventeenth-century herbals. It is presently included in herbals from both France and Mexico, though it does not seem to have appeared in the official pharmacopoeias.

The name fleabane might indicate some value as an insecticide, but Culpeper’s Complete Herbal says it was given because the seeds are as small as fleas. A tall weed, it sends up unbranched stems from three to six feet high when in flower. Its small flower heads have white-to-greenish unattractive, daisylike blooms. Fleabane grows in waste places throughout the United States and over much of the temperate zone.

Medicinally, it is a pungent tonic, astringent, and diuretic, claimed to be efficient in diarrhea, gravel, diabetes, and scalding urine, and in hemorrhages of the bowels.iuterus, and of wounds. It may be taken as an infusion made of 1 teaspoonful of the dried, powdered plant in 1 cupful of boiling water, a wineglassful as a dose. The whole plant is used, to be gathered when in bloom and carefully dried.

Several writers indicate that the extracted oil is similar to oil of turpentine, but less irritating. It is recommended for pimples, and Parkinson said long ago that fleabane “bound to the forehead is a great help to cure one of the frensie.”

There are a number of other species of Erigeron, all of which are said to possess the same medicinal properties, though in lesser degree. To put the plant in perspective, it would appear that its use and recommendation over three centuries afford it a reputable place in our list of medicinally valuable plants, even though orthodox medical men have not chosen to take much notice of it.