Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Euonymus Stropurpureus - CELASTRACEAE - Wahoo, Burning-bush, Arrow Wood, Indian Arrow Wood, Spindle-tree
Euonymus Stropurpureus
CELASTRACEAE
wahoo, burning-bush, arrow wood, Indian arrow wood, spindle-tree, skewer wood
This ten-foot shrub grows throughout the middle and eastern United States, a native of this country and cultivated elsewhere. It has beautiful fall foliage, interesting four-sided, green branches, and purplish flowers and fruit. There are several other members of the family, including the vining bittersweet with its orange red fruit, so often gathered for decoration.
Although the family is beautiful, it is also poisonous. The leaves of the vining bittersweet are said to be poisonous to horses, and those of E. airopurpureus to sheep and other animals. But, as with so many poison plants, it is useful in small doses. The bark of the root (stem bark is sometimes used) is mentioned as a tonic, hydragogue, cathartic, diuretic, laxative, and in official medicine, as a cholagogue.
All authorities indicate the necessity for caution in the use of this drug. The recipe in Grieve’s Herbal suggests that a decoction be made of the dried roots at the rate of 1 ounce to 1 pint of water, simmered slowly and a small wineglassful taken two or three times daily. An even weaker decoction is suggested by Meyer in his Herbalist.
The related E. europaeus is called louse-berry because the small fruits were baked, powdered, and sprinkled on the hair of small children to kill head lice; the same value is known for the other American species, E. americanus.