Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Eupatorium Perfoliatum - COMPOSITAE - Boneset, Thoroughwort, Indian Sage, Aguetoeed, Vegetable Antimony
Eupatorium Perfoliatum
COMPOSITAE
boneset, thoroughwort, [eoenoori, Indian sage, aguetoeed, vegetable antimony, sweating plant
Boneset is a plant of swamps, marshes, and low grounds, found commonly throughout the United States. It grows three to four feet high, erect, with hairy, opposite leaves which seem to be perforated by the stem, and bears large heads of white flowers. The name, which seems to refer to its value in helping bones to set, actually came from the plant’s value in treating colds and the flu, which, in early days, were called “break-bone fevers.”
Our knowledge of its benefits came from the Indians, for Dr. Barton, in 1798, reported that “this medicine is used by our Indians in intermittent fevers,” and this use is confirmed by other contemporary writers. Its present-day value is attested to by country people; one correspondent wrote the author:
A bowl of boneset tea was often taken at night to break up a cold, which it usually did; it surely is bitter enough so it should do something.
The virtues mentioned for boneset in Jacobs’ Index of Plants are:
… a tonic stimulant, promoting digestion, strengthening the viscera and restoring the tone of the system; it is a valuable sudorific, alterative, antiseptic, cathartic, emetic, febrifuge, corroborant, diuretic, astringent, deobstruent, and stimulant. The warm infusion is used as an emetic, sudorific, and diaphoretic in fevers and constipation. Also used in rheumatism, typhoid fever, pneumonia, catarrh, dropsy, influenza, excellent for colds, fevers, dyspepsia, jaundice, debility of the system, et cetera.
What more could one want than this? Boneset has been found in official listings for nearly a century and a half and could well be rated a basic medicine in the American herbal list.
For use, the upper leaves and flowering tops are dried, and infusions made at the rate of 1 ounce of the dried herb to 1 pint of boiling water, taken in doses of a wineglassful. Take hot to induce perspiration for colds, and (in stronger doses) as an emetic.