Herbs & Herbal Remedies @ Green Papaya

A Potent Antibiotic

Family: Ranunculaceae; (includes Buttercup, Larkspur, Peony)

Genus and Species: Hydrastis Canadensis

Also known as: Yellow Root, Yellow Puccoon, Indian Turmeric, Indian Dye, Indian Paint, Jaundice Root, Eye Balm, Eye Root, Golden Root

Parts used: Rhizome and roots

Goldenseal is popular and powerful. That combination virtually guarantees controversy, so it should come as no surprise that many contemporary herbalists call it “one of our most useful herbs,” while several scientific authorities continue to quote a pharmacologist who wrote (back in 1948) that the herb has “few, if any, rational indications” but may cause “death from respiratory paralysis or cardiac arrest.”

On balance, there’s no cause for alarm. Goldenseal may be beneficial when used carefully, though harmful effects are possible. Informed home herbalists can use it safely.

Yellow Root

The Indians of the Northeast pounded goldenseal’s yellow roots (the source of most of its names) and used the yellow juice as a dye. They also used it medicinally as an eyewash (hence names “eye balm” and “eye root”), as a treatment for skin wounds, sore throat, digestive complaints, and for recovery from childbirth.

Early settlers adopted the plant but didn’t use it much until the early 19th century, when Samuel Thomson, founder of Thomsonian herbal medicine, popularized it as an antiseptic. Thomson disliked the herb’s Indian name, yellow root, and changed it to goldenseal.

Thomsonian medicine fell from fashion by the Civil War, but America’s 19th-century Eclectics adopted goldenseal, which they called hydrastis, and greatly expanded its use. They used it externally to relieve hemorrhoids, rectal fissures, pinkeye (conjunctivitis), eczema, boils, and wounds, and internally as a digestive stimulant and treatment for colds, tonsillitis, diphtheria, uterine problems, postpartum hemorrhage, digestive ailments, and as a tonic during convalescence from any major illness.

Poor Man’s Ginseng

After the Civil War, the golden herb enjoyed a golden age. It was an ingredient in many patent medicines, notably Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery, a popular tonic.

Demand soared, and goldenseal’s price jumped to 51 a pound, making it almost as costly as America’s most expensive Healing herb, ginseng. The difference was that ginseng was collected for export to China, while goldenseal was used in the United States. Over time, goldenseal acquired some of ginseng’s medicinal reputation as a panacea and longevity tonic, hence one popular name, “poor man’s ginseng.”

Like ginseng, goldenseal was collected to the point of near extinction. And as it became scarce, it was frequently adulterated. Today, it’s farmed but still costly, and adulteration continues to be a problem.

Goldenseal was listed as an astringent and antiseptic in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia from 1831 to 1936, when modern antibiotics pushed it out.

Sterling Reputation for a Golden Herb

Contemporary herbalists can barely contain their enthusiasm for goldenseal. In Back to Eden, Jethro Kloss calls it “one of the most wonderful remedies in the entire herb kingdom …. A real cure-all.”

Modern herbalists recommend goldenseal externally as an antiseptic to clean wounds and as treatment for eczema, ringworm, athlete’s foot, itching, and conjunctivitis. They prescribe it internally for digestive upsets and colds, as a douche, and to stop excessive menstrual flow and postpartum uterine bleeding.

Most herbalists also warn goldenseal may trigger uterine contractions and “over-stimulate the nervous system.”

Goldenseal is also a favorite of homeopaths, who prescribe microdoses for alcoholism, asthma, indigestion, cancer, hemorrhoids, and liver ailments.

Goldenseal remains a popular folk medicine. In Hoosier Home Remedies, a 1985 survey of Indiana folk medicine, Varro Tyler, Ph.D., discovered the herb was used extensively as an astringent and antiseptic to treat canker sores, chapped lips, and many other external problems.

Finally, in the late I970s, heroin addicts came to believe goldenseal tea could prevent the detection of opiates in urine specimens.