GOLDENSEAL (Hydrastis canadensis)

This native forest plant occurs in patches in high, open woods, and usually on hillsides or bluffs affording natural drainage, from western New England to Minnesota and western On-tario, and south to Georgia and Missouri.

Goldenseal has a thick, yellow rootstock which sends up an erect hairy stem about one foot in height which branches near the top, one branch bearing a large leaf and another a smaller leaf and a flower. The leaves have from five to nine lobes and, when full-grown, are from six to eight inches in diameter. The greenish-white flower which appears in April or May is followed by a large, fleshy, berry-like head which, when it ripens in autumn, is bright red. It resembles a large raspberry and contains from ten to twenty small, shining, hard, black seeds.

Goldenseal is a traditional medicine of the North American Indians and is still widely used in western herbal medicine. In the nineteenth century, it acquired a reputation as a heal-all and was grossly over-collected from the wild; it has become rare in the east of its range, but is now being cultivated on a small scale. It is especially valued in treating disorders of the digestive system and mucous membranes and is also extremely useful in the treatment of habitual constipation, but it should be used with caution. An infusion of the root is used externally as a wash for skin diseases, vaginal infections, gum diseases, etc. A yellow dye is obtained from the whole plant and the pounded root is smeared on the body to act as an insect repellent.

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