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 | Plumbago Other Names: Leadwort. Dentallaria. Arssmart
Botanical Name: Plumbago Europaea
Family: N.O. Plumbaginaceae |
Description: |
| A half-hardy herbaceous climbing, half-shrubby plant, with large trusses of pale-blue flowers, which are in bloom continuously through the summer. This variety is also known under the name of Plumbago Capensis, and is greatly used in German gardening. |
Habitat: |
| China, Southern Europe, and cultivated in England in hot-houses. |
Constituents: |
| Plumbagin, a crystallizable acrid principle obtained from the root. |
Medicinal Usage: |
| It is acrid, and when chewed creates a free flow of saliva, particularly if root is used; said to be of benefit to relieve toothache, and has long been used in France for that purpose, hence its name, dentalaire; also useful for itch - a decoction of the root in olive oil is much used. |
Ancient Lore: |
ARSSMART POLYGONUM
The Hot Arssmart is called also the Water-pepper. The Mild Arssmart is called Dead Arssmart, or Peachwort. Our college Physicians mistake the one for the other in their new Master-piece, whereby they discover their ignorance, their carelessness; and he that hath but an eye may see their pride without a pair of spectacles.
A very common creeping weed, the Mild Arssmart (also called Red- shank) has broad leaves at the great red joints of the stalks, with semicircular blackish marks on them. The root is long with many strings and perishes yearly. The taste is rather sour like Sorrel.
Where to find it: It grows in watery places, ditches and the like, which for the most part are dry in summer.
Flowering time: It flowers in early summer and the seed is ripe at the end of the summer
Astrology: As the virtue of both of these is various so also is their government; for that which is hot and biting is under the dominion of Mars, but Saturn challenges the other as appears by that leaden-coloured spot he hath placed on the leaf.
Medicinal virtues: The Mild is very effectual for putrid ulcers in man or beast, to kill worms and cleanse putrefied places. The juice, dropped in, or applied, consumes all cold swellings and dissolves the congealed blood of bruises by strokes, falls etc.
A piece of the root, or some of the seeds bruised, held to an aching tooth, takes away the pain. The leaves bruised and laid to the joint that hath a fell thereon, takes it away. The juice destroys worms in the ears, being dropped into them. The Mild Arssmart is good against all imposthumes and inflammations at the beginning, and to heal all green wounds. The Hot Arssmart grows not so high or so tall as the Mild, but hath many leaves of the colour of Peach leaves, seldom or never spotted. If you will be pleased to break a leaf of it across your tongue, it will make your tongue smart.
If the Hot Arssmart be strewed in a chamber, it will soon kill all the fleas. A good handful put under a horse's saddle will make him travel the better, although he were half tired before.
Modern uses: A homoeopathic tincture is made from the hot Polygonum hydropiper and used for diarrhoea and dysentery. The milder Polygonum persicaria is not widely used, but an infusion of the plant has been recommended for lung disorders, rheumatism, eczema and liver disease.. The plants contain an irritant oil. |
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