What are the medicinal benefits of milkweed?
Native American Uses: Milkweed was used as a painkiller, a pulmonary aid, and to treat diarrhea. In addition, fibers from the stems were utilized to make belts and the roots were ingested to treat rheumatism and pleurisy. Milkweed roots were also used to make a drink that was given to women after childbirth. Generalized medicinal uses for milkweed species include 1) its use in a salve for scrofulous swelling, 2) as a diarrhea medicine, 3) drunk by mothers unable to produce milk, 4) medicine for snow blindness and other forms of blindness, 5) relief of sore throat, 6) applied chewed root for swelling and rashes, 7) to expel .Before the advent of modern medicine, common milkweed was used for medicinal purposes. Milkweed sap was used as a poison, as an emetic and diuretic, a cure for diseases of the lungs, as well as a wart remover. Syriaca, refers to ‘of Syria’ as Linnaeus’s mistakenly believed common milkweed originated in Syria.While milkweed is beneficial to monarch populations, people need to be aware that it is toxic and can be lethal to animals, particularly horses and other equines. Common milkweed (left) is often grown as an ornamental because it is an important food source for monarch butterflies (right).Medicinally, the plant (especially the root) was used widely as a kidney and urinary aid, cathartic, diuretic, and emetic. All species of Asclepias are distasteful to livestock and pets. Swamp milkweed can be toxic if ingested and has been reported to cause poisonings in sheep, cattle, and goats.
What’s so special about milkweed?
Also called butterfly flower or butterflyweed, the plant—along with other types of milkweed, including common milkweed and swamp milkweed—is the only food source of the monarch butterfly. Milkweed produces toxic chemicals that accumulate in a monarch’s body, which makes them poisonous to predators. Asclepias (family Asclepiadaceae, the milkweed family) including several whose dried roots were formerly used medicinally.Plants in the genus Asclepias are called milkweeds because of the sticky white latex that pours out of wounded tissues. Asclepias latex is rich in toxic cardiac glycosides, and the scientific genus name comes from Asklepios, the ancient Greek physician.AWESOME ASCLEPIAS, aka Milkweed. Milkweeds are a subfamily of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae). Most of us are familiar with the extreme dependency of the Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) on milkweed plants. These native perennials are the only plants that Monarch larvae (caterpillars) will eat.Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) is a plant native to North America. It’s been traditionally used as medicine in homeopathic products. Swamp milkweed contains powerful chemicals called cardiac glycosides.Asclepias syriaca, commonly called common milkweed, butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallow-wort, and Virginia silkweed, is a species of flowering plant.
What was milkweed used for?
The fibers from milkweed stems make excellent rope and were used by Native Americans for centuries of years. More than two hundred years ago, the French were using American milkweed fibers to make beautiful cloths, said to be more radiant and velvety than fine silk. Ethnobotanic: Milkweed has been used for fiber, food, and medicine by people all over the United States and southern Canada. Fibers from the stems of milkweed have been identified in prehistoric textiles in the Pueblo region. Tewa-speaking people of the Rio Grande still make string and rope from these fibers.
What is milkweed extract used for?
By boiling the plant, they found ways to remove milkweed toxins in water, using the extracts to suppress coughs, sore throats, and to treat typhus fever and kidney disorders. After several rounds of boiling, stems, buds and immature pods could then be eaten. Although many milkweeds contain resinoids, most of the ones that cause fatal poisonings contain cardenolides (cardiac glycosides). These cardenolides are similar to digoxin causing electrolyte balances in heart muscle resulting in arrhythmias and cardiac failure.The toxic nature of milkweed is due to one of two agents: cardiac glycosides (cardenolides) or an unidentified neurotoxin.Just as monarchs make use of milkweeds and their toxins, humans have utilized these plants for centuries. Native Americans realized milkweeds could be used to treat a variety of ailments. Externally, sap was used to remove warts and relieve symptoms of poison ivy.Medicinal Uses In 1892, Charles Millspaugh recorded the early medical history of butterfly milkweed, also known as pleurisy root. He stated that it is a proven remedy for certain forms of dry coryza, indigestion, colic, diarrhea, dry coughs, pleurisy, rheumatic pains, and some skin affections (1974, p.
What is the magical use of milkweed?
Filling a dream pillow with milkweed fluff is said to cause the user to dream of the fae. The juices of the milkweed plant, when used for anointing, are said to strengthen one’s “third eye. However, these juices are also irritating, so maybe just place a whole leaf or sprig of flowers to your forehead instead. There’s plenty of folklore associated with this wonderful Moon plant, probably because of the sheer magicalness of its fluff. It is said that adding milkweed fluff to dream pillows will make one dream of the Fae. Folklore also says that for each floating seed one catches and lets go of, a wish is granted.Milkweed’s Magical Uses and Folklore If you catch a floating milkweed seed, make a wish, then release it to go along its merry way, its said that your wish will come true. Milkweed fluff can also be used as filling for pillows, sachets, and poppets.
What are the side effects of milkweed?
When milkweed is swallowed, symptoms of toxicity usually appear within a few hours. Initial symptoms consist of stomach upset, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, weakness, lethargy, and confusion. Symptoms of severe toxicity include seizures, heart rhythm changes, and severe slowing of the heart rate. Boiling milkweed parts until tender and then discarding the water, which is the usual preparation, renders them perfectly safe. Milkweed is also safe to eat in modest quantities without draining off the water. Do not eat mature leaves, stems, seeds, or pods.Although potentially poisonous, the plant has been used for medicinal purposes as well. Many indigenous tribes applied milkweed sap for wart removal and chewed its roots to treat dysentery. It was also used in salves and infusions to treat swelling, rashes, coughs, fevers and asthma.Milkweed can sicken livestock when they eat enough of it. Animals tend to steer clear of the toxic plants, but accidental poisonings do happen, particularly if milkweed infiltrates a hayfield and gets cut, dried and served up to livestock mixed into their hay.Milkweed sap can be very irritating to the skin but is also very dangerous if it gets in your eyes. This poison can cause corneal endothelial toxicity.