Of the week with Alexander McCowan

A range of uses for herbalists

Common Bistort (Polygonum bistorta, Snakeroot or Adderwort) is a perennial herb member of the Polygonaceae family, growing to about 60cm in woodlands and meadows in Europe and Asia. The plant has a thick rhizome with triangular leaves and displays long spikes of pink flowers in mid-summer.

The common name is from the Latin word bistorta – twice twisted – which refers to its contorted serpentine rootstock, hence the folk name; Snakeroot.

The plant has been used since ancient times as a treatment for snake bite (doctrine of signatures) and dysentery.

Elizabethan physicians valued it for various purposes: Culpeper states, “…beaten small and into a paste with honey, and a piece thereof placed into a hollow tooth, stops the defluction of the rheum upon it which causes much pain and cleanses the head and void much offensive water”. Similarly, Gerard claims, “the root, being holden in the mouth for a certain space and at sundry times, fasteneth loose teeth.” Also, “The juice of Bistort put into the nose prevaileth much against the Polypus.”

The plant contains an abundance of tannins, starch, catechin and silicic acid, which makes it a powerful astringent, anti-inflammatory, anti-catarrhal, anti-diarrhoeal, anti-haemorrhagic and demulcent.

Bistort is recommended by herbalists to arrest internal bleeding from the lungs, stomach and bowel, for diverticulosis (weakness of the colonic wall), incontinence of urine, gastritis, enteritis, dysentery, uterine infection with discharge, nasal polyps, nosebleed, ulcerated mouth and spongy gums.

In parts of northern England the leaves are made into a traditional pudding known as ‘Easter ledges’; the fresh leaves are eaten in salads or cooked like spinach. The root is nutricious and eaten in northern Europe after it has been soaked and roasted.
Bistort is found in herbal gargles, mouthwashes, compresses and bath preparations.

Next week Skullcap