Plant of the Week: Plant used for war paint can treat warts and moles

Name: Bloodroot (Sanguinaria Canadensis)

Otherwise known as: Pucoon, Indian Paint, Redroot

Habitat: A creeping, perennial member of the Papaveraceae growing up to 60cm in woodlands in central Canada and northern United States. It has a delicate rhizome and single, palmately-lobed leaves with scalloped edges. The stems terminate in a single, white, poppy-type flower. Large doses induce vomiting, diarrhoea and narcotic trances.

What does it do: Bloodroot is one of the traditional medicinal plants of the northern Native Americans that was adopted by the Eclectics, a group of early settler physicians and used to treat a range of ailments. The Mohawk and the Huron tribes extracted an orange/red dye and used it as war paint, but it also served as a powerful midge and mosquito repellent; it was this practice which led to the discovery that the plant was effective in removing moles and warts.

Bloodroot is mildly anaesthetic and was applied to the skin before some of the more painful initiation ceremonies undertaken by Mohawk youths. It is antiseptic, antispasmodic, antibacterial, cardio-active, stimulating to the womb and circulatory system, mildly anaesthetic and emetic in large doses. In traditional medicine it is used externally to treat warts, moles, fungal infections such as ringworm, varicose ulcers, some topical tumours, and the dried root is powdered and inhaled like snuff to treat nasal polyps. Internally, bloodroot was given as drops to combat asthma, croup, whooping cough, pneumonia, emphysema and to halt bleeding in tubercular lungs. Current herbal practice no longer favours the internal use of the plant as it can induce nausea and vomiting.

Modern research indicates that the traditional claims that bloodroot would cure some skin cancers are valid, and that experiments being conducted in Japan on methods to reduce brain tumours have included the use of the alkaloid berberine. Another constituent, sanguinarine, is now known to prevent dental plaque and can be found in a number of proprietary toothpastes.

Bloodroot is used to stimulate appetite in humans and cattle and is used by veterinarians as a natural antibiotic for domestic animals.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.