cough medicine Archives - The Cargo Cult Café

Common Winter Cress: Edible, Medicinal & Cautions

March 9, 2016 by Mike Leave a Comment

Common Winter Cress, Barbarea vulgaris, a plant that is in many wild edible field guides but your chances of finding it before it becomes too bitter is very slim, trust me it has a very strong taste. Medicinally, it was used as a blood medicine, cough medicine, stimulant, astringent and diuretic.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry

Common Winter Cress Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software.Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Brill, Steve. Wild Edibles Plus. Computer Software. WinterRoot LLC. Version 1.5. 2012. Web. Feb. 15, 2014.

Felter, Harvey Wickes, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D. King’s American Dispensatory, Vol. 1. Cincinnati: The Ohio Valley Company, 1905. pg. 431-434

Fernald, Merritt Lyndon & Alfred Charles Kinsey. Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1996. Print. pg. 219

Foster, Steven and James A. Duke. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America. 2nd. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Print. pg. 103-104

Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses- A 400 Year History. North Carolina: Herald Publishing. 1975. Print. pg. 31

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 121

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 144-145

Peterson, Lee Allen. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants; Eastern and Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. Print. pg. 64-65

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.

Common Plantain: Edible, Medicinal & Other Uses

September 17, 2015 by Mike Leave a Comment

Common Plantain, Plantago Major, this is the plant that started this project. It was the first plant that I was taught how to use and I am dedicating this post to Val the woman who taught me. Val, wherever you are out there I hope you come across this. Meeting you, even for that brief encounter, has had a great influence on me. Even if I wanted to tell the story I would have to write it as though it was fiction knowing the vast majority of people wouldn’t understand or believe it.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry!

Common Plantain Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software. Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Brill, Steve. Wild Edibles Plus. Computer Software. WinterRoot LLC. Version 1.5. 2012. Web. Feb. 15, 2014.

Felter, Harvey Wickes, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D. King’s American Dispensatory, Vol. 2. Cincinnati: The Ohio Valley Company, 1905. pg. 1514-1516

Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses- A 400 Year History. North Carolina: Herald Publishing. 1975. Print. pg. 50

Herrick, James William. Iroquois Medical Botany. Ph.D. Thesis, New York: State University of New York, Albany 1977. Print. pg. 210-211

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 416-417

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 398-399

Peterson, Lee Allen. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants; Eastern and Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. Print. pg. 46-47

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.

Prairie Dock: Medicinal & Cautions

August 18, 2015 by Mike Leave a Comment

Prairie Dock, Silphium terebinthinaceum, is an extremely tall, sunflower-like, plant of the prairies that is beneficial for intermittent fever, coughs, asthma or other lung ailments.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry!

Prairie Dock Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software.Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Felter, Harvey Wickes, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D. King’s American Dispensatory, Vol. 2. Cincinnati: The Ohio Valley Company, 1905. pg. 1755

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 362-363

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.

Purple Coneflower: Medicinal & Cautions

August 5, 2015 by Mike 2 Comments

Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea, is a common plant of summer and is found in many gardens with quite a few medicinal qualities. The flowers are reddish-purple with 15 to 20 rays and the toothed leaves alternate along the stem. It was used by the Choctaw and Delaware Indians used the plant as a cough medicine and venereal disease remedy. Western Medicine used Echinacea as an antiseptic but don’t use it if you have autoimmune disease. It was used for typhoid fever, plague and a-dynamic fevers, gangrene, cerebrospinal meningitis and syphilis.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry.

Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea Sources

Felter, Harvey Wickes, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D. King’s American Dispensatory, 1898. Web. 08Feb02. Purple Coneflower pg. 671-677

Foster, Steven and James A. Duke. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America. 2nd. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Print. Purple Coneflower pg. 226-227

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. Purple Coneflower pg. 206

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. Purple Coneflower pg. 382-383

United States Department of Agriculture. Plant Database. Web.

Tall Bellflower: Medicinal

February 20, 2015 by Mike Leave a Comment

Tall Bellflower, Campanula americana, is a tall plant of moist thickets and stream banks with a starlike blue flower. The lance shaped, toothed, leaves are in an alternate pattern along the stem. Medicinally, this plant has been used by the Iroquois and Meskwaki Indians as cough medicine, for whooping cough and tuberculosis. For whooping cough smash three roots and steep them for thirty minutes in a teacup filled with hot water. Then take three tablespoons before meals. A similar remedy may have been used to treat consumption also known as tuberculosis.

Tall Bellflower Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software.Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Herrick, James William. Iroquois Medical Botany. Ph.D. Thesis, New York: State University of New York, Albany 1977. Print. pg. 217

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 135

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 216-217

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.

Sweet Goldenrod: Edible, Medicinal, Cautions & Other Uses

January 29, 2015 by Mike Leave a Comment

Sweet Goldenrod, Solidago odora, makes a nice anise-flavored tea or you can use it as seasoning. Medicinally, it has been used as an abortifacient, antidiarrheal, cold remedy, cough medicine, to reduce fever, induce sweating and to calm the nerves among other things including making a dye.

Sweet Goldenrod Sources:

Felter, Harvey Wickes, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D. King’s American Dispensatory, Vol. 2. Cincinnati: The Ohio Valley Company, 1905. pg. 1801-1802

Gehring, Abigail R.. Back to Basics; A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills. 3rd ed. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. 2008. Print. pg. 270-272

Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses- A 400 Year History. North Carolina: Herald Publishing. 1975. Print. pg. 36

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 537

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 448-449

Peterson, Lee Allen. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants; Eastern and Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. Print. pg. 90-91

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.