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Indigo (Wild)

Botanical: Baptisia tinctoria (R. BR.)
Family: N.O. Leguminosae

---Synonyms---Baptisia. Horse-fly Weed. Rattlebush. Indigo-weed. Sophora tinctoria (Linn.). Podalyria tinctoria (Michx.)
---Parts Used---Root, bark, leaves.
---Habitat---Dry hily woods from Canada to Carolia.


---Description---An herbaceous perennial which takes its name from the Greek Bapto (to dye); has a black woody root, yellowish internally with many rootlets; stem about 3 feet high smooth, glabrous, round, and branched; leaves, small, subsessile, alternate and palmately trifoliate; leaflets rounded at end; calyx four-cleft; flowers, yellow, blooming August and September, in small loose terminal racemes. Legume short, bluish-black seeds, subreniform.

---Constituents---The root is non-odorous and of a nauseous acrid taste, containing gum, albumen, starch, a yellowish resin and a crystalline substance.

---Medicinal Action and Uses---Used internally in form of decoction or syrup in scarlatina, typhus, and in all cases where there is a tendency to putrescency; it is purgative, emetic, stimulant, astringent, and antiseptic, principally used for its antiseptic qualities.

---Dosage---Of the decoction, 1 tablespoonful. Fluid extract, 1/4 to 1/2 drachm. Baptisin, 1 to 3 grains.

Purchase from Richters Seeds
Wild Indigo (Baptisia tinctoria) Seeds

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Bear in mind "A Modern Herbal" was written with the conventional wisdom of the early 1900's. This should be taken into account as some of the information may now be considered inaccurate, or not in accordance with modern medicine.

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