Herbal Magick

Cherokee Herbology: A Beginning of Understanding

  • Agrimony (Agrimonia Gyposepala). Drink tea of burs to check bowels, and for fevers; root tea to build up blood.
  • Alder, red/smooth/tag (Alnus Serrulata). For pains related to birth, ingredient in tea for menstrual period – acts as an emetic and a true purgative.
  • Alder, white (Clethra Acuminata). Decoction of bark and wild cherry is drunk to break a high fever.
  • Aloe, false Aloe (Agave Virginica). Chew root for obstinant problems with diarrhea. Also good for treating animals for worms.
  • Alum-root, American Sanicle (Heuchera Americana). Root – An astringent; root tea for bowel complaints or dysentery (usually made with honey to improve the taste).
  • Angelica (Angelica Atropurpurea). Root – tonic for fevers and colds. Gargle for sore throats and mouth pains/cold sores.
  • Bastard Toadflax (Comandra Umbellataa). Steep with roots of pink lady’s slipper for kidneys; put juice on open cuts or sores.
  • Beardtongue, hairy (Penstemon Laevigatus). Tea – for cramps.
  • Birch, cherry/mountain/red/river/sweet (Betula Lenta). Chew leaves or drink tea for dysentery; tea for colds.
  • Bittersweet (Celastrus Scandens). Bark – tea to settle stomach; strong tea combined with red raspberry leaves for pains of childbirth.
  • Blood leather/rock tripe (Gyrophora Dillenii). Stop bleeding from open wounds.
  • Bluebells\lungwort\virginia cowslip (Mertensia Virginica). For whooping cough; consumption.
  • Bluets (Houstonia Caerulea). Tea to stop bedwetting.
  • Branch lettuce/saxifrage (Saxifraga Pensylvanica). Root – poultice for sore swollen muscles.
  • Buckeye, red (Aesculus Pavia). Pounded nuts are poultice for swelling, sprains and infected wounds. bark tea drank for facilitating woman’s delivery in childbirth.
  • Buffalo nut/oilnut (Pyrularia Pubera). Salve for old sores.
  • Butterfly weed/Witch weed (Asclepias Tuberosa). Seeds or root are a gentle laxative; boil seeds in new milk for diarrhea; also for pleurisy, pains in breast, stomache and lungs.
  • Cinnamon tree (Cinnamomum Zeylanicum). Bark -tea for flu.
  • Coneflower/Black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia Fulgida). Root – Ooze for earache. Wash for snakebites and swelling caused by worms.
  • Fern, bracken (Pteridium Aquilinum). Root – tonic used as antiseptic.
  • Fern, rattlesnake (Botrychium Virginianum). Boil root down to syrup and rub on snake bites.
  • Feverfew (Chrysanthemum Parthenium). Bathe swollen feet in a tea.
  • Geranium, wild (Geranium Maculatum). Used for open wounds; astringent.
  • Goosegrass (Galium Aparine). Tea to move bowels.
  • Indian Pipe/Fit root/ice plant (Monotropa Uniflora). Root – pulverized and given for epilepsy and convulsions.
  • Laurel, Mountain (Kalmia Latifola). Ingredient in liniments.
  • New jersey tea/Red root (Ceanothus Americanus). Hold root tea on an aching tooth; hot root tea for bowel complaints.

Share This Post