this is Missouri snakeroot/wild quinine

this is a praririe plant......grows to about 2 feet high.....

you'll need a spade for this......the root is woody, bulby

very easy to wash, but takes awhile to dry.......

I dry it in direct sunlight on tarps, and cover at night to prevent moisture getting on it.

store in paper bags or cardboard boxes when dry...










Wild Quinine is a very valuable medicinal herb. It is used as an antiperiodic, emmenagogue, kidney, lithontripic, poultice. It has traditionally been used in alternative medicine to treat debility, fatigue, respiratory infection, gastrointestinal infection, and venereal disease. Wild Quinine is currently being used with great success by hundreds of herbalists throughout the United States and Europe for diseases such as lymphatic congestion, colds, ear infections, sore throats, fevers, infections, and Epstein barr virus. The tops of the plant have a medicinal "quinine-like" bitterness and are used to treat intermittent fevers. This earned the plant one of its common names, "wild quinine." Parthenium has been studied in scientific laboratories and clinics across Europe. Findings from these studies indicate that this medicinal herb stimulates the immune system. This herb also contains the four sesquiterpene esters which include: echinadiol, epoxyecinadiol, echinaxanthol, and dihydroxynardol. These constituents increase the ability of the blood cells to digest foreign particles and aid in the stages of healing wounds in living organisms. It appears to be a liver-stimulating bitter that promotes blood detoxification; thus the common name "snakeroot." Parthenium has also been shown to both mobilize and activate natural killer cells and other immune cells. Wild Quinine herb has been commonly sold as (or mixed with) Echinacea purpurea for more than 50 years. They are both in the sunflower family and their roots bear an uncanny resemblance to each other. Many people have been using these parthenium products, however, and receiving benefits