Indian Turnip

Parts Usually Used

Rootstock

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Indian turnip is a perennial plant 1-2 feet high; the rootstock is a turnip-shaped dark, rough, acrid corm, from which grows a single flower-stalk sheathed at the bottom by the footstalks of the plant’s 1-2 leaves with 3 leaflets each; green beneath. The leaves are ternately divided, the leaflets ovate or oblong-ovate, and pointed. The greenish-yellow to purplish-brown (often striped) flowers grow in a thick, fleshy spike which is hooded by a green and purplish-brown bract called a spathe.

The cup-like spathe, with a curved flap overhanging the erect spadix, and the 3 terminal leaflets distinguish this species. The fresh roots have an acrid, burning effect and are considered poisonous. Flowering time is from April to June. Berries are clustered and scarlet. Other varieties: (A. atrotubens) is generally larger; leaves grayish green beneath. Also, the Native Americans called the Breadroot or Indian or Prairie Apple (Psoralea esculenta) by the name of Indian Turnip.

French name: Pomme blanche, or Pomme de Prairie. ” Grows wild on the high plains of Manitoba west to the Rockies. John Colter of Lewis and Clark’s expedition escaped from the Indians and lived for a month on this and an edible thistle. ” The tops were dried and burned in ceremonial rites.

Where Found

Grows mainly in moist woods in the states east from Louisiana, Kansas, and Minnesota.

Medicinal Properties

Acrid, expectorant

Biochemical Information

Triterpenoid saponins, benzoic acid

Legends, Myths and Stories

The root when first dug is too fiercely acrid for internal use; it will leave a burning impression on the tongue, lips and faces, like a severe scalding, followed by inflammation and tenderness, which may be somewhat mollified by milk.

Uses

During the nineteenth century, American herbalists and practitioners utilized Indian turnip, also known as Jack-in-the-pulpit, for conditions such as asthma, rheumatism, hoarseness, coughs, colds, chronic laryngitis, and oral sensitivities including stomatitis. Historical records also noted its administration for colic, flatulence, numbness, dizziness, and localized spasms. Externally, practitioners prepared poultices or liniments from the partially dried root to manage sores, ulcers, boils, ringworm, traumatic swellings, and scalp eruptions, or utilized preparations as a gargle.

Folk traditions similarly recorded the scraped root being applied topically for the rash and itch associated with poison ivy or poison oak. Among Native American traditions, the roots were historically employed as an emetic, while the Pawnee applied the powdered root to the head for headaches, and the Hopi utilized an infusion of the root in water with the intention of inducing sterility.

Additionally, Native groups rendered the root edible through thorough boiling, drying, or heating.

Bibliography

American Folk Medicine , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973 Chinese Medicinal Herbs , compiled by Shih-Chen Li, Georgetown Press, San Francisco, California, 1973. Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.

copyright 1974. , 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, first printed by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, in 1928, this Dover edition 1974 Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R. , Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023 The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book) , edited by William H.

Hylton, Rodale Press, Inc. , 1974