Bloodroot is a spring-blooming herb that grows in deciduous woods. It is a member of the Poppy family with 1.5" wide white flowers and distinctive large 4-7" leaves with 5-9 loves per leaf. After their flowers drop, the plant produces a pod-like fruit capsule that splits open and has many brown seeds inside. I found this patch alongside the road on the edge of a forest. You are not supposed to dig these from the wild, but they grow easily in gardens. It would be interesting to see if you could start this plant from seed.
The Latin name for Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis, comes from the Latin word for "bleeding". This describes the red-orange juice that comes from the stems and leaves, used in many cultures as dye and insect repellent.
Bloodroot may help get rid of warts because it contains skin-irritating chemicals that can dissolve tough skin tissue. A book I have called The Herbal Drugstore says that you can apply the juice of the plant directly to the wart, or you can make a paste from dried root powder and water, applying this paste once or twice a day and covering the area with a gauze bandage. I would take this with a grain of salt though. There are powerful bloodroot-containing salves (commonly called "black salves" or "drawing salves") being sold out there that claim to remove moles and skin tags, and "draw out"cancer. I have some friends who tried using these salves, and it worked to remove the mole but left HUGE, terrible scars. For this reason, I would never use black salves. In addition, studies have shown that using a corrosive cancer salve on lesions may remove superficial cancer but leave behind part of the cancer, which then comes back. I'm a huge fan of using herbs for medicinal purposes, but only when the pros outweigh the cons.
Will I try using bloodroot on a wart? I might try a tiny bit of fresh juice on it, but I'd stay away from the paste.
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Normally I like to be upbeat and positive when talking about foraging and using medicinal herbs. I like to write about how great they are, how all-natural and how frugal they are. But in some cases it may be best to just appreciate a plant at arm's length.
Herbs can be very powerful, so use with caution!.
The Latin name for Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis, comes from the Latin word for "bleeding". This describes the red-orange juice that comes from the stems and leaves, used in many cultures as dye and insect repellent.
Bloodroot may help get rid of warts because it contains skin-irritating chemicals that can dissolve tough skin tissue. A book I have called The Herbal Drugstore says that you can apply the juice of the plant directly to the wart, or you can make a paste from dried root powder and water, applying this paste once or twice a day and covering the area with a gauze bandage. I would take this with a grain of salt though. There are powerful bloodroot-containing salves (commonly called "black salves" or "drawing salves") being sold out there that claim to remove moles and skin tags, and "draw out"cancer. I have some friends who tried using these salves, and it worked to remove the mole but left HUGE, terrible scars. For this reason, I would never use black salves. In addition, studies have shown that using a corrosive cancer salve on lesions may remove superficial cancer but leave behind part of the cancer, which then comes back. I'm a huge fan of using herbs for medicinal purposes, but only when the pros outweigh the cons.
Will I try using bloodroot on a wart? I might try a tiny bit of fresh juice on it, but I'd stay away from the paste.
********
Normally I like to be upbeat and positive when talking about foraging and using medicinal herbs. I like to write about how great they are, how all-natural and how frugal they are. But in some cases it may be best to just appreciate a plant at arm's length.
Herbs can be very powerful, so use with caution!.
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