Bitterroot / Milkweed

Common Names:  Common Silkweed, Cotton-Weed, Milkweed Root, Pai-t’u-Huo (Chinese Name), Silkweed, Silky Swallow-wortSnake Milkemetic Root, Milk Ipecac, Swallow Wort, Virginia Silk

Scientific Name:  Asclepias Syriaca L., Asclepiadaceae, Milkweed Family

Common Uses:  Milkweed is useful for kidney problems, dropsy, scrofula, conditions of the bladder, water retention, asthma, stomach ailments, and gallstones, female disorders, arthritis, bronchitis. Causes increase in perspiration, thus reducing fever. Some Native Americans rubbed the (latex) juice on warts, moles, ringworms; others drank an infusion of the rootstock to produce temporary sterility or as a laxative. A folk cancer remedy.

*Warnings:  Milkweed is poisonous in large quantities, especially for children. May be dangerous for people over 55. Take no more than is necessary.

Origin:  Found in fields, roadsides, fence rows, and waste places of eastern North America, as far west as Kansas and Saskatchewan. The most common milkweed in the Northeast.