FIVE FINGER GRASS Potentilla tormentilla Neck.( Potentilla( L.) Rausch.); Tormentilla erecta, L.( Bello-Russ. Academy of Science, Minsk, 1967)
Dose: 1 tablespoonful of the crushed rhizome to 1 cup of boiling water; drink from 3 – 5 tablespoonfuls a day, 1 or 1½ tablespoonfuls before each meal. Industrial: Used to process leather; also in the textile industry for dying in red colour.
FRINGE TREE Chionanthus virginica, L.( N. O.: Oleaceae)
Common Names: Old Man’ s Beard, Snowdrop Tree, White Fringe, Poison Ash. Features: The species is native in the eastern United States, from Pennsylvania to the Gulf of Mexico. A shrub or small tree of the Oleaceae, or olive, family. The plants are 10 – 30 ft. high, possess oval, smooth, entire leaves, and bear snow-white flowers which hang down like a fringe, hence the common name and synonyms. Fruit fleshy, purple, ovid drupe. They form an attractive feature in garden shrubbery, growing well on river banks and on elevated places, presenting clusters of snowwhite flowers in May and June. Root about ⅛ in. thick, dull brown with irregular concave scales on outer surface, inside smooth, yellowish brown. The inner layer shows projecting bundles of stone cells. Very bitter taste. Medicinal Part: Root bark. Solvent: Water. Bodily Influence: Alterative, Hepatic, Diuretic, Tonic. Uses: Generally useful in stomach and liver disorders and in poor digestive functions, by slightly influencing all the organs engaged in digestion and blood making. A specific in spleen malfunction, and for congestion of the liver when failure to excrete the residue from food, thus resulting in constipation( one of the reasons for gall-stone, jaundice and stomach inefficiency). In some, the involuntary muscles of the heart will also be impaired by the inactivity of the above mentioned.
In pregnancy, when indications of yellow skin, the white of the eyes are of a yellow colour, bilious colic, heartburn, etc., 5 – 10 drops in water before meals is indicated. Useful in malignant tumours of the stomach or bowels, and in uterine tumours, also in most chronic conditions of the liver and spleen.
Combine: Tincture of Golden seal( Hydrastis canadensis), 7 – 10 drops. Tincture of Fringe tree( Chionanthus virginica), 3 – 7 drops.