KIDNEY LIVER LEAF Hepatica americana, Schreb.( N. O.: Ranunculaceae)
Common Names: Noble Liverwort, Liver Leaf, Choisy, Lichen Caninus. Features: One of our earliest harbingers of spring. The purplish-white flowers appear almost as soon as the snow leaves the ground. The leaves are all radical, on hairy evergreen stems. Fruit an ovate achenium. The Liverworts include some 8,500 species in approximately 237 genera. Most of them are small, leafy plants, easily and commonly mistaken for mosses. More common are Roundlobed Hepatica( Americana) and Sharp-lobed( H. acutiloba). They are common to both the U. S. A. and Canada and are found in warm, moist tropical conditions, along stream banks and in damp shaded forests; some occur in drier situations, however.
KIDNEY LIVER LEAF Hepatica nobilis, Schreb.( Bello-Russ. Academy of Science, Minsk, 1967)
Medicinal Part: The whole plant. Solvent: Water. Bodily Influence: Tonic, Demulcent, Deobstruent, Mild Mucilaginous, Astringent. Uses: An innocent herb which may be taken for all diseases of the liver, which in sickness or health influences so many functions of our system. Recommended in lung affections, coughs, bleeding of the lungs and the early stages of consumption, by cooling and cleansing the inflamed areas. Usually combined with other herbal plants, but can be taken as infusion of 1 oz. to 1 pint of boiling water in wineglassful doses, repeated frequently. Of the tincture, ½ – 1 fl. dram. Homoeopathic Clinical: Tincture of full-grown leaves— Bronchitis, Catarrh, Dyspepsia, Epistaxis, Throat( sore). Russian Experience: Hepatic Noble, or in Russian, Pereleska blagorodnaya, grows plentifully in Russia. Folk Medicine: From earliest historical use for jaundice, fever, cough, chronic bronchitis, headache, eye-wash. As medication for cattle of mouth sickness( Sibirskaya Yazva) Bello-Russ. Academy of Science, 1965).