Common Names: Snakeroot, Milkwort, Rattlesnake-Root, Mountain Flax. Features: Polygala is a genus of more than 500 annual and perennial herbs and shrubs of the family Polygalaceae. Most species are subtropical but nearly 200 are North American. P. senega, known as Mountain flax or Senega snakeroot, grows from New Brunswick to Alberta and southward to Georgia and Arkansas. This indigenous plant has a perennial, firm, hairy, branching root, with a thick bark, and sends up several annual stems, which are erect, smooth, 8 – 14 in. high, occasionally tinged with red. The leaves are alternate, nearly sessile lanceolate with a sharpish point, smooth. The new, small white flowers consists of five sepals, three petals and the capsules are small, two-celled and two-valved.
Found in rocky woods and on hillsides, flowering in July. The English name is Milkwort. The botanical name means“ much milk”, which has been applied to some species for the increase of milk flow. Its chemical constituents are polygalic, virginic, pectic, tannic acids, an oil, gum, albumen, salts of alumina, silica, magnesium and iron. For medicinal purposes, gather in the autumn just before the frost; the taste is bitter, though somewhat sweet. Medicinal Part: The root.
SENEGA Polygala senega, L.( U. S. Agricultural Department, Appalachia, 1971)
Solvents: Water, dilute alcohol. Bodily Influence: Diaphoretic, Diuretic, Expectorant, large doses Emetic and Cathartic. Uses: In the early part of the eighteenth century Scottish physician Tennant heard from the Senega Indians of the use of Senega in cases of snake bites, and investigated its merits. He discovered that an infusion of the dried roots would actively promote salivation, desirable in chronic catarrh, croup, asthma and lung disorders of pleurisy and pneumonia, but that it is too irritating for recent coughs of active inflammatory diseases. It increases the secretions and circulation and is indicated where there is prostration from blood poisoning, smallpox, asthma, diseases of the lungs, bronchitis, chronic catarrh, croup, dropsy and rheumatism. Dose: 1 teaspoonful of the root, cut small or granulated, to 1 cupful of boiling water. Of the tincture, I5 – 20 drops. Of the powder, 5 – 20 grains. Homoeopathic Clinical: Tincture of powdered dried root— Ascites, Asthma, Bladder( irritable; catarrh of), Bronchitis, Constipation, Cornea( opacity of), Cough, Enuresis, Facial paralysis, Hay fever, Influenza, Iritis, Oesophagus( stricture of; catarrh of), Phthisis mucosa, Pleurisy, Pneumonia, Snake bites, Sneezing( fits of; at end of cough), Throat( sore), Whooping cough. Russian Experience: Senega is known and pronounced the same as in North America. Cultivated in