the root, the top side of each leaf bearing as many as 200 red tentacles, each tipped with a gland exuding an exceedingly sticky drop of fluid. The flat little rosette of spatulate leaves is formed around a dainty white flower on a stem 1 – 2 in. tall. The tentacles are expanded until the pressure of a small insect’ s body is held by the sticky drops, which its weight bends over the prey, enclosing it in a sort of stomach. Digestive juices, analogous to pepsin, are excreted, and the insect is dissolved and absorbed. Medicinal Part: The whole herb. Solvent: Boiling water. Bodily Influence: Stimulant, Expectorant, Demulcent, Antispasmodic. Uses: In the conditions for which Sundew is used it is almost as if the dew-drops are quenching the dry and tickling condition of the respiratory organs. Considered a prophylactic( prevents the spread of disease) in whooping cough and controls the spasms and characteristic coughs; also indicated in laryngitis, for tobacco cough, some types of asthma, chronic bronchitis and catarrh, when attended with dryness of the mucous membranes and irritable states of the nervous system. Excellent in the early stages of consumption when attended with a harassing cough without expectoration.
S. Clymer gives us a formula that proves very effective:
Tincture of Sundew( Drosera rotundifolia), 2 to 5 drops Tincture Queen’ s root( Stillingia sylvatica), 1 to 40 drops Tincture Passion flower( Passiflora incarnata), 3 to l0 drops
In water as frequently as necessary. Dose: 1 teaspoonful of the herb, cut small, to 1 pint of boiling water; take a mouthful at a time as required. Of the tincture alone, 3 – 6 drops in water as indicated. External application may cause water blisters on the skin. Homoeopathic Clinical: Tincture of the active fresh plant, Amblyopia, Asthma, Bronchitis, Catarrh, Consumption, Cough, Coxalgia, Epilepsy, Haemorrhage, Headache, Laryngitis, Measles, Nausea, Sciatica, Vomiting, Whooping cough. Russian Experience: Rossianka Round Leaf and Rossianka English( Drosea) grows in many parts of Russia including the far east and Siberia. Commercially collected. in Bello-Russia, Siberia and northern Russia in June and July when the plant is in full flower. Long orange needles are used to extract crystalline plumbagin( 1928). Plumbagin, which suppresses some pathogenic fungus and bacterial growths, was discovered in other plants in 1828. In northern Russia farmers used the plant in boiling water to disinfect milk containers. The plant also contains peptic ferment of antispasmodic properties, which explains the calming effect for spasmodic and whooping cough. Folk Medicine: For nervaus headache, sickness and disorders due to nerve maladjustment, plague, diphtheria, and as Nastoika( with vodka) for malaria( Bello-Russ. Academy of Science, 1965). Prepared as extracts, decoctions, tea and Nastoika. Dose: 10 – 20 drops of extract three times daily. As a tea, 1 teaspoonful steeped in cupful of boiling water, three times a day in tablespoonful amounts. Externally: Fresh juice for warts( Moscow University, Moscow, 1963).