Arnica is perennial. Once you sow seed, you may harvest for a good many years with little care until flowering season of the next floral medication, which requires some labour to collect. We also found that each acre requires about 5 – 6 lb. of seed. Total harvest cannot be estimated as it depends on soil conditions, climate, and time for collecting. Due to international demand the price is always increasing. The use of Arnica is limited by the shortage of supply.
North American Herbal Agriculture, and Herbalists, can extend a North American Indian treasure, and Russian experience, from the garden to the patient.
ARSESMART
Polygonum hydropiper, L.( N. O.: Polygonaceae)
Common Names: The hot Arsesmart is called Water Pepper( Polygonum Hydropiper). The mild Arsesmart is called Dead Arssmare( Persicaria Maculata) or Peach-Wort because the leaves are just like the leaves of a peach tree, also called Plumbago. Feature: A well-known plant in America, growing in low lands and about brooks which in most parts are dry in the summer. It flowers in the late summer or early autumn, and the seeds are ripe in August.
ARSESMART Polygonum hydropiper, L.( Vishaya schkolla, Moscow, 1963)
The Arsesmart plants are very much alike, and both have a hot sensation if the broken leaf is touched to the tongue. If seen together the mild water pepper has far broader leaves. Most Herbalists use them together.
The leaves contain essential oil, oxymethyl-anthraquinones; also polygonic acid, which has irritant properties, a glycoside which promotes the coagulation of blood and a polygonone-containing ethereal oil which lowers blood pressure. The herb contains formic acid, acetic acid and baldrianic acid, much tannin and a small amount of an essential oil. The fresh plant contains an acrid juice which causes irritation and smarting when brought into contact with the nostrils or eyes. The bruised leaves as well as the seeds will raise blisters if employed as a poultice, as in the case of mustard poultice. Medicinal Part: The whole herb. Solvents: Water, alcohol. Bodily Influence: Stimulant, Diuretic, Diaphoretic. Uses: Effectual for putrid ulcers in man and beast( internally and externally) having a cooling and drying quality. Swollen injuries, bruises, joint felons, or if the blood has congealed, will dissolve if the juice or the bruised herb is applied. The cold tea will kill worms and cleanse in active putrefied