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Imperial Masterwort

Scientific Names


• Imperatoria ostruthium L.

Common Names

Masterwort
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Parts Usually Used

Rootstock
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Imperial masterwort is a perennial plant; the ringed rootstock is a dirty yellow or brown outside, white and milky inside. It produces an erect, glabrous, hollow stem bearing leathery, alternate leaves which are ternately or biternately divided into ovate, serrate segments. The petioles are dilated at the base. Flat, compound umbels of white flowers grow from the leaf axils during July and August.
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Where Found

Cultivated and also found wild in European mountain meadows.
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Medicinal Properties

Calmative, diaphoretic, diuretic, emmenagogue, febrifuge, stimulant
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Legends, Myths and Stories

Angelica is sometimes called masterwort. In the Middle Ages this herb was a panacea; go for everything that ailed a person. For this reason it was considered the king or emperor of all the roots, and that is how it got its name.
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Uses

A weak decoction used for catarrhal problems, fever, digestive difficulties, and lack of appetite, uterine cramps, menstrual problems, mucous congestion, gout, and rheumatism.
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Formulas or Dosages

The rootstock can be used fresh or dried.

Infusion: steep 1-2 tsp. rootstock in 1 cup water for 10 minutes; take 1 cup per day.

Decoction: use 1 tsp. rootstock with 1/2 cup water; boil lightly and steep about 3 minutes, then strain. Take 1/2 to 1 1/2 cups per day, a mouthful at a time, unsweetened.

Powder: take 2/3 tsp., 3 times per day.
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Bibliography

American Folk Medicine, by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973

Back to Eden, by Jethro Kloss; Back to Eden Publishing Co., Loma Linda, CA 92354, Original copyright 1939, revised edition 1994

Culpeper's Complete Herbal & English Physician, by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814)

The Herb Book, by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974.

Indian Herbalogy of North America, by Alma R. Hutchens, Shambala Publications, Inc., Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973

The Nature Doctor, by Dr. H.C.A. Vogel; Keats Publishing, Inc., 27 Pine Street (Box 876) New Canaan, CT. 06840-0876. Copyright Verlag A. Vogel, Teufen (AR) Switzerland 1952, 1991

Planetary Herbology, by Michael Tierra, C.A., N.D., O.M.D., Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. WI 53181., Copyright 1988, published 1992

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