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Herbal Glossary | Medicinal Glossary | Herbal Preparations | Ayervedic Formulas | Chinese Formulas Indian TurnipContents:Common Names | Parts Usually Used | Plant(s) & Culture | Where Found | Medicinal Properties | Biochemical Information
Scientific Names
Common Names
Parts Usually UsedRootstock
Description of Plant(s) and CultureIndian turnip is a perennial plant 1-2 feet high; the rootstock is a turnip-shaped dark, rough, acrid corm, from which grows a single flower-stalk sheathed at the bottom by the footstalks of the plant’s 1-2 leaves with 3 leaflets each; green beneath. The leaves are ternately divided, the leaflets ovate or oblong-ovate, and pointed. The greenish-yellow to purplish-brown (often striped) flowers grow in a thick, fleshy spike which is hooded by a green and purplish-brown bract called a spathe. The cup-like spathe, with a curved flap overhanging the erect spadix, and the 3 terminal leaflets distinguish this species. The fresh roots have an acrid, burning effect and are considered poisonous. Flowering time is from April to June. Berries are clustered and scarlet. Other varieties: (A. atrotubens) is generally larger; leaves grayish green beneath. Also, the Native Americans called the Breadroot or Indian or Prairie Apple (Psoralea esculenta) by the name of Indian Turnip. French name: Pomme blanche, or Pomme de Prairie. The Sioux Indian name of this herb: “Tipsinnah.” Grows wild on the high plains of Manitoba west to the Rockies. John Colter of Lewis and Clark’s expedition escaped from the Indians and lived for a month on this and an edible thistle. Then there is a plant called Indian Turnip (Lithosperum linearifolium) used by the Blackfoot Indians that they named “Mass.” The tops were dried and burned in ceremonial rites.
Where FoundGrows mainly in moist woods in the states east from Louisiana, Kansas, and Minnesota.
Medicinal PropertiesAcrid, expectorant
Biochemical InformationTriterpenoid saponins, benzoic acid
Legends, Myths and StoriesThe root when first dug is too fiercely acrid for internal use; it will leave a burning impression on the tongue, lips and faces, like a severe scalding, followed by inflammation and tenderness, which may be somewhat mollified by milk.
UsesUsed in American medicine during the 19th century for asthma, rheumatism, hoarseness, sore and sensitive mouth and tongue, cough, colds, chronic laryngitis, stomatitis, colic, flatulence, facial paralysis, numbness, dizziness, strokes, lockjaw, spasms of the hands and feet, swelling from snakebites, and whooping cough. A poultice or liniment used for sores, ulcers, boils, abscesses, ringworm, scrofulous sores, swellings caused by trauma and injuries, scalp eruptions (tinea capitis), tumors, and as a gargle. Since the fresh root is dangerously irritating to mucous membranes and the dried root is inactive, the roots were used partially dried. Among the Native Americans, the Pawnee applied the powdered root to the head to cure headache, and the Hopis drank it in water to induce temporary or permanent sterility. Thorough drying, boiling, or heating makes the root edible. The common Indian turnip will relieve the rash and itch of poison ivy or poison oak. Indian turnip, or Jack-in-the-Pulpit as it is called, can be scraped and applied to the rash. (Take care around the eyes, do not put juice in the eyes) When the blisters have flattened, apply cold cream to heal the rash faster. The roots are known to be a powerful emetic and one used by Native Americans.
WarningIntensely irritating; calcium oxalate crystals are found in the whole fresh herb. The fresh roots have an acrid, burning effect and are considered poisonous. The fresh or partially dried root is too dangerous for use without medical supervision.
Bibliography
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Bog-onion
American Folk Medicine
, by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973
, by Steven Foster and James A. Duke., Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000Copyright © 1996-2010 Lynn DeVries, all rights reserved.