* Please Note: This information is based partly on Traditional Medicine which uses natural materials to support health. This information has not been evaluated or approved by the FDA. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These products are intended to support general well being and are not intended to treat, diagnose, mitigate, prevent, or cure any condition or disease. If conditions persist, please seek advice from your medical doctor.
Description
Knotgrass Polygonum aviculare L.
Family: Polygonaceae.
Other Names: Knotweed; renouée des oiseaux (French); Vogelknöterich (German); centinodia (Italian).
Description: A spreading, wiry annual weed with sparse, slender stems, distinct nodes covered by translucent stipular sheaths (these have lacerated edges and are dark-coloured at their bases, giving the sterns a distinctive "knotty" appearance) and small, narrow, almost stalkless leaves. Minute reddish flowers are borne in the leaf axils. Several Polygonum species have been moved to the genus Persicaria. Roots of flowery knotweed or he shou wu (Polygonum multiflorum or Fallopia multiflora) is important in Chinese medicine.
Origin: Europe and Asia; it has become a weed of cultivation in all temperate parts of the world and is collected mainly in eastern Europe.
Parts Used: Whole herb, including the roots (knotweed herb - Polygoni avicularis herba).
Therapeutic Category: Traditional expectorant.
Uses and Properties: Knotweed herb is mainly used, to this day, to treat coughs, bronchial catarrh and inflammation of the mouth and upper respiratory tract. In China and the eastern Mediterranean region it has been used since ancient times as a diuretic and in folk medicine also for throat and bronchial ailments, as haemostyptic and to treat skin problems. He shou wu is a tonic herb used in China for numerous and diverse indications (including liver ailments, kidney problems, nervous conditions, premature ageing and infertility).
Preparation and Dosage: A cup of tea can be made from 1.5 g of the chopped dry herb, and taken three to five times a day for coughs and catarrh. The herb or extracts thereof form ingredients of cough teas and various proprietary products used as antitussive and diuretic medicines.
Active Ingredients: It has been speculated that the tannins (3.6% gallo- and catechol tannins) are the main active compounds. Other potentially active constituents present are flavonoids (such as avicularin, quercetin 3-arabinoside, hyperoside, vitexin), mucilage, siicic acid (1%), phenolcarboxylic acids and some coumarins.
Pharmacological Effects: Tannins unspecifically inhibit enzymes and receptors; it is plausible to attribute antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and haemostyptic properties to tannins and other phenolic compounds. Silicic acid and flavonoids might enhance diuresis.
Status: Traditional medicine; Comm. E+.
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Anonymous - May 15, 2006, 15:37
#10000495
can you tell me what knot grass is used for - jean
ZooScape Moderator - May 15, 2006, 16:03
#10001378
Knotgrass (Polyganum aviculare) is abundant everywhere, a common weed in arable land, on waste ground and by the roadside. The plant varies greatly in size. When it grows singly in a favorable soil and clear of other vegetation, it will often cover a circle of a yard or more in diameter, the stems being almost prostrate on the ground and leaves broad and large; but when growing crowded by other plants the stalks become more upright and all the parts are generally smaller.
The specific name, aviculare, is from the Latin aviculus, a diminutive of avis (a bird), great numbers of our smaller birds feeding on its seeds. The seeds are useful for every purpose in which those of the allied Buckwheat are employed and are produced in great numbers, hence its local name - Allseed.
Some of the older herbals call it Bird's Tongue or Sparrow Tongue, these names arising from the shape of its little, pointed leaves. Its minute reddish flowers gained it the name of Red Robin. From the difficulty of pulling it up, it was called Armstrong, and from the fact that cattle and swine eat it readily, we find it called Cowgrass and Hogweed, Pigweed or Pigrush. Shakespeare (Midsummer Night's Dream) speaks of this plant as 'the hindering Knotgrass', referring to the belief that its decoction was efficacious in retarding the growth of children and the young of domestic animals.
Knotgrass has astringent properties, rendering an infusion of it useful in diarrhea, bleeding piles and all hemorrhages; it was formerly employed considerably as a vulnerary and styptic. It has also diuretic properties, for which it has found employment in strangury and as an expellant of stones.
The decoction was also administered to kill worms. The fresh juice has been found effectual to stay bleeding of the nose, squirted up the nose and applied to the temples, and made into an ointment it has proved an excellent remedy for sores. The fruit is emetic and purgative.
Directions
Take 1 capsule, 3 times daily, with meals.
Additional Information
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