Contents:
Common Names | Parts Usually Used | Plant(s) & Culture | Where Found | Medicinal Properties | Biochemical Information
Legends, Myths and Stories | Uses | Formulas or Dosages | Nutrient Content | Bibliography
Scientific Names
- Amaranthus hypochondriacus L.
- Amaranthaceae
- Amaranth family
Common Names
- Floramor
- Flower gentle
- Lady bleeding
- Lovely bleeding
- Love lies bleeding
- Pilewort
- Prince’s feather
- Red cockscomb
- Spleen amaranth
- Velvet flower
Parts Usually Used
Leaves
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Description of Plant(s) and
Culture
Amaranth is an annual herb; its stout, upright stem grows 3-4 feet high and bears alternate, oblong-lanceolate pointed, green leaves that have a red-purplish spot. Its flowers appear in August and grow in clusters. The flowers are not properly flowers, but tufts, with no smell, and of a reddish color. Bruised flowers will yield juice of the same color, dried they make good addition to flower arrangements. Flowering time is from August until frost. Seeds are a shiny black.
Other varieties: Smooth pigweed (A. hybridus); Pigweed or Green Amaranth (A. retroflexus). (also tumbleweed)
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Where Found
Cultivated and occurs wild mainly in the central states of the United States.
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Medicinal Properties
Astringent, hemostatic, nutritive, alterative
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Biochemical Information
Not identified; probably small amount of tannin
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Legends, Myths and Stories
The name is from the Greek, meaning “unfading”.
The ash of amaranth has a very large salt peter content.
Some species of amaranth are known as pigweed. None of the species is poisonous and many are used as potherbs.
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Uses
Taken internally for diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhage from the bowels, nosebleeds, and excessive menstruation. Can be used as a douche for leucorrhea, as a wash for skin problems, and as a gargle for mouth and throat irritations.
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Formulas or Dosages
Infusion or decoction: use
Gargle:
Tincture: a dose is
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Nutrient Content
High in vitamins A and C
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Bibliography
The Herb Book
, by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974.
Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants
, by Steven Foster and James A. Duke., Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000
Herbal Recipes, by David C. Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1978, seventh printing, August 1996
Chinese Medicinal Herbs
, compiled by Shih-Chen Li, Georgetown Press, San Francisco, California, 1973.
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
Indian Herbalogy of North America
, by Alma R. Hutchens, Shambala Publications, Inc., Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973
Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs
, by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814)
Webster’s New World Dictionary
, Third College Edition, Victoria Neufeldt, Editor in Chief, New World Dictionaries: A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023