The Medicinal Herb Info site was created to help educate visitors about the often forgotten wisdom of the old ways of treating illnesses. Many of today's drugs and medicines were originally derived from natural ingredients, combinations of plants and other items found in nature.

We are not suggesting that you ignore the help of trained medical professionals, simply that you have additional options available for treating illnesses. Often the most effective treatment involves a responsible blend of both modern and traditional treatments.

We wish you peace and health!

Butterbur

Scientific Names

Butterbur

  • Petasites vulgaris L.
  • Compositae
  • Composite family

Common Names

  • Petasites

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Parts Usually Used

Root
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Butterbur

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Butterbur is a thick-stalked perennial plant that appears in early spring. A little later come the flowers, preceding the leaves and gathered in dense pinkish clusters. Bees love them for their nectar. The leaves themselves are kidney-shaped, rough toothed and large, their undersides are white. The lower part being divided into 2 round parts, close almost together, pale green and hairy underneath. The root is long, and spreads under the ground, being in some places no bigger than ones finger, in others much bigger, blackish on the outside, and whitish inside. The taste is bitter and unpleasant. The flower blooms and decays in February and March before the leaves appear in April.
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Where Found

Grow in low wet grounds by rivers and water sides
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Medicinal Properties

Tonic, cardiac, diuretic, anticarcinogenic
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Legends, Myths and Stories

Butterbur is quite harmless and non-poisonous. But the tincture may be too strong for some people. If unusual symptoms occur, reduce the dosage or dilute the dosage and the symptoms will disappear.
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Uses

A general tonic, stimulating the heart and kidneys. Reduces tumors, even cancers, so it is claimed. Has been used to treat depression, dropsy, obesity, Hodgkin’s disease, plague, fevers, kills flat and broad worms, increases urine output, sores that are hard to cure, asthma, migraine, menstrual cramps, spasms, and cures addiction to pain-killing drugs.

No known side-effects, even in large doses over a long period of time.
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How Sold

Tablet form, known as Petadolor

Petaforce capsules

Petaforce is a harmless, non-toxic plant remedy to help cancer patients, even if they are on chemotherapy. Petaforce alleviates the unbearable pain suffered by cancer patients in the advanced stage of the illness, when morphine injections begin to fail. The Nature Doctor states that it reduces the danger of metastasis, improves the patient’s condition and prospects of a cure, and makes the existing pain more endurable.
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Bibliography

Buy It! 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)

Buy It!The Magic of Herbs, by David Conway, published by Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, London, England. (Out of print)

Buy It! The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, 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

Buy It! 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

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