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!

Feverweed

Scientific Names

Feverweed

  • Gerardia pedicularia L.
  • Pedicularis palustris L.
  • Figwort family

Common Names

  • American foxglove
  • Bushy gerardia
  • False foxglove
  • Fern-leaved false foxglove
  • Lousewort

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Parts Usually Used

The entire plant
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Feverweed is a sticky and hairy, annual or perennial plant; the numerous stems are 1-4 feet high and bear opposite, fern-like leaves, 1-3 inches long, which are pinnately lobed and deeply serrate. The large, yellow, bell-shaped flowers grow in loose terminal racemes in August and September, followed by 2-celled fruit capsules.
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Where Found

Grows in dry woods, pine ridges, mountains, and thickets from Maine to Florida and west to Ontario, Minnesota, and Missouri.
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Medicinal Properties

Antiseptic, diaphoretic, febrifuge, sedative
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Legends, Myths and Stories

Other herbs are called lousewort: Wood betony (Betonica officinalis); and (Pedicularis canadensis).
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Uses

A warm infusion is particularly effective in producing perspiration to reduce fevers and relieve inflammatory diseases. Helps wounds heal.
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Formulas or Dosages

Infusion: use 1 tsp. herb with 1 cup water. Take 1 cup per day.

Tincture: take 5-20 drops at a time.
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Bibliography

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

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

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

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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