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!

Mezereon

Scientific Names

Mezereon

  • Daphne mezereum L.
  • Thymelaeaceae
  • Mezereum family

Common Names

  • Daphne
  • Spurge flax
  • Spurge laurel
  • Spurge olive
  • Wild pepper

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Parts Usually Used

Bark
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Mezereon

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Mezereon is a small, European and Asian shrub; the stems have tough, leathery, gray-brown bark and bear alternate, smooth, lanceolate leaves. The rose-purple fragrant flowers appear on the branches in lateral clusters from February to April, before the leaves appear. The fruit is a red berry.
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Where Found

Has escaped from cultivation to grow wild in thickets and open woods in the northeastern states of the United States and eastern Canada.
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Medicinal Properties

Cathartic, diuretic, emetic, rubefacient, stimulant
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Uses

Once used as a purgative but little used today. Homeopathists still use medications made from the bark of Mezereon for skin problems and for respiratory and digestive ailments. Can be used for erysipelas and shingles.
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Warning

The entire plant is poisonous, and 3 or 4 berries can kill a person. People have even been poisoned by eating birds that had eaten the berries.

Never use without medical supervision under any circumstances.
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Bibliography

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

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

Buy It! The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book), edited by William H. Hylton, Rodale Press, Inc. Emmaus, PA, 18049., 1974

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