Contents:
Common Names | Parts Usually Used | Plant(s) & Culture | Where Found | Medicinal Properties
Uses | Warning | Bibliography
Scientific Names
- Daphne mezereum L.
- Thymelaeaceae
- Mezereum family
Common Names
- Daphne
- Spurge flax
- Spurge laurel
- Spurge olive
- Wild pepper
Parts Usually Used
Bark
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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
The Herb Book, by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974.
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
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
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