Medicinal Herb InfoA reference archive of plants and their traditions
Not medical advice. This site documents how plants have been described and used historically. It is a botanical and folklore reference, not guidance for treating illness, and it carries no dosing instructions. Talk to a doctor or pharmacist before using any plant medicinally — herbs interact with medication and some are toxic.

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Hedge Bindweed

Botanical reference entry

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Parts Usually Used

Flowering plant, rootstock

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Hedge bindweed is a perennial herbaceous vine; the trailing or twining stem is glabrous, angular, and from 3-10 feet long, growing from a creeping rootstock. The leaves are alternate, sagittate, on slender petioles. The flaring, funnel-shaped flowers are white or pink with white stripes and grow solitary on long, quadrangular peduncles from the leaf axils from June to October. Another variety: Field bindweed (C.

arvensis) is a creeping vine; leaves are arrow-shaped, lobes are sharp, not blunt, 1-2 inches long. Flowers are white or pink, to 1 inch long. Blooms June to September. Native Americans used cold leaf tea as a wash on spider bites; internally, to reduce profuse menstrual flow. In European folk use, flower, leaf, and root teas considered laxative. Flower tea used for fevers, wounds.

The root is the most active part; strongly purgative. Also, there is an herb called Wild Jalap (C. jalapa) very similar to the Hedge bindweed.

Where Found

Grows in waste places, thickets, and cultivated ground in the eastern half of the United States and in all of Europe.

Medicinal Properties

Cholagogue, febrifuge, purgative

Uses

Historical herbalists primarily employed hedge bindweed as a purgative, though traditional accounts also recommended it for reducing fevers and soothing inflammation of the mucous membranes. Practitioners typically administered the plant in the form of a powdered root or a decoction. Folk traditions also noted the use of the fresh juice, which was believed to have contrasting effects on digestion depending on the amount ingested, and early sources generally cautioned against prolonged administration.

Bibliography

Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. Chinese Medicinal Herbs , compiled by Shih-Chen Li, Georgetown Press, San Francisco, California, 1973. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023