Imperial Masterwort

Parts Usually Used

Rootstock

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Imperial masterwort is a perennial plant; the ringed rootstock is a dirty yellow or brown outside, white and milky inside. It produces an erect, glabrous, hollow stem bearing leathery, alternate leaves which are ternately or biternately divided into ovate, serrate segments. The petioles are dilated at the base. Flat, compound umbels of white flowers grow from the leaf axils during July and August.

Where Found

Cultivated and also found wild in European mountain meadows.

Medicinal Properties

Calmative, diaphoretic, diuretic, emmenagogue, febrifuge, stimulant

Legends, Myths and Stories

Angelica is sometimes called masterwort. In the Middle Ages this herb was a panacea; go for everything that ailed a person. For this reason it was considered the king or emperor of all the roots, and that is how it got its name.

Uses

Historical herbalists administered a decoction of the plant for catarrhal conditions, fevers, digestive difficulties, and poor appetite. Traditional practitioners also employed it for uterine cramps, menstrual complaints, mucous congestion, gout, and rheumatism.

Bibliography

, Loma Linda, CA 92354, Original copyright 1939, revised edition 1994 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) The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R.

, Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973 The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine , by Dr. A. , 27 Pine Street (Box 876) New Canaan, CT. 06840-0876. Copyright Verlag A. , Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , Copyright 1988, published 1992