Quack Grass
Parts Usually Used
Rootstock, rhizome
Description of Plant(s) and Culture
Grass; to 3 feet. Spreads on creeping yellow rhizomes. Leaves soft, flat, somewhat drooping; crowded with fine ribs. Flower spike not square as in most Agropyron species. 2-9 pale yellow, smooth, flowered spikelets; bract below spikelets not stiff, with slender keel and ribs. The spikes resemble wheat or rye when in bloom.
Where Found
Found in fields, gardens. Troublesome weed throughout United States. Native Eurasian.
Medicinal Properties
Diuretic, aperient, demulcent, emollient
Biochemical Information
A mucilaginous substance, triticine which is a fructosan, an antibiotic substance that is derived from agropyrene, vanilloside (glucovanilline) and mineral salts, sugar and silicic acid
Uses
Native Americans historically prepared the plant as a tea, which they employed as a diuretic and applied as a wash for swollen limbs. Traditional practitioners administered it for conditions such as kidney gravel, urinary incontinence, acne, gout, an enlarged prostate, jaundice, rheumatism, fever, lumbago, dropsy, and gall stones. It was also utilized in these traditions as a stomach stimulant, an agent to expel worms, a dietary food, and a blood purifier.
During times of famine, populations utilized the roots to prepare breadstuffs or scorched them to serve as a coffee substitute, while others occasionally chewed the raw roots in the manner of licorice. In African traditions, the plant was historically regarded as an antidote to arrow poisons.
Warning
Don’t grow couch grass in your back yard, it is so prolific it will over grow everything.
Bibliography
Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 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. Vogel, Teufen (AR) Switzerland 1952, 1991 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. , Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , Copyright 1988, published 1992 The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 The Magic of Herbs , by David Conway, published by Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, London, England.
(Out of print) 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. , 1974 Old Ways Rediscovered , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, published from 1954, print 1988 The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R.
, 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023 An Instant Guide to Medicinal Plants , by Pamela Forey and Ruth Lindsay, Crescent Books (January 27, 1992). , West Nyack, NY, 1987. 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. , 1974 The Healing Plants , by Mannfried Pahlow, Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.
, Hauppauge, NY 11788, 1992