Fall is a great time to dig up roots of medicinal plants because the sap in the upper portion has worked it's way down by frost. As soon as the plant starts to die back in the late summer and fall the healing chemicals will be stored in the roots until early spring when new growth starts.
Medicinal herbs have been used by Ozark natives for centuries and digging roots in the fall is a way to store and preserve useful ingredients for later use. Once a collection of roots and root barks have been collected you're good to move down the trail if you wish with healing herbs in your pack.
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Missouri Snakeroot was known to old time settlers, but it's a good example of how several different plants could go by the same common name. The useful variety was actually Wild Quinine, a perennial native of the Ozarks found growing in prairies, rock outcrops, waste places and roadsides.
Wild Quinine herb was sometimes mixed with purple coneflower. They are both in the sunflower family and their roots bear an uncanny resemblance to each other.
Settlers of the area learned this herb could be used for coughs and sore throats from the Native Americans. Snakeroot has large, swollen, dark brown roots, growing first vertically and then may expand horizontally. Collect the roots and dry for later herb use. Plant is not edible. This is also a good example of how important it is to know exactly what you are digging up.
White Snakeroot, a completely different plant that looks somewhat alike, is poisonous to cattle and killed many early settlers who drank milk from cows that grazed on it. It is estimated that in the early 1800's up to half of all fatalities were caused by “milk sickness.”
Sassafras leaves can be made into teas and poultices, while the root bark is chipped or crushed and then steeped in boiling water. Taken in doses of a small glassful as often as needed to reduce fevers; sooth chronic rheumatism, gout, and dropsy; relieve eye inflammation; ease menstrual pain; help cure scurvy and various skin conditions; and act as a disinfectant in dental surgery.
The root should be dug after the sap goes down in the fall and before it rises in the spring to thin the blood. An old Ozark doctor put sassafras root in his medication. He'd say if you would drink that in either February or March, three times a day, he'd doctor you the rest of the year for five dollars. That was what the old doctor thought of it. If your blood is in proper shape you're not liable to take disease.
Mayapple is poisonous to use in just about any way, but old timers did mix a little in with some potions. They used it carefully and with skill, but it's hard to say if it did more harm than good.
When early settlers came to the Ozarks they found the local Indians were familiar with mayapple plant. They used the herb to cure worms in the intestines, warts (moles) and sometimes also as an insecticide for their crops. But they recognized the herb's toxic or noxious properties.
Jack-in-the-Pulpit root, locally known as Indian turnip is used in alternative medicine and is edible only after roasting the root and drying it 6 months. In this way old timers peeled and ground Jack in the Pulpit roots to powder to make a bread, which has a flavor similar to chocolate.
Roots gathered over winter and dried for later can be cut into very thin slices and allowed to dry. Then they can be eaten like potato chips, crumbled to make a cereal or ground into a cocoa-flavored powder for making biscuits and cakes.
Jack in the Pulpit root is antiseptic, expectorant and stimulant. A poultice can be used for headaches and skin diseases, or to make an ointment for ringworm and abscesses.
Dried Wild Ginger root is burned as incense and is said to repel insects. The roots slowly boiled for a long time and a spray made from it is a good deodorant and is an antiseptic. It can also be used as an insecticide or a very strong concoction used as a herbicide.
In early folklore about wild ginger it was believed that witches used it to rid themselves of warts so they would not be recognized. The plant can be found in a rich moist neutral to acid soil in woodland or a shady area.
Dandelions have become really popular as a pot herb and widely shared as a wild edible. You can't over harvest them because if you try to pull a dandelion root, you can’t. They will most often break off.
Early settlers knew to use dandelions, too and harvested them all year round. It has antimicrobial, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory benefits, and has since been found to have many more qualities. Old timers knew Dandelion root is a powerful diuretic.
Goldenseal, also known as yellow root is a perennial plant native to the Ozarks. It has been recognized as a valuable medicinal plant for centuries since the compounds in the roots have proven antibiotic properties.
Goldenseal has to grow for 3 or more years before producing large, potent rootstock. The plant is perennial, so if you find young plants just mark the spot and let them grow. Only harvest the large, mature plants.
You may have read about the way Cattails can feed you, since all the plant is edible. What you may not realize is the medicinal qualities of the plant. For instance, insect bites can be treated with the jelly-like substance that you can find between young leaves and can be applied topically. This same jelly is known as a powerful analgesic and can be ingested.
Various parts of the cattail have coagulant properties, slowing down the flow of blood and preventing anemia. It's ability to heal boils, sores, and reduce the appearance of scars has been known for generations.
Since old times, Purple coneflower has been used to treat various diseases ranging from scarlet fever, venereal diseases such as syphilis, malarial infections, blood poisoning, and diphtheria.
It is also used to treat wounds that are slow in healing, along with urinary tract disorders, yeast infections, ear infections or otitis media, tinea pedis, inflammation of the sinus and allergic rhinitis.
Purple coneflower has been used in the form of dried root or herb, as tea, standardized tincture extract, powdered extract, and tincture.
Poke weed is harvested in the spring as young shoots and can be eaten, but as soon as it begins to get red veins up the stem, about half grown, it's no longer edible. The raw root is poisonous and will cause temporary blindness, but the root boiled in water was used as a cure for any kind of skin poisoning.
Pokeweed root is used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, tonsillitis, mumps, glandular fever and other complaints involving swollen glands, chronic catarrh, bronchitis and diseases related to a compromised immune system.
Equal parts of poke and black cohosh was used to cure arthritis. Chopped fine it was put in a quart jar and filled with moonshine whiskey. A tablespoon twice a day would either kill ya or cure you.
Digging medicinal herb roots is an art that's all but lost. When I was young there were still some Ozark old timers who knew and dug up roots to make poultices and tinctures. Today many concoctions that you buy at the Supercenter still have those old time ingredients in them. If you run across someone who knows about using medicinal roots, don't waste the experience.