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| problems. Burdock root promotes kidney function and helps clear the blood of harmful acids. Research has shown that its seeds can lower blood sugar in rats, and in France, the fresh root is prescribed for this purpose. |
| Burdock root is a common Japanese vegetable called gobo, sold in thousands of grocery stores and sushi bars and used in many herbal formulas. Years ago a single batch of burdock was contaminated with belladonna root, which contains the poisonous compound atropine. It happened only once, but some medical authorities still refer to burdock as toxic because of its presumed atropine levels. Burdock root does not contain atropine, and it has a long and enviable track record of safe consumption by large numbers of people over long periods of time. |
| CALMUS ROOT or SWEET FLAG (Acorus calamus). An aromatic bitter, carminative, demulcent and antispasmodic, sweet flag or calamus root is widely used in Europe for indigestion, weakness of the digestive system, flatulence, colic, glandular disorders, dyspepsia, gastritis and gastric ulcers. The root, a rhizome, stimulates a sluggish stomach and intestine, dissipating excess mucus. It combines well with ginger and wild yam for colic and with meadowsweet and marshmallow for gastric conditions. The Austrian herbalist Maria Treben recommended making a cold infusion for calamus root tea. In addition, the dried root can be chewed to stimulate saliva, improve appetite and activate the entire digestive tract. |
| Calamus root was one of the herbs featured on the FDA's List of Unsafe Herbs, which was discontinued years ago because of its inaccuracies, and it is still listed in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations as prohibited from direct addition to or use in human food. The controversy over calamus root stems from its asarone, a compound found to be carcinogenic in laboratory rats when taken in large quantities. Fritz Rudolf Weiss, M.D., a German authority on herbal medicine, wrote that calamus root has been popular from antiquity and is still widely used in Europe today without any reports of it causing cancer or any other problems. In The New Age Herbalist, |
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