Butterbur

Petasites hybridus

COMMON NAMES

• Butterbur
• Sweet Coltsfoot

Butterbur - a stout perennial herb arising from a coarse rhizome (underground stem) and having a hollow, thick, reddish-brown leafless aerial stem, (called a scape) covered with lance-shaped scales and terminating in a dense club-shaped cluster of flowerheads. Large leaves, up to 2 feet wide, are spiky around the edges. Lilac-pink flowers of butterbur (April-May) are small and tubular.

Because the leaves are big enough to protect a person's head from sun or rain, the Greeks styled butterbur "hat plant." The name of the broad-brimmed hat, somewhat like a sombrero, worn by travelers in Greco-Roman times was petasos, and the plant name derived from it survives in botanical usage. According  to the Elizabethan John Gerard's Herball , (1597), the dried powdered root of butterbur mixed with wine was a superior medicine against the plague and other pestilential diseases. The powdered root worked as a remedy for intestinal worms, as a diuretic, and to stimulate menstruation, Gerard wrote, and was effective if dusted on ulcerating sores. In subsequent herbal tradition butterbur acquired a reputation as a remedy for gravel (small kidney stones), as an antispasmodic, and as a colic medicine. Some herbalists cited a poultice of the fresh leaves or of the leaves and flowers for external application on wounds. The dried leaves have served as a tobacco substitute - a particularly rank and unpleasant substitute, according to some people who have tried smoking them in a pipe.

PARTS USED

Aerial parts, root.

USES

Butterbur has tonic and expectorant properties, and is antispasmodic and analgesic, acting specifically on the stomach, bile ducts, and duodenum. Butterbur has been used mainly to treat chest problems such as bronchitis, asthma, and whooping cough. Butterbur helps to strengthen digestion, in particular where indigestion results from obstructed bile flow. Butterbur has also been given for inflammation of the urinary tract, and it has been used externally as a poultice to treat wounds and skin eruptions.

Although some modern herbalists recommend the rootstock of butterbur to break a fever and as a diuretic, antispasmodic, and pain reliever, no evidence suggests that any of these uses are valid.

HABITAT AND CULTIVATION

Butterbur flourishes throughout Europe. Butterbur prefers damp or moist sites, along roadsides and the banks of streams. The aerial parts are gathered in summer; the root, in spring or autumn.

CONSTITUENTS

Butterbur contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (notably senecione), sesquiterpene lactones, a volatile oil, pectin, mucilage, and inulin (in the root). In isolation, pyrrolizidine alkaloids are toxic to the liver.

USUAL DOSAGE

Put 1 teaspoonful of the root in a cup of water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes. This should be drunk three times a day. Tincture: take 1- 2 ml of the tincture three times a day.

COLLECTION AND HARVESTING

The rhizomes of butterbur are collected in the summer, the leaves throughout the growing season.

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