Medicinal Monday...Simply Seneca -Snakeroot

This beautiful flowering plant got its common name, Seneca from the Seneca First Nation's use of it as a treatment for snakebite. This was just one of its traditional medicinal uses. Seneca-snakeroot can be found in Connecticut, although you will have to look hard for it because it is considered to be rare.

About Seneca Snakeroot

Polygala senega or Seneca snakeroot is a flowering plant in the milkwort family and is native to North America. It is found in southern Canada and the central and eastern United States, including all of New England. It grows in wetlands, on river banks and woodlands, and in limestone and marble bedrock. This perennial plant grows from a knotty rhizome or horizontal underground stem. A distinguishing feature is its toothed leaves that grow in clusters. The plant produces spires of white flowers with keels and crests in June and July. The petals are fused into a cup and the fruit is dry and splits open when ripe.

Medicinal Uses

This plant was named after the Seneca, a group of indigenous Iroquoian-speaking people who historically lived south of Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes of North America. They used this plant to treat snakebite. The root was chewed and swallowed and the snakebite wound was covered with a poultice made from the roots. The Cherokee used root powder as an expectorant, a diuretic, and to treat inflammation. It was also taken internally to treat rheumatism. The Chippewa used a poultice of the root to treat convulsions and wounds that were bleeding. The Ojibwa used a decoction of the root to treat coughs and colds. They also made a drink from an infusion of leaves that destroyed water bugs that were swallowed. The Cree chewed the root to treat toothaches and sore throats. The Cree also included powdered root from this plant in a variety of herbal remedies. The Blackfoot used a decoction of the roots to treat respiratory diseases.

Did You Know...

In the 1930s Canadians exported more than 700,000 pounds of the dried roots of this plant that was used in many over-the-counter remedies. Roots were specifically used to treat bronchitis. 

Today in Canada, the plant is mostly gathered from its wild habitat in Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan. The Cree and Metis people are the main foragers of this wild plant.

Recent studies indicate that Seneca snakeroot contains several chemical compounds that act as expectorants. It can be found in herbal and over-the-counter medicines in Europe and Asia.

Seneca snakeroot is cultivated in Japan, India, and Brazil.

In Connecticut, Maine, and Vermont this plant is considered to be extremely rare. In Canada, it is not considered endangered, although it is experiencing a loss of habitat due to overexploitation, overgrazing, and conversion of land to urban use. 

This plant is also known as senega snakeroot, senegaroot, rattlesnake root, and mountain flax.