Littleflower's Medicine of North American Plants

ECOW PARSNIP Heracleum lanatum

Common Names: Masterwort. Pikiwunus (Menomini). Poglus (Huron).

Range: Cow parsnip occurs from Newfoundland west to Alaska and south to California, Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, and Georgia. It is not found in northern Canada or in the extreme southern and southeastern regions of the United States.

Habitat: A wide variety of forested habitat types, wet open places, as well as grassland, shrubland, meadow, alpine, and riparian zones.

Wildlife: Cow parsnip is a valuable forage species for livestock, deer, elk, moose, and bear. Moose in Montana and Yellowstone National Park eat cow parsnip. In low elevation riparian areas it is an important food for grizzly bear, especially in the spring. In Glacier National Park, cow parsnip comprised 15 percent of grizzly bear total diet volume, spring through fall, in 1967-1971 and 1982-1985. In Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, grizzly feeding sites were examined from June to early August; 77 percent of the cropped umbelliferous plants were cow parsnip (stems, petioles, and blossoms).

Native Americans of Alaska, British Columbia, the Great Plains, and Arizona used cow parsnip for medicinal and nutritional purposes. In Alaska, the insides of the raw stems and roots are boiled to extract sugar. In Arizona, the Apache ate the young leaves and stems and used the roots to treat epilepsy. The root may be eaten cooked and is purported to be beneficial in relieving gas and cramps. The young stems can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked. The hollow basal portion of the plant may be cut into small pieces, dried, and used as a salt substitute by cooking the piece with other food. The leaves may be dried, burned and the ashes used a a salt substitute, too.

"There is an herbe which in Dutch is called Melden. Some of those that I describe it unto, take it to be a kind of Orage; it groweth about foure or five foote high; of the seed thereof they make a thicke broth, and pottage of a very good taste; of the stalke by burning into ashes they make a kind of salt earth, wherewithall many use sometimes to season their brothes; other salt they knowe not. Wee ourselves, used the leaves also for pothearbes." 1590 Harriot Virginia Indians 14.

"Historical references are unanimous in stating that salt was seldom or never used by nearly all the eastern Indians at or immediately following the discovery...A desire for some saline material was shown by certain tribes...Beverly writes regarding the Indians of Virginia, that 'They have no Salt among them, but for seasoning, used the Ashes of Hiccory, stickweed, or some other wood or Plant, affording a Salt Ash.' " 1916 Waugh IROQUOIS 150-1.

The leaves and roots are rubefacient; the root is said to be carminative and stimulant...Decoction of the root gargled for ulcerated sore throat or the dried root chewed...For boils, boil the root and use as a drawing poultice. It was said that the dried root could be used without cooking. Dried root and flowers were pounded together and made into a poultice without boiling and applied to the boil." 1926-7 Densmore CHIPPEWA 301, 342, 350.

"An evil medicine used by the sorcerers...This herb is always found in the hunting bundle. It is a very personal sort of deer charm as only the owner of the bundle can handle it. If others touch it they will turn black and die. After the deer is killed, then it must be hung up and smudged for four days, after certain parts are removed. This plant and the leaves of Cynthia are burned in the smudge to take out the charm, by which the hunter was enabled to kill the deer. This smudge is also to drive away the evil spirit called sokenau, whose special mission is to steal one's hunting luck. On a deer hunt, as soon as the camp is established and the fire built, some of this cow parsnip is thrown on the fire, and the odor and smoke permeate the air for great distances, making it impossible for the sokenau to approach too closely under ordinary circumstances. But if the sokenau is desperate and determined to steal one's hunting luck, he may come right into camp, but the smoke of pikiwunus (cow parsnip) will cause him to go blind. In case a person is afflicted with bad hunting luck, a medicine made of pikiwunus seeds...is used. The whole hunting paraphernalia is smoked and smudged to drive away bad luck. The hunter must not eat any of the meat during this four days' smudging process, if he did, the Menomini believe that he would turn black and die. Wild ginger root is boiled with deer meat to remove the hunting charm." 1923 H. Smith MENOMINI 55, 81.

"The root is a medicine for those who are sick with colic or any kind of cramps in the stomach. The seeds are used 'when they are almost crazed in the head'. It is used for severe pain in the head. The stem is used for a poultice to heal wounds. The root tea is used to cure erysipelas (doubtful identification). The fresh leaves and root of this plant will produce vesication, and have been used by the white man as a counterirritant. It is alleged to have a curative effect in epilepsy and to correct dyspeptic disorders...This is another of the Meskwaki potatoes, of which there is an unlimited supply on the reservation. It is cooked like rutabaga and tastes somewhat like it. We had always supposed the root to be poisonous, but they experience no ill effect for its use. The Meskwaki called our attention to the resemblance of the side roots to the ginseng root, and also to the fact that it smells the same as ginseng when fresh or dried. Many of the Meskwaki sold these side roots dried and tied like ginseng to the white buyer who used to visit the reservation buying ginseng, and he never discovered the difference. the say the roots are like sweet potatoes." 1928 H. Smith MESKWAKI 249, 265.

"The Pillager Ojibwe pound the fresh root and apply it as a poultice to cure sores...According to the Flambeau Ojibwe there is a bad spirit 'sokenau' who is always trying to steal away one's luck in hunting game. He must be driven away from the camp of the hunter by smudging a fire with the roots of the Cow Parsnip...The Pillager...put the seed of the plant on a fire to drive away Sokenau. They boil the root to sprinkle their fishing nets and lure fish." 1932 H. Smith OJIBWE 390, 432.

"Was used by the Indians of Loretta in the course of an epidemic of influenza. Marie-Victorin has already noted this use." 1945 Rousseau MOHAWK transl. 56.

"Used as an expectorant, diuretic, antidyspeptic, and antiepileptic. The HURONS of the village of Loretta (near Quebec) used with success it is said an infusion of the plant under the name of 'Poglus' to combat the Spanish influenza of the great epidemic of 1918 in their village. 1955 Mockle transl. 67.