Description: Elecampane is a perennial plant that is cultivated and also grows wild along roadsides and in fields and waste places. The fibrous, top-shaped root-stock is brown outside and white inside. The stout, round stem is coarse and woolly, 3 to 6 feet high, and bears large, alternate, ovate, serrate, olive-colored leaves with white veins. The large, yellow flower heads are solitary or grow in paniculate clusters. The fruit is a brown, quadrangular achene.Â
Properties and Uses: Anthelmintic, cholagogue, diuretic, expectorant, stimulant, tonic. Elecampane tea is much used to quiet coughing, to stimulate digestion and to tone the stomach; for bronchitis, urinary and respiratory tract inflammation, and menstrual problems. Elecampane oil is used for respiratory and intestinal catarrh, chronic diarrhea, chronic bronchitis, and whooping cough. The decoction or tincture is used for worms, and externally as a wash or fomentation for skin problems.