GOLDEN SEAL--GOVERNMENT DESCRIPTION, ETC.
The following is from a bulletin issued by the U. S. Department of
Agriculture--Bureau of Plant Industry--and edited by Alice Henkel:
Hydrastis Canadensis L.
Pharmacopoeial Name--Hydrastis.
Other Common Names--Yellowroot, yellow puccoon, orange-root, yellow
Indian-paint, turmeric-root, Indian turmeric, Ohio curcuma, ground
raspberry, eye-root, eye-balm, yellow-eye, jaundice-root, Indian-dye.
Habitat and Range--This native forest plant occurs in patches in
high, open woods, and usually on hill sides or bluffs affording
natural drainage, from southern New York to Minnesota and western
Ontario, south to Georgia and Missouri.
Golden Seal is now becoming scarce thruout its range. Ohio, Indiana,
Kentucky and West Virginia have been the greatest Golden Seal
producing states.
[Illustration: Golden Seal (Hydrastis Canadensis) Flowering Plant
and Fruit.]
Description of Plant--Golden Seal is a perennial plant belonging to
the same family as the buttercup, namely the crowfoot family
(Ranunculaceae.) It has a thick yellow rootstock, which sends up an
erect hairy stem about 1 foot in height, surrounded at the base by 2
or 3 yellowish scales. The yellow color of the roots and scales
extends up the stem so far as it is covered by soil, while the
portion of the stem above ground has a purplish color. The stem,
which has only two leaves, seems to fork at the top, one branch
bearing a large leaf and the other a smaller one and a flower. A
third leaf, which is much smaller than the other two and stemless, is
occasionally produced. The leaves are palmately 5 to 9 lobed, the
lobes broad, acute, sharply and unequally toothed; they are
prominently veined on the lower surface and at flowering time, when
they are very much wrinkled, they are only partially developed, but
they continue to expand until they are from 6 to 8 inches in diameter
becoming thinner in texture and smoother. The upper leaf subtends or
incloses the flower bud. The greenish white flower appears about
April or May, but it is of short duration, lasting only five or six
days. It is less than half an inch in diameter, and, instead of
petals, has three small petal-like sepals, which fall away as soon as
the flower expands, leaving only the numerous stamens (as many as 40
or 50), in the center of which are about a dozen pistils, which
finally develop into a round fleshy, berry-like head which ripens in
July or August. The fruit when ripe turns a bright red and resembles
a large raspberry, whence the common name "ground-raspberry" is
derived. It contains from 10 to 20 small black, shining, hard seeds.
[Illustration: Golden Seal Rootstock.]
Description of Rootstock--The fresh rootstock of Golden Seal, which
has a rank, nauseating odor, is bright yellow, both internally and
externally, with fibrous yellow rootlets produced from the sides. It
is from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches in length, from 1/4 to 3/4 of an inch
in thickness, and contains a large amount of yellow juice.
In the dried state the rootstock is crooked, knotty and wrinkled,
from 1 to 2 inches in length, and from one-eighth to one-third of an
inch in diameter. It is a dull brown color on the outside and breaks
with a clean, short, resinous fracture, showing a lemon-yellow color
inside. After the rootstock has been kept for some time it will
become greenish yellow or brown internally and its quality impaired.
The cup-like depressions or stem scars on the upper surface of the
rootstock resemble the imprint of a seal, whence the most popular
name of the plant, golden seal, is derived. The rootstock as found in
commerce is almost bare, the fibrous rootlets, which in drying become
very wiry and brittle, breaking off readily and leaving only small
protuberances.
The odor of the dried rootstock, while not so pronounced as in the
fresh material, is peculiar, narcotic and disagreeable. The taste is
exceedingly bitter, and when the rootstock is chewed there is a
persistent acridity, which causes an abundant flow of saliva.
Collection, Prices and Uses--The root should be collected in autumn
after the seeds have ripened, freed from soil, and carefully dried.
After a dry season Golden Seal dies down soon after the fruit is
mature, so that it often happens that by the end of September not a
trace of the plant remains above ground; but if the season has been
moist, the plant sometimes persists to the beginning of winter. The
price of Golden Seal ranges from $1 to $1.50 a pound.
Golden Seal, which is official in the United States Pharmacopoeia, is
a useful drug in digestive disorders and in certain catarrhal
affections of the mucous membranes, in the latter instance being
administered both internally and locally.
Cultivation--Once so abundant in certain parts of the country,
especially in the Ohio Valley, Golden Seal is now becoming scarce
thruout its range, and in consequence of the increased demand for the
root, both at home and abroad, its cultivation must sooner or later
be more generally undertaken in order to satisfy the needs of
medicine. In some parts of the country the cultivation of Golden Seal
is already under way.
The first thing to be considered in growing this plant is to furnish
it, as nearly as possible, the conditions to which it has been
accustomed in its native forest home. This calls for a well-drained
soil, rich in humus, and partially shaded. Golden Seal stands
transplanting well, and the easiest way to propagate it is to bring
the plants in from the forest and transplant them to a properly
prepared location, or to collect the rootstocks and to cut them into
as many pieces as there are buds, planting these pieces in a deep,
loose, well-prepared soil, and mulching, adding new mulch each year
to renew the humus. With such a soil the cultivation of Golden Seal
is simple and it will be necessary chiefly to keep down the weeds.
The plants may be grown in rows 1 foot apart and 6 inches apart in
the row, or they may be grown in beds 4 to 8 feet wide, with walks
between. Artificial shade will be necessary and this is supplied by
the erection of lath sheds. The time required to obtain a marketable
crop is from two to three years.