Summoning spirits, healing, purification and defeating negativity.
G/P/E: Masculine, Jupiter, Air.
Magical attributes: Divination, welcoming, messages.
Uses: The ground root can act as a coffee substitute, and the flowers make a lovely wine. A superb cleansing tonic, and the milky juice is a diuretic, a tonic and a relief for common stomach problems.
Use a handful of flower tops to 1 pint of boiling water, steep 10 minutes and strain. Drink this several times a day. Use the milky latex from the stem , rub on a wart several times daily and soon its gone.
Also good for night blindness.
Bury in northwest corner of yard to bring favorable winds.
Use in sachets and charms to make wishes come true.
Also Called: Blowball, Cankerwort, Lion’s Tooth, Priest’s Crown, Puffball, Swine Snout, White Endive, Wild Endive, Piss-a-Bed
It is especially effective and valuable as a diuretic because it contains high levels of potassium salts and therefore can replace the potassium that is lost from the body when diuretics are used.
All parts of the plant, but especially the root, are slightly aperient, cholagogue, depurative, strongly diuretic, hepatic, laxative, stomachic and tonic.
The root is also experimentally cholagogue, hypoglycaemic and a weak antibiotic against yeast infections.
A tea can be made from the leaves or, more commonly, from the roots.
The plant is used internally in the treatment of gall bladder and urinary disorders, gallstones, jaundice, cirrhosis, dyspepsia with constipation, oedema associated with high blood pressure and heart weakness, chronic joint and skin complaints, gout, eczema and acne.
The plant has an antibacterial action, inhibiting the growth of Staphylococcus aureus, Pneumococci, Meningococci, Bacillus dysenteriae, B. typhi, C. diphtheriae, Proteus etc.
The latex contained in the plant sap can be used to remove corns, warts and verrucae.
The latex has a specific action on inflammations of the gall bladder and is also believed to remove stones in the liver.
A tea made from the leaves is laxative.
