Golden Seal Root Cut & Sifted Cert. Organic (Hydrastis canadensis) 1 lb: C

This is Starwest's nitrogen-flushed double wall silverfoil pack. Used as an infusion, decoction, extract, tincture and salve. Goldenseal is a broad spectrum antibiotic and fungicide, effective against a wide range of topical and internal infections of the respiratory, digestive, and urinary tracts. Its use by Native America was widespread. It was used topically for skin and eye infections, as a mouthwash for canker sores, and as a tea for diarrhea, upper respiratory and vaginal infections. It was also used as a yellow dye for skins and fabrics. The two primary alkaloids in goldenseal are hydrastine and berberine, along with smaller amounts of canadine. They have demonstrated antimicrobial effects against a wide range of bacteria, protozoa, and fungi, including Chlamydia species, E. coli, Salmonella typhi, Candida albicans and Entamoeba histolytica. Herbalists often recommend Goldenseal topically for its anti-inflammatory and antiseptic actions, which make it useful to clean wounds, reduce hemorrhoids, soothe canker sores, and alleviate skin infections (including ringworm and athlete's foot). It can also help treat eye infections such as conjunctivitis and blepharitis. The tea is recommended for colds. Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'The American aborigines valued the root highly as a tonic, stomachic and application for sore eyes and general ulceration, as well as a yellow dye for their clothing and weapons.' 'It is official in most Pharmacopoeias, several of which refer to its yellowing the saliva when masticated.' 'The action is tonic, laxative, alterative and detergent. It is a valuable remedy in the disordered conditions of the digestion and has a special action on the mucous membrane, making it of value as a local remedy in various forms of catarrh. In chronic inflammation of the colon and rectum, injections of Hydrastine are often of great service, and it has been used in haemorrhoids with excellent results, the alkaloid Hydrastine having an astringent action. The powder has proved useful as a snuff for nasal catarrh.' 'It is employed in dyspepsia, gastric catarrh, loss of appetite and liver troubles. As a tonic, it is of extreme value in cases of habitual constipation, given as a powder, combined with any aromatic. It is an efficient remedy for sickness and vomiting.' King's 1898 Dispensatory: 'It is a well-known fact, though often overlooked by those who wish to make it appear that the alkaloidal constituents of a plant are alone the valuable and active therapeutic factors, that the combination or association of principles formed naturally in the plant, or held together naturally even when derived from the plant, more completely represents the crude drug than do the isolated and forcibly separated alkaloids, and that medicinal virtues are possessed by the former that can not be even approximated by the latter. Thus it is, that Lloyd's hydrastis is much superior as a remedy, than if it were merely a f