Sedative.
PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA
(Ind. Che-ne-va-ica-cal)
American Ink Berry. This shrub, a common inhabitant of California’s coastal regions, has been placed by the white writer in the division of poisonous plants, and we agree with him. So the only credit given the plant is chiefly for the remarkable beauty it displays with its starlike flowers and racemes of dark-blue berries. Yet it has been condemned under the label of poison, and much is being done toward its destruction wherever found. However, it is a fruitless task, and may only become a near-success when the Indians and the birds shall be known as two signs of life vanished from the face of the earth. For these two are responsible for the preservation and propagation of the shrub.
Morphine, opium, and cocaine are by far deadlier poisons than Phytolacca—why, then, do doctors prescribe them to soothe and ease pain, etc.? The root of the plant has some medicinal qualities to ease severe neuralgic pains, and is deemed very efficient and important in Indian medical formulas. For making dyes and inks the berries are excellent, whereas the leaves are most useful in the treatment of skin diseases, and to eradicate and clean the epidermis of pimples and blackheads.
Therefore, help to conserve and not destroy this really valuable plant.