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.