Seneca Snakeroot (Polygala Senega), Flowering Plant with Root.
Description of Root — Seneca Snakeroot is described in the United States Pharmacopoeia as follows: "Somewhat cylindrical, tapering, more or less flexuous, 3 to 15 cm. long and 2 to 8 mm. thick, bearing several similar horizontal branches and a few rootlets; crown knotty with numerous buds and short stem remnants; externally yellowish gray or brownish yellow, longitudinally wrinkled, usually marked by a keel which is more prominent in perfectly dry roots near the crown; fracture short, wood light yellow, usually excentrically developed; odor slight, nauseating; taste sweetish, afterwards acrid."
The Seneca Snakeroots found in commerce vary greatly in size, that obtained from the South, which is really the official drug, being usually light colored and small. The principal supply of Seneca Snakeroot now comes from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and farther northward, and this western Seneca Snakeroot has a much larger, darker root, with a crown or head sometimes measuring 2 or 3 inches across and the upper part of the root very thick. It is also less twisted and not so distinctly keeled.
Seneca Snakeroot is often much adulterated with the roots of other species of Polygala and of other plants.
Collection, Prices and Uses — The time for collecting Seneca Snakeroot is in autumn. Labor conditions play a great part in the rise and fall of prices for this drug. It is said that very little Seneca Snakeroot has been dug in the Northwest during 1906, due to the fact that the Indians and others who usually engage in this work were so much in demand as farm hands and railroad laborers, which paid them far better than the digging of Seneca Snakeroot. Collectors receive from about 55 to 70 cents a pound for this root.
This drug, first brought into prominence as a cure for snake bite among the Indians, is now employed as an expectorant, emetic and diuretic. It is official in the Pharmacopoeia of the United States.