How were dog's banes used?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

December 9, 2002

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The dog's banes (Apocynum Linnaeus species) are native to North America. The name Apocynum comes from the ancient Greek, apokynon; apo- meaning away or from and kynos, dog. In Europe, the ancient name was applied to plants in the genus, Aconitum, the monkshoods. The American dog's banes contain cardioactive glycosides present in the milky sap and concentrated within the roots. During the 1800s,
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Dog's bane, Apocynum androsaemifolium, USA Photographic Print
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the sap was used to treat dropsy.

In A Modern Herbal (1931, reprinted 1996), Mrs. Grieve wrote, "[A]pocynum is the most powerful in slowing the pulse and its action on the vaso-motor system....Being rather irritant to mucous membranes, it may cause nausea and catharsis....It is a powerful hydragogue (acts as a laxative and diuretic), helpful in dropsies due to heart-failure...has been called the 'vegetable trocar'." A trocar was a medieval surgical instrument inserted through the abdominal wall to drain fluid build-up and provide dropsy-sufferers with relief.

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Charles Millspaugh reported in 1892, "The only previous (medical) use of this herb is said to be that of the Indians, who employed it in syphilis." (American Medicinal Plants, reprinted 1974) The American natives obviously understood the violent toxic properties and seldom ingested the plants, but they did have utilitarian uses for the plants.

The dog's banes have strong fibers found in the bark and stem. The extracted fibers were twisted to make twine, fishing lines and nets, and woven into bags and cloth. Frontiersmen who learned its uses from the natives called the plants black Indian hemp.

The Connecticut Botanical Society has posted photographs of dog's bane, Apocynum androsaemifolium, taken by Arieh Tal. To view the photographs, click on the link:

http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/apocynumandr.html

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