What is the Indian turnip?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

February 17, 2003

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The wild or Indian turnip (Arisaema triphyllum (L.) Schott), like other members of the Araceae (aroid family), contains needle-shaped calcium oxalate crystals, raphides, which ingested cause burning pain, swelling of the tongue and membranes of the mouth, and can be fatal. In the mid-1800s the raphides had yet to be discovered by chemists.

Charles F. Millspaugh (1892) wrote of the effects, "The corms, when fresh, especially, and all parts of the plants, have a severely acrid juice, imparting an almost caustic sensation to the mucous membranes, and swelling of the parts when chewed. This action upon the mouths of school-boys, who often play the trick of inviting bites of the corm upon each other, gave rise to the common name, 'memory-root', as they never forget its effects." (American Medicinal Plants, reprinted 1974, Dover)

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Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
Plant of the Week, February 17, 2003

Millspaugh went on to mention, "This acridity...is dissipated by heat or drying, the roots then becoming very nutrient and palatable....This point is fully appreciated by the Indians of this country, who consider the roots a delicacy, either roasted or boiled."

By 1898, the Indian turnip was included in King's American Dispensatory. Powder made of the prepared corms was used as an expectorant and diaphoretic (causes sweating). Harvey Wicks Felter, MD and John Uri Lloyd, PhrM, PhD, wrote that the powder was "Recommended in flatulence, croup, whooping-cough...chronic laryngitis, bronchitis, pains in the chest, colic" and the like.

The name "jack-in-the-pulpit" never appeared in print until 1847; it derivation appears obvious—the spadix is the "jack" and the spathe is the "pulpit". Perhaps, though, the name was a double-entendre. Felter and Lloyd mention its specific use for "Chronic laryngitis, or minister's sore throat...."

The Connecticut Botanical Society has posted several great shots of the Indian turnip or jack-in-the-pulpit taken by Eleanor Saulys and Janet Novak. To view the photographs, click on the link:

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

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