By Janice Boling

Every Green Herb

Yellowroot in herbal medicine

Tony and I use yellowroot for toothaches, bladder infections, and digestive problems. It is wild-harvested from the southern Appalachian Mountains.

The best yellowroot is found in the forest. The plants are sustainable and quickly grow back from broken rhizomes left in the ground.

At home, we remove any green leaves and dry the fresh yellowroot outdoors in the sunshine for a few days.

Yellowroot plants have tiny, purple flowers that hide underneath the leaves.

The Latin name for yellowroot is Xanthorhiza simplicissima. All parts of the plant contain Burberine which is full of yellow pigments.

When I break yellowroot into pieces for bundles, the juice stains my fingers yellow. It takes a couple of days to wear off.

We send yellowroot bundles to people all over the United States. People say yellowroot tea helps bladder infections better than prescription drugs.

It's easy to make yellowroot tea. Just break up some pieces, add a cup or two of water, bring to a boil, and simmer 10 minutes. Take a spoonful every hour or two throughout the day.

It's a lot of work to harvest wild yellowroot. You have to do some hiking, while looking out for bees, snakes, and poison ivy.

Sometimes Tony will get some yellowroot, but we also depend on a good friend to supply us. We can trust him to harvest the best yellowroot in the mountains.

These pieces are huge. We call this yellowroot plant the Granddaddy of all yellowroot because it is five feet tall. Most yellowroot is about 24 inches.

Tony makes yellowroot chips for people with arthritis who can't easily break up larger pieces.