DANDELION. 



Taraxacum taraxacum Karst.) 



Yon are bilious, my good man. Go and pay a guinea to one of the doctors in those 

 houses. . . . He will prescribe taraxacum for you, or pil. hydrarg. — Thackeray, Philip, ii. 



Dandelion is a perennial herb thor- 

 oughly familiar to everyone, as it is 

 found almost everywhere throughout all 

 temperate and north temperate countries. 

 It has a basal tuft of rather large, spatu- 

 late to lanceolate, deeply incised leaves, 

 There are several slender, cylindrical, hol- 

 XosN stalks, six to twelve inches long, 

 each one ending in a bright yellow flower 

 head with numerous small flowers. The 

 fully matured fruits form a white, fluffy 

 head and are easily removed and scat- 

 tered by air currents. Each fruit is a 

 miniature parachute and every child has 

 blown upon the fruit head and watched 

 the individual fruits sail for great dis- 

 tances, suspended in air by the parachute- 

 like expansion of the pappus. Roots are 

 quite large, branching, rather fleshy. The 

 plant contains a milky juice, having a 

 bitter taste. 



The Dandelion is said to be a native 

 of Greece, southern Europe and Asia 

 Minor. It has spread very rapidly and 

 widely via the commercial routes. It has 

 become thoroughly naturalized in the 

 United States and Canada, forming the 

 most conspicuous plant in farmyards, 

 along roadsides, meadows, pastures and 

 in orchards. Flowers are matured 

 throughout the entire season, but chiefly 

 in the spring and again in the late sum- 

 mer or early autumn. The plant belongs 

 to the same family as the sunflower, 

 daisy, goldenrod and iron weed. 



Dandelion has been used medicinally 

 for man}' centuries, and the name is de- 

 rived from' the Latin dens leonis, mean- 

 ing lion's tooth, referring to the incised 

 leaves. Theophrastus described the plant 

 and lauded it very highly in the treat- 

 ment of liver complaints and for freckles. 

 Later (980-1037 A. D.) Arabian physi- 

 cians employed it very extensively, prin- 

 cipally in jaundice and other liver com- 

 plaints. During the middle ages the 



milky juice of this plant was highly rec- 

 ommended in the treatment of diseases 

 of the eye. During the sixteenth cen- 

 tury European physicians found it useful 

 as a quieting and sleep-producing rem- 

 edy. 



The poor of nearly all countries col- 

 lect the young, crisp leaves in the early 

 spring and prepare therefrom a salad, 

 resembling lettuce salad. The poor in 

 large cities visit vacant lots, in which the 

 plants usually grow abundantly, and col- 

 lect the leaves for home consumption, or 

 fill large, often dirty, sacks, and vend it 

 among the poor tenement dwellers. This 

 is certainly a dangerous procedure, as all 

 manner of dirt and disease germs are 

 found on the leaves, to say nothing of 

 dirty hands, utensils and containers of 

 the collectors. No doubt many a case of 

 typhoid fever or other germ disease 

 among the poor could be traced to this 

 source. In country districts there is lit- 

 tle danger connected with editing Dande- 

 lion leaves, and they really form a good, 

 palatable salad when properly prepared. 



The leaves are also cooked, usually 

 v/ith leaves of other plants (species of 

 chenopodium), forming ''greens," high- 

 ly relished by the poor. The American 

 Indians as well as savages of other coun- 

 tries eat large quantities of the le^ives 

 raw, more rarely cooked. In Germany 

 and other European countries the roots 

 are collected, dried, roasted and used as 

 a substitute for coffee. 



The principal use of this plant has thus 

 far been medicinal, but its value as a cur- 

 ative agent has certainly been overrateil. 

 It has been used in dropsy, pulmonary 

 diseases, in stomach derangements, in 

 hepatic or liver disorders, in icterus, 

 blotchy skin and other skin diseases, for 

 biliary calculi, in hypochondriasis, etc. 

 It has no marked curative properties in 

 any disorder. Beyond mildly laxative 



235 



