Common Name

Standardized: red root
Other: Jersey tea, New Jersey tea

Botanical Name

Ceanothus americanus L.
Plant Family: Rhamnaceae

Overview

Red root is a shrub also known as wild snowball for its clusters of white flowers borne in early summer. Its root is bitter and its root tea has a "bite." Red root was used as a substitute for tea during the American Revolutionary War.

Parts Used

Root bark.

Typical Preparations

Teas, tinctures and in capsule form. Also used as a natural dye.

Other Benefits

Astringent, antispasmodic, anti-syphilitic expectorant and sedative, used in asthma, chronic bronchitis, whooping-cough, consumption, and dysentery; also as a mouth-wash and gargle, and as an injection in gonorrhoea, gleet and leucorrhoea.