Blue Flag

Botanical Name

Common Names

Cautions

Description

Native to North America, blue flag also grows throughout the British Isles. It prefers damp and marshy areas in the wild, but it is often cultivated as a garden plant. A perennial herb, it grows to about three feet with erect stems, sword-shaped leaves, and two to three resplendent blue to violet, iris-like flowers per stem. The flower petals are long with a pleasant aroma. The fruit is a large capsule with a number of sections in which the brown seeds are lined up like a roll of coins. The rhizome is thick and short and unearthed in autumn.

History

Blue flag was a popular medicinal plant with Native Americans, who used it as an emetic, cathartic, and diuretic, to treat wounds and sores, and for colds, earaches, and cholera. The plant was considered helpful in treating liver problems and used for this purpose by the Hudson Bay Cree and the Delaware.

The plant was listed in the US Pharmacopoeia from 1820 to 1895.

In the Anglo-American Physiomedicalist tradition, it was used as a glandular and liver remedy.

In times past, the chemicals found in the root were inhaled in liquid form to clear the brain of "phlegmatic humours".

Key Actions

Key Components

Medicinal Parts

Traditional Uses

The herb is used mainly for disorders of the respiratory system, but homeopathic uses include the thyroid gland and for digestion and headaches.

It increases urination and bile production, as well as being a mild laxative. This combination makes a good cleansing agent, in combination with other herbs, for such chronic skin diseases as acne or eczema, especially where gallbladder problems or constipation contribute to the condition.

In small doses, it relieves nausea and vomiting but in large doses, blue flag will cause vomiting.

It is believed by some to aid in weight loss.

Topically, an infusion of blue flag leaves can be used to treat skin sores and burns.