Wild Indigo

English name: Baptisia.

Synonyms: Wild Indigo

Botanical origin: Baptisia tinctoria

Part used: Root

Impurities: Not more than 10% of the crown and stem or other matter.

Assay: None given

Ash: Not more than 5 %.

Habitat: Eastern USA.

Description: Baptisia occurs as cut and broken fragments, varying in length and idameter. The individual roots are simple or branched, and are frequently attached to a woody crown bearing one or more stem bases. The texture is resinous and woody. The largest rots have a maximum diameter of 15 mm. The color is light brownish yellow. The surface is finely wrinkled longitudinally and has many elevated root scars. The fracture is toughm, strong, uneven and incomplete. The outline is nearly cylindrical.

The cortex is about one-half as thick as the wood, dark brown, with numerous black resinous cavities, and radiate. The wood is yellowish, fibrous, slightly porous and finely radiate. The odor is slightly aromatic. The taste is strongly bitter, acrid and tingling.

Constituents: Glucosides (baptisin, baptin), resin, etc.

Dose: 1 gm. (15 grains).

Preparations: Fluidextractum Baptisiae (dose, 1 mil (15 min.).