GENDER - Feminine

PLANET - Venus

ELEMENT - Earth

FOLK NAMES: Arrowroot, Indian Arrowroot, Maranta Starch

PARTS USED: The “fecula” or starch of the rhizome tuber

PLANT: Herbaceous creeping perennial with cane-like stems to 6‘, indigenous in the West Indian Islands and maybe Central America. Has been raised in South Carolina and Georgia. Introduced to England in about 1732.

PRODUCTION: The nearly year old rhizome is washed, peeled and pulped and stirred into clean water. The fibers are wrung out by hand and the starch is sieved, allowed to settle and drained. Clean water is added again and the process is repeated. The starch is dried in the sun on sheets.

NOTE: Maise, wheat, rice and potato starch are often substituted for Arrowroot starch. True arrowroot is a light, white powder, which is completely odorless when dry, but having a faint smell when mixed with boiling water which swells into a perfect smooth jelly. Potato and other starches won’t supply the same consistency.

ACTIONS: Nutritive, demulcent and soothing agent.

INDICATIONS: A nutritive for infants and convalescents, acute diarrhea, dysentery, dyspepsia, bronchitis, coughs. Dries blemishes and sores. Arrests gangrene.

USAGE: Mashed into a poultice to be applied to wounds from poisoned arrows. Can also be used on scorpion and black spider bites. The roots can be candied as a sweet and boiled with water or milk, it’s most often used in the form of pudding. (1 Tbsp:1 pint of water or milk) Mix with chamomile as a treatment for prickly heat.

PRECAUTIONS: No known health hazard.

PREPARATIONS: Comes in the form of dried powder. Store in tightly sealed containers.

- Use as a dusting powder for gambling luck

LORE:

- Archaeological studies in the Americas of arrowroot cultivation as early as 7,000 years ago.

- The popular name is a corruption of the Aru-root of the Aruac Indians of South America