Pleurisy root is a species of milkweed. It is in the genus Asclepias which contains about 80 different species. It looks like lanceolate milkweed (Asclepias lanceolata), but can be uniquely identified by its hairy stems that are not milky when broken open. Milkweed is toxic, pleurisy root is an important medicine.
Native to Northeastern America, pleurisy root has a long history of traditional use by Native Americans as an expectorant for wet coughs and other pulmonary ailments. It is now considered to be one of the best herbal expectorants available.
Once “discovered” by early medical botanists in the U.S., it was considered one of the “finds” around the turn of the 19th century, even while Native Americans had been using it for thousands of years. Native Americans chewed on the root to help ease respiratory inflammation, coughing, and congestion. At a time when consumption, tuberculosis, and other respiratory infections were often terminal, pleurisy root helped save many lives. No wonder early medical botanists were excited to “discover” what was for them, a new healing herb.
