Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Asclepias tuberosa
Pronounced Pleurisy Root = PLOOR-ih-see root; Asclepias tuberosa = ass-KLEE-pee-us too-ber-OH-suh
Cool, moist, and relaxing: a relaxing diaphoretic and antispasmodic expectorant that vents febrile heat through the skin, loosens a tight, painful, inflamed chest, and coaxes secretion and easier breathing where the serous and bronchial membranes run hot, dry, and tense.
No pre-1900 source found for this reading.
Avoid throughout pregnancy. The American Herbal Products Association Botanical Safety Handbook (2nd ed., 2013) assigns Asclepias tuberosa Safety Class 2b (not verified against AHPA) (not to be used during pregnancy); animal data show uterine-stimulant (uterotonic) activity, and the root is emetic with possible estrogenic activity. Brinker likewise lists it as contraindicated in pregnancy. Source: AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook, 2nd ed. (Gardner and McGuffin, 2013), Asclepias tuberosa; Brinker, Herb Contraindications and Drug Interactions.
Insufficient data; avoid, or use only under qualified supervision. No reliable studies address excretion in milk or infant safety, and the root carries cardioactive pregnane/cardenolide constituents plus emetic potential, so precaution is warranted. Modern clinical sources advise use during breastfeeding only under the guidance of a practitioner. Source: AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook, 2nd ed. (2013); Herbal Reality clinical monograph (Asclepias tuberosa).
Insufficient data; not recommended for self-treatment in children. A febrile chest illness in a child (possible pneumonia or pleurisy) needs medical assessment, and the root is emetic in excess and contains cardioactive constituents, so avoid unsupervised pediatric use. Source: AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook, 2nd ed. (2013); general precaution per Brinker.
In large or excessive doses pleurisy root is emetic and purgative, causing nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea; keep to recommended amounts. It carries cardioactive constituents, so use caution in heart disease and avoid it alongside cardiac glycoside medication. Avoid in pregnancy (uterine stimulant, emetic, possibly estrogenic). Use cautiously with peptic ulcer, hiatus hernia, reflux, or esophageal varices, which its acrid, potentially emetic action can aggravate. As a relaxing, cooling diaphoretic it fits hot, dry, tense acute states, not cold, damp, boggy, or depleted ones.
Pregnancy (uterine stimulant and emetic; AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook Safety Class 2b (not verified against AHPA)). Concurrent cardiac glycoside therapy (digoxin, digitoxin) and significant cardiac arrhythmia, given cardioactive pregnane and cardenolide constituents. Known hypersensitivity to Asclepias species. Avoid medicinal doses during lactation and in young children for lack of safety data; a febrile chest illness in a child warrants medical assessment rather than self-treatment.
Not listed on the United Plant Savers at-risk or to-watch registers; Asclepias tuberosa is a common, widely cultivated native prairie wildflower and a valued nectar plant for pollinators, including monarch butterflies (though, unlike other milkweeds, it is not a primary monarch larval host). Because the root is the part used and digging it kills the plant, prefer cultivated, nursery-propagated, or root-divided material and never wild-dig from small or declining native stands; leave wild milkweed standing for pollinators.
Not named in the canonical biblical texts; a North American native (Butterfly Weed) taken into the Western materia medica through Eclectic-American medicine, with earlier Native American use. Documented in King's American Dispensatory (Felter and Lloyd, 1898) and Grieve's A Modern Herbal (1931).
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