Broom - Treatment and Medical uses of Dyer's Broom Scotch Broom and Spanish Broom

Different types of Broom Herbs:

• Butcher's Broom
• Dyer's Broom
• Scotch Broom
• Spanish Broom

Medcinal Uses and Benefits of Broom

• Bitter, cold, toxic, hypertensive, peripheral vasoconstrictor, astringent, cathartic, diuretic, purgative, narcotic, depresses respiration, affects heart action (increases heart beat), colon, kidney and is a uterine stimulant. There is a tendency to stomach and bowel upset when used as a diuretic, so it was usually combined with other diuretics. SEED is cathartic and emetic. There are some anecdotal stories involving its use as an hallucinogenic, the flowering tops being smoked as with marijuana.
• Has been used primarily for heart problems and low blood pressure; has been combined with Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) for heart failure.
• Has also been used to regulate arrhythmias associated with low blood pressure.
• Small doses slow the heart initially, then increase its rate as well as the pulse. Was once used as a heart tonic.
• Has been used for acute constipation, fluid rentention and edema related to heart problems.
• Was once used to induce labor (smoked) and has been used for excessive menstrual bleeding as well as hemorrhaging after delivery, hemophilia, rheumatism, gall stones, liver disorders, enlarged spleen, respiratory conditions, snakebites, and as a blood purifier.
• A decoction has been used for dropsy, gout, and rheumatism (wineglassful dose 3 to 4 times daily). In the 14th century, it was combined with Scotch Broom to produce an ointment called Unguentum geniste which was used for gout.
• The ashes form an alkaline salt which was once used for dropsy.
• One old herbal (Dodoens 1606) recommends a decoction of the tops for dropsy and stoppage of the liver. Culpeper extends its uses to black jaundice, ague, gout, sciatica, and pains of the hips and joints. For chronic dropsy 1 oz of Broom tops plus 1/2 oz of dandelion root was boiled in 1 pint of water down to 1/2 pint; toward the end, 1/2 oz of bruised Juniper berries were added, then allowed to cool before straining; a pinch of cayenne powder was then added; this was taken in wineglassful doses 3 or 4 times daily; it was also used for bladder and kidney problems combined with Urva ursi, Cleavers, and Dandelion to cleanse kidneys and bladder and increase urine output. Other uses have been for toothache, and bladder gravel.
• Seeds were once used in tincture form for dropsy.