Antidiarreico: Rizomas

Tuber: Ground tuber yields farina for a cataplasm and to calm upset stomach. Roasted as a treatment for intermittent fever in Guyana and French Guiana. In a paste ingested to control diarrhoea. Tuber or rhizome yields arrowroot meal, a nourishing, easily digestible food which is also used by Surinam Amerindians as a baby-powder.

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Range. Tropical America; now pantropic in distribution. Cultivated in Myanmar.

Use
Stem: Rhizome used as a rubefacient; yields arrowroot.
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Origin

Native to tropical America; cultivated throughout the country for its edible starch.

Action:

Nutritive, demulcent (especially for infants and convalescence). Used as a dietary aid in acute diarrhoea and gastroenteritis. Used as a substitute for Bamboo-manna.

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Origin

Jamaica

Folk medicinal uses

Arrowroot is included here by virtue of its continued use in Jamaica, as an invalid food. Beckwith says that for diarrhoea a thick pap is prepared with the grated fresh "root". In earlier times it was considered to be a powerful antidote to a variety of poisons including spider bites and arrow poisons and was commonly used in the later stages of dysentery. In the Grenadines it is still employed as an antidote for manchineel poisoning. Barham considered that in powder form it caused sweating and was useful in cases of fever, measles, smallpox, and for a woman at childbirth. Maya medicine also includes the latter use.

1) Robertt, A., et al.. Medicinal Plants of the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana)/Smithsonian NMNH. cited online: 17-08-2017

2) Escalona Cruz, José Luis; et al/ Revista Cubana de Plantas Medicinales vol. 20, no 4. 2015. p -- 429 - 439

3) DeFilipps, Robert A.; Krupnick, Gary A. / PhytoKeys, v. 102. - - p. 1 - 314,  2018.

4)  Khare, C.P./ Indian Medicinal Plants. -- Nueva Dheli: Springer, 2007 . - p 401.

5) Asprey, G.F; Phylis Thornton/ Medicinal plants of Jamaica. Parts III & IV. – p. 68.