Native Americans used hot root tea as an emetic and purgative and cold tea to prevent vomiting. They also applied the root directly to ease toothache. A poultice of false indigo had antiinflammatory effects. This plant may prove to be an immune system stimulant. Cherokee Indians and early settlers used this native plant to make blue dye. The name “false indigo” distinguished it from true indigo (Indigofera tinctoria), a plant native to India that was cultivated in the American colonies as a source of blue dye made from its leaflets and branches – the dye that makes blue jeans blue. Baptisia australis has been named the “Perennial Plant of the Year 2010” by the Perennial Plant Association.

Part used::
Roots

Origin:
America

Hull, Kathleen; Photog. Hull, Meredith /Indiana Medical History Museum: Guide to the Medicinal Plant Garden./ USA: Indiana Medical History Museum. 2010. -- p. 58.