Origin

Jamaica

Folk medicinal uses

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries this plant was used in the West Indies as an emetic and vermifuge and to stop bleeding. As a worm medicine for children the juice was made into a syrup with sugar, and a teaspoon to a tablespoonful was administered. The powdered dry root was in common use among poorer people as an emetic and has been found as an adulterant in ipecacuanha. Both Browne and Barham refer to its use to stop bleeding and the latter says that the name blood flower refers to this property. More recently these practices appear to have been discontinued but Beckwith reported its use, alone or with laundry blue, as an application for boils. In Africa it is used for intestinal troubles in children, colic, dropsy and to promote sneezing. The tops are said to contain a glycoside asclepiadin and the roots vincetoxin. (2, 5, 8, 14, 15, 24, 27).

Asprey, G.F: Phylis Thornton/ Medicinal plants of Jamaica. Parts I & II. – p. 5.