Milk Root

For generations, traditional healers among the Zulu, Xhosa, and Sotho peoples of southern Africa dug the tuberous root of this grassland plant and brewed it into a bitter decoction for stubborn diarrhea and dysentery. Its milky sap and gnarled root made it easy to recognize among the region's healers, who passed the knowledge of its use down carefully, aware of its strength. In the early twentieth century, German researchers studying the root isolated its active cardiac glycosides and turned it into a standardized pharmaceutical extract that is still sold in some countries today as a tightly dosed, over-the-counter treatment for acute diarrhea. That journey from veld to pharmacy shelf makes milk root one of the few southern African traditional medicines to become a mainstream regulated drug, precisely because its potency demanded that kind of care.