Chelidonium majus.
CHELIDONIUM MAJUS, L. Celandine. Probably native. Whole plant used, the juice or sap is a yellow milk, acrid and bitter, which extirpates warts, cures ringworms, and cleans old ulcers. Diuretic and diaphoretic, aperient and hepatic, stimulant and detergent. Beneficial in dropsy, cachexy, jaundice, oedema, tabes, &c. in decoction. A poultice boiled in milk has cured the herpes miliaris: a poultice of the roots mashed in vinegar, disperses scrofulous tumors of the neck: an ointment with lard cures the piles. Juice also ophthalmic, useful for sore eyes and to take off films in the eyes. The Ch. glaucium, L. (Horn poppy, Bruiseroot) found on the sea shore of Virginia by Schoepf, has a similar yellow juice, more fetid, deleterious, narcotic, phantastic. Seldom used internally; but very useful externally for wounds, contusions, gravelly pains, the ulcers of horses and cattle. In Portugal, leaves infused in wine taken for gravel in small doses. These plants are acrid narcotic, acting sometimes as drastic or diuretic. Their analysis gives a peculiar substance, Chelidine, bitter, nauseous and yellow, citric acid, lime, potash, mucilage, albumen, silica, &c.
