Polygala. Polygala polygama. Bitter milkwort, American bitter polygala.

Related entry: Senega

Polygala. Polygala polygama Walt. (P. rubella Muhl.) (Fam. Polygalaceae.) Bitter Milkwort. American Bitter Polygala. Polygale, Laitier, Fr. Kreutzblume, Milchwurz, G.—Bitter polygala is an indigenous, perennial plant, which was formerly official. It has a strong and permanent bitter taste, which it yields to water and alcohol. In small doses bitter polygala is tonic, in larger, laxative and diaphoretic. It appears to be closely analogous in medicinal virtues to Polygala amara L., of Europe, which is used for a similar purpose. From the seeds of the P. butyracea Heck. and Schlag., an African plant, the natives prepare an edible fat. (See P. J., xx, Aug., 1889.)

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, was edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others.