Heartsease
(Viola tricolor), or Wild Pansy, being very different in habit from any
other kind of Viola, is abundantly met with almost throughout Britain. Though
found on hedgebanks and waste ground, it seems in an especial degree a weed of
cultivation, found most freely in cornfields and garden ground. It blossoms
almost throughout the entire floral season, expanding its attractive little
flowers in the early days of summer and keeping up a succession of blossom until
late in autumn. Many kinds are common in meadows in America, and as early as
February the fields about Washington are quite gay with their flowers.
For medicinal use, the whole herb is collected in the wild state, and then dried. The herb contains an active chemical principle, Violine (a substance similar to Emetin, having an emeto-cathartic action), mucilage, resin, sugar, salicylic acid and a bitter principle. When bruised, the plant, and especially the root, smells like peach kernels or prussic acid. The seeds are considered to have the same therapeutic activity as the leaves and flowers.
Heartsease was formerly in much repute as a remedy for epilepsy, asthma and numerous other complaints, and the flowers were considered cordial and good in diseases of the heart, from which may have arisen its popular name of "Heartsease" as much as from belief in it as a love potion. A strong decoction of syrup of the herb and flowers was recommended by the older herbalists for skin diseases and a homeopathic medicinal tincture is still made from it with spirits of wine, using the entire plant, and given in small diluted doses for the cure of cutaneous eruptions.
Heartsease was formerly official in the United States Pharmacopoeia, and is still employed in America in the form of an ointment and poultice in eczema and other skin troubles, and internally for bronchitis. Some years ago attention was called to this herb by a writer in the Medical Journal as a valuable remedy for the cutaneous disorder called crusta lactes, or Scald head, in children. For this purpose, a handful of the fresh herb boiled in milk was recommended to be given every morning and evening: poultices formed of the leaves were likewise applied with success. By several medical writers its use is said to have proved very efficacious in this complaint.
The herbaceous parts of the plant have been employed for their mucilaginous, demulcent and expectorant properties. The root and seeds are also emetic and purgative, which properties as well as the expectorant action of the plant are doubtless due to the presence of the Violine.
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