Arrowroot

Arrowroot is a white powder extracted from the root of a West Indian plant, Marantha arundinacea. Arrowroot is also known as Obedience Plant, Bamban, Bermuda, Bermuda Arrowroot, and Maranta. Arrowroot was first discovered and identified on the island of Dominica in the West Indies. Arrowroot is indigenous to the West Indies, where native people, the Arawaks, used the powder. The Arawaks used the substance to draw out toxins from people wounded by poison arrows. It is believed that the name Arrowroot is derived from this practice. Native Americans in both North and South America apply Arrowroot as a poultice for snakebites, insect bites, and sores. The common name Arrowroot includes the species Maranta nobilis and Maranta allouya, which are used interchangeably with Maranta arundinacea. It looks and feels like cornstarch. Arrowroot is most commonly grown in Brazil and Thailand. The Arrowroot plant is an herbaceous perennial, with a creeping rhizome with upward-curving, fleshy, cylindrical tubers covered with large, thin scales. The flowering stem reaches a height of 6 feet, and bears flowers at the ends of the branches that terminate the long peduncles. They grow in pairs. The numerous, ovate, leaves are up to 10 inches in length, with long sheaths often enveloping the stem. The starch is extracted from rhizomes less than a year old. They are washed, pulped in wooded mortars, stirred in clean water, the fibers wrung out by hand, and the milky liquor sieved, allowed to settle, and then drained. Clean water is again added, mixed, and drained, after which the starch is dried. Arrowroot is an excellent source of carbohydrates and digestible calcium. It is a mild laxative but also helps relieve diarrhea caused by stress. Arrowroot also soothes irritated mucus membranes and is used in the treatment of colic, indigestion, and urinary infections.

(This herbal ingredient can be purchased from Viable Herbal Solutions in powdered and capsule form as part of our Single Herb sales program.)