Home Remedies - Sweet Calamus

Acorus calamus

Part used: root.
Properties: nutritive tonic, nervine and brain tonic, digestive aid, clears mucous. Circulating, warming, calming. Reduces excess Water. Calms and strengthens Air. Mildly increases Fire.

Caution: Use short term only.
Sweet calamus grows naturally near ponds and waterways. It holds a high place in Ayurvedic medicine as being purifying to the body and the mind and promoting longevity with its rejuvenating qualities. It tonifies digestion, thereby clearing the blood and lymph, and strengthens the nerves. Like comfrey, it is a starchy root with nutritive qualities.

Used externally as a locally applied paste, it calms headaches and pain. In the US it is currently listed as not recommended by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) for internal use, though it is used thus routinely in India and in the UK.