Acorus calamus root was a favorite medicine of many Native American tribes, who used it to help them with pain and fatigue. The Cree say that they use Acorus calamus in order to ‘travel great distances without touching the ground.’ The plant is used universally in herbal medicine, including Native American, Ayurvedic, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, and it is said to stimulate appetite and digestion and to sedate the nervous system.
Traditionally, Native Americans would eat a 1 inch sections of the root as medicine and a 2 inch section to fight fatigue. Many Northeastern woodland tribes would also hang the roots in the house or sew it on to the clothing of their children in order to keep nightmares away. Calamus root was used as an incense in sweat lodges by the Cheyenne, and they also occasionally mixed the root in smoking blends or with tobacco.
Our whole Calamus root is another product that is grown for us by eSutras. We are the only provider of whole Acorus calamus root that we know of! The reason that we choose to offer the root in this form is that keeping the root whole ensures maximum potency – when the root is ground up, oils and alkaloids contained in the rhizome can evaporate, leaving you with a much less potent product. The primary active components of Calamus are the essential oils, so it is very important to maintain as much of them as is possible. Our Calamus is intensely aromatic and has a tangy sweet/sour quality along with a heat similar to that of ginger root, a uniquely potent flavor that you won’t find elsewhere.
There is a lot of Calamus root available over the internet, but most of it is from China, and is of a different variety that the true Acorus americanus Calamus root that we offer. Chinese Calamus does not have the same properties as American Calamus root, so it’s important to be careful when selecting a provider. This is another reason that we choose to offer the whole root – then you can see the plant for yourself and get a feel for what real Acorus americanus Calamus actually looks like as well.
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