| Goat's Rue - Galega officinalis | | | | FOLKLORE AND TRADITIONAL USES |
| COMMON NAMES | | | | The dried flowers of goat's rue have been used to |
| Goat's rue, French lilac | | | | help increase the milk supply in female goats. The |
| LATIN NAME | | | | Latin name, Galega, which is derived from the Greek |
| Galega officinalis | | | | word gala or milk, reflects this use. It is also known in |
| FAMILIES | | | | England as "cheese rennet" because the juice that is |
| Leguminosae Fabaceae | | | | extracted from the green parts of the plant is used |
| PARTS USED | | | | for making cheese and clotting milk. This plant has |
| Flower, leaf, stem, seed | | | | often been used as cattle feed. Some sheep have |
| DESCRIPTION | | | | died after eating it, revealing the fact that it can be |
| Goat's Rue is a bushy perennial with has erect, | | | | toxic. |
| hollow, smooth, branching stems which may reach | | | | MEDICINAL USES |
| five feet tall. Its bright green compound leaves | | | | Goat's Rue was once used to treat the plague, |
| consist of 13 to 17 lance-shaped leaflets, each one to | | | | intestinal worms, fevers, and snakebites. The herb |
| two inches long. Goat's Rue flowers range in color | | | | has since been shown in some cases to increase the |
| from lilac to white, grow in spikes and produce | | | | production of milk in lactating mothers up to 50 |
| red-brown seedpods in the autumn that can hold 2 to | | | | percent. Some doctors do not recommend this use |
| 6 kidney-shaped seeds. | | | | of the plant, however, because its effect on infants |
| HABITAT | | | | is not known. Galegine is an alkaloid that has been |
| Goat's rue is indigenous to central and southern | | | | isolated from goat's rue - it lowers blood sugar levels |
| Europe, Russia, Japan, and Asia Minor. It is naturalized | | | | and thus may be useful in fighting diabetes mellitus. A |
| and widely cultivated in Britain. It grows in damp | | | | synthetic drug based on guanidine was introduced in |
| meadows and on river banks, as well as in other low, | | | | France during the late 1950s, and it was approved by |
| moist areas. | | | | the FDA in 1995. |