Yellow Dock Root

Ran across this one somehow on a site called (I think) HaitiCentral.com. And, naturally, all information from Haiti is good and reliable medical advice. Of course!

Well, according to a user, "Satin silk", "Yellow Dock Infusion cures AIDS." No research is provided. No facts. No nothin'. Just the word of a "Cherokee Herbalist". This Satin Silk joker also says to simply munch on wheat grass if one doesn't have a juicer. Oh, yippee. Sign me up. I wanna look like a fuckin' cow munchin' on my lawn. Or the lawnmower man from the Stephen King story of the same name. (Not the movie; the movie, while decent, had little to do with the story...) Afterall, the Unnamed Cherokee Herbalist and a (ooooh!) Medicine Woman have cured lots of people by using Yellow Dock Infusion along with Wheat Grass Juice.

The "Satin Silk" twit tells ya to just go out and dig up some Yellow Dock, chop its roots into bits and make a strong tea out of it. At about an ounce per pint of water. (No, no research to back up the dosage.) And finishes with "I hope this is helpful to anybody who has a friend who has AIDS." Gee. How nice. Thanks.

Ok, so I Googled "Yellow Dock" and came up with the scientific name, rumex crispus. Which, when Googled yielded a site run by the USDA in among all the annoying sites hawking herbs for medicinal uses. (Yippee!!! Actuall, real information!!!) Well, sort of anyway. The site which came up from the USDA on rumex crispus was for curly dock--not yellow dock. But, when searching for yellow dock on the USDA site, nothin' popped up. So, I'm going to assume that the fuckin' herbalists are all wrong.

Look. Going around and digging up plants and then making a tea out of its crushed roots can have dangerous effects. If you happen to dig up the wrong plant, you could poison yourself. Digging up the plant in the wrong spot can be illegal. It's just fucking stupid.

On the other hand, since yellow dock is on the noxious weed list for some US states and is not native to the United States, go ahead and dig it up. (If it's not native, how the fuck does a "Cherokee Herbalist" know squat about it???) Just don't think that drinking an "infusion" of its chopped roots and munching on wheat grass like a cow is going to do squat for HIV infection or AIDS.