Petasites is harvested like Rhubarb, except the leaves are used instead of the stalks (both medicinally and for wrapping food).
Petasites hybridus:
![[Image: maxresdefault.jpg]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3vIk2tIZ8K8/maxresdefault.jpg)
[image credit: Elfi isiskristall on youtube]
The leaves are mostly used for swollen sinuses, coughs, and digestive complaints.
The root sometimes is swollen like the VMS drawing, but most of the time it looks like fat ginger roots, but perhaps the VMS root is drawn this way as a mnemonic for a plant used for a heart tonic (which is true for Petasites) or for a variety of heart ailments (which applies to quite a few plants but not necessarily Petasites).
Bananas were traditionally used for diarrhea and heartburn. Plantains (slightly unripe ones) for Type II diabetes (I'm not sure how far back this particular use goes. Long ago, diabetes was called "sugar sickness" but whether they would have used plantains to treat this ailment in the Middle Ages seems doubtful).
Unfortunately, even if the root is a mnemonic for the heart, it doesn't help in distinguishing Musa from Petasites if one was used for heartburn and the other as a heart tonic.
Petasites hybridus:
[image credit: Elfi isiskristall on youtube]
The leaves are mostly used for swollen sinuses, coughs, and digestive complaints.
The root sometimes is swollen like the VMS drawing, but most of the time it looks like fat ginger roots, but perhaps the VMS root is drawn this way as a mnemonic for a plant used for a heart tonic (which is true for Petasites) or for a variety of heart ailments (which applies to quite a few plants but not necessarily Petasites).
Bananas were traditionally used for diarrhea and heartburn. Plantains (slightly unripe ones) for Type II diabetes (I'm not sure how far back this particular use goes. Long ago, diabetes was called "sugar sickness" but whether they would have used plantains to treat this ailment in the Middle Ages seems doubtful).
Unfortunately, even if the root is a mnemonic for the heart, it doesn't help in distinguishing Musa from Petasites if one was used for heartburn and the other as a heart tonic.