Trillium – Trilliaceae (formerly: Liliaceae – Liliaceae).
Popular names: crow, crow berries, cross-grass, bear berries, rannik.
Parts Used: Whole plant with rhizome.
Pharmacy name: crow’s eye herb – Paridis herba (formerly: Herba Paridis).
Botanical description. A stalk up to 30 cm high extends from a horizontally running rhizome in the soil. At the bottom it carries a scaly leaf split in two, and at the top – a whorl, as a rule, of 4 ovate-rounded leaves with reticulate venation and a pointed tip. True, plants with 3 or 5 leaves in a whorl are not often found. Above the leaves is a single unattractive greenish star-shaped four-membered flower. Much more conspicuous than a flower, a black pearl-like fruit the size of a large blueberry.
These berries – however, like the whole plant – are slightly poisonous!
When walking with young children, care must be taken that they are not tempted by the berries of the crow’s eye. Nothing bad will happen from one or 2 berries, but with more, poisoning with vomiting and diarrhea is likely. True, there are no known cases of fatal poisoning with the crow’s eye. Blooms from May to June. The fruits ripen in July and August. It occurs in shady deciduous forests, among shrubs, in hedgerows and on damp rocks.
Active ingredients: saponins, organic acids.
Healing action and application. Both scientific and traditional medicine practically do not use the crow’s eye, but homeopathy still appreciates it.
Use in homeopathy. The homeopathic remedy Paris quadrifolia is prepared from fresh plants and given in dilution D 1 -D6 for neuralgic pains in the head and face, as well as for frequently recurring inflammations of the larynx. This remedy also helps with conjunctivitis with twitching of the eyelids.
Side effects. All parts of the plant, especially the berries (least of all the leaves), are slightly poisonous. In case of poisoning, diarrhea, colic, bouts of dizziness were noted; therefore self-medication is prohibited. From the history of the plant. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that “bewitched” people can be “disenchanted” with the help of a crow’s eye. Berries were worn on the body or sewn into clothes to protect themselves from the plague and other contagious diseases, for which they were collected from August 15 to September 8. But, in general, the crow’s eye was feared and therefore not often used. In Mattiolus, for example, you can read: “Some say that these berries can put you to sleep if you eat them. I would not want to try them: you might not wake up.”