-- The Miss in Miss Polk salad is used to represent a southern usage of the word and not to represent marital status.
Important Health Information - Please Read
"The roots, berries, seeds and mature stems and leaves of pokeweed are poisonous," says Extension Food Scientist Jean Weese. There are at least three different types of poison in this plant -- phytolaccatoxin, triterpene saponins, an alkaloid, phytolaccin, and histamines."
--- Excerpted from article by Dr. Dr. Jean Weese, Food Scientist, Alabama Cooperative Exension System, (334) 844-3269
 Unmatured Polk Salad |
 Mature Polk Salad |
Poke weed is also known as, Poke Salad, Pokeberry, Scoke, Pigeonberry, Ink berry, Cancer root, and Wild spinach. It occurs naturally throughout North and South Carolina. Poke weed contains vitamins A and C, calcium, iron, and phosphorus.
Pokeweed has a number of uses. It can be boiled and eaten like asparagus, cooked like spinach, or mixed half and half with greens and eaten. The root is boiled into a decoction that can be applied to sores, or used to bath the head as a remedy for high blood pressure. Pokeweed is an excellent remedy for hardening of the liver and enlarged glands (thyroid, spleen, and lymphatic). Pokeweed contains steroids that resemble cortisone, making Pokeweed a helpful treatment for skin conditions like psoriases, acne, and fungal infections.
-- (Excerpted from: http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/1998/health/pokeweed.htm Used here for information purposes only)