Called Inmortal in Spanish due to the root’s steadying and strengthening effect on the heart, therefore tissue oxygenation, and consequently overall physical well-being, it was once a choice herb for Mexican elderly with enlarged and age-related under-preforming hearts. Even though Inmortal contains a fair amount of cardiac glycosides, it shares many of its more prosaic medicinal characteristics with another common Milkweed family herbal medicine – Asclepias tuberosa or Pleurisy root.

View photos of the medicinal plant Asclepias asperula (Antelope horns), profiled in Medicinal Plants of the American Southwest.