Re Heavy Metals:: Info from Dept Agriculture
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs144p2_053357.pdf
¨Bindweed is a good fodder plant. Cattle, sheep and goats eat it; however, the alkaloid
pseudotropine in field bindweed was reported to cause equine intestinal fibrosis. In India, the
root is used as a purgative. It has been used to stop bleeding, as a laxative, a gynecological aid,
to stimulate bile flow, and as a medicine for spider bites. The Okanagan-Colville people of
British Columbia and Washington fashioned the twining stems into rope. In one study, shoots of
field bindweed accumulated more than 3,800 mg chromium, 1,500 mg cadmium, and 560 mg of
copper per kilogram of dry tissue and may be a suitable plant for phytoremediation of soils
contaminated with heavy metals."
