Squill is the name of several plants with bulbous roots. One kind of squill, called sea onion or red squill, grows around the Mediterranean Sea. It produces bulbs that sometimes weigh as much as 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms). The bulbs of this squill have medicinal value. They are also used as a rat poison.
Gardeners collect the bulbs of the sea onion in August. They remove the outer husk, slice the bulb, and dry it in the sun. People make a drug from the bulbs. Usually they use it in syrup form or in “tincture of squill.” The drug stimulates the heart and is rather irritating. It particularly affects the stomach, intestines, and bronchial tracts.
Sometimes doctors use squill as an expectorant and diuretic. They also treat chronic bronchitis with it, but never when the disease is acute.
Squill is also the common name for plants that make up the genus Scilla. This genus includes dozens of species (kinds) found in the temperate regions of Europe, which have warm summers and cold winters.
