Element: Earth Powers: Protection, Fidelity Magical Uses: Wear for protection, especially against stomach pain. Health: Like buckthorn, cascara sagrada, frangula, and senna, turkey rhubarb encourages bowel movement by inhibiting the smooth muscles that retain stool and stimulating the smooth muscles that push stool through the intestine. The herb doesn't work unless the sennosides in the herb are transformed into rheinanthrones by beneficial bacteria in the colon. Rhubarb is more appropriate than senna, however, when irregularity follows treatment with antibiotics; it is less dependent on the symbiotic bacteria of the colon. Chinese physicians today use rhubarb root teas to treat stubborn infections of the skin caused by Staphylococcus aureus. A powder of rhubarb root and licorice can be made into a plaster to treat boils and furuncles.