Cohosh, Black
Botanical: Cimicifuga
racemosa (NUTT.)
Family: N.O. Ranunculaceae
---Synonyms---Black
Snake Root. Rattle Root. Squaw Root. Bugbane.
---Part Used---Root.
---Habitat---A native of North America, where it grows freely in
shady woods in Canada and the United States. It is called Black Snake Root
to distinguish it from the Common Snake Root (Aristolochia serpentaria).
---Description---The
seeds are sent annually to Europe, and should be sown as soon as the
season will permit. It flowers in June or early in July, but does not
perfect seed in England, though it thrives well in moist shady borders and
is perfectly hardy. It is a tall, herbaceous plant, with feathery racemes
of white blossoms, 1 to 3 feet long, which being slender, droop
gracefully. The fruits are dry.
The plant produces a stout,
blackish rhizome (creeping underground stem), cylindrical, hard and
knotty, bearing the remains of numerous stout ascending branches. It is
collected in the autumn after the fruit is formed and the leaves have died
down, then cut into pieces and dried. It has only a faint, disagreeable
odour, but a bitter and acrid taste.
The straight, stout, dark
brown roots which are given off from the under surface of the rhizome are
bluntly quadrangular and furrowed. In the dried drug, they are brittle,
broken off usually quite close to the rhizome. In transverse section, they
show several wedge-shaped bundles of porous, whitish wood. A similar
section of the rhizome shows a large dark-coloured, horny pith, surrounded
by a ring of numerous pale wedges of wood, alternately with dark rays,
outside which is a thin, dark, horny bark.
---Constituents---The
chief constituent of Cimicifuga root is the amorphous resinous substance
known as Cimicifugin, or Macrotin, of which it contains about 18 per cent
but the bitter taste is due to a crystalline principle named Racemosin.
The drug also contains two resins, together with fat, wax starch, gum,
sugar and an astringent substance.
---Medicinal
Action and Uses---Astringent, emmenagogue, diuretic, alterative,
expectorant. The root of this plant is much used in America in many
disorders, and is supposed to be an antidote against poison and the bite
of the rattlesnake. The fresh root, dug in October, is used to make a
tincture.
In small doses, it is
useful in children's diarrhoea.
In the paroxyms of
consumption, it gives relief by allaying the cough, reducing the rapidity
of the pulse and inducing perspiration. In whooping-cough, it proves very
effective.
The infusion and decoction
have been given with success in rheumatism.
In infantile disorders, it
is given in the form of syrup. It is said to be a specific in St. Vitus'
Dance of children. Overdoses produce nausea and vomiting.
---Preparations---Fluid
extract, U.S.P., 15 to 30 drops. Fluid extract, B.P., 5 to 30 drops.
Tincture, U.S.P., 1 drachm. Tincture, B.P., 15 to 60 drops. Cimicifugin, 1
to 6 grains. Powdered extract, U.S.P., 4 grains.
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