Herbal Medicinal Properties: Black Haw to Cascara

About the descriptions: The following herbal descriptions will be derived from many different sources. At first we will include mainly Mrs. M. Grieve, from her book “A Modern Herbal”, but will be adding more shortly. The publishing of the following opinions, though all of them are professional, (except when the editor inserts his opinion), is not intended to constitute professional medical advice, because professional advice must take into account the individual needs of the patient, and not just the qualities of abstracted medications. Any persons minded to act upon the information provided must reckon themselves alone responsible for investigating and understanding the effects of their actions, and for the results of taking them. All that being said, we highly recommend your doing so, and taking your health care back into your own hands.

Black Haw: Viburnum prunifolium

Mr. David Hoffman:

Actions: Anti spasmodic, sedative, hypotensive, astringent.

Indications: Black Haw has a very similar use to Cramp Bark, to which it is closely related. It is a powerful relaxant of the uterus and is used for dysmenorrhoea (uterine cramps) and false labour pains. It may be used in threatened miscarriage as well. Its relaxant and sedative actions explain its power in reducing blood pressure, which happens through a relaxation of the peripheral blood vessels. It may be used as an anti spasmodic in the treatment of asthma.

Combinations: For threatened miscarriage it will combine well with False Unicorn Root and Cramp Bark.

Preparation and dosage:

Decoction: put 2 teaspoonfuls of the dried bark in a cup of water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. This should be drunk three times a day.
Tincture: take 5-lOml of the tincture three times a day.

Black Walnut: Juglans nigra

Medicinal Action and Uses:

The bark and leaves have alterative, laxative, astringent and detergent properties, and are used in the treatment of skin troubles. They are of the highest value for curing scrofulous diseases, herpes, eczema, etc., and for healing indolent ulcers.

The leaves have a very strong, characteristic smell, aromatic and not unpleasant, but said to be injurious to sensitive people. They have three, sometimes four pairs of leaflets and a terminal one, the leaflets varying in size on the same leaf, being 2 1/4 to 4 inches in length and 1 to 1 1/2 inch wide, entire, smooth, shining, and paler below. The flowers begin to open about the middle of April and are in full bloom by the middle of May, before which time the tree is in full leaf. Even in the south of France, this tree is frequently injured by spring frosts.

It is much cultivated in some parts of Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland, and formerly also in England, particularly on the chalk-hills of Surrey, for the sake of its timber, as well as for its fruit. On the Continent, the wood is still in great request for furniture, but when mahogany became a favourite wood in this country, in the early part of last century, the old walnut trees that were cut down were not always replaced by young ones, so that plantations of this tree diminished. At one time as much as L. (Lear) 600 was given for a single Walnut tree. The wood has been much used, not only for furniture and wainscoting, but for the wheels and bodies of coaches, for making gun-stocks, and by the cabinet-maker for inlaying. It is unfit for use as beams because of its brittleness.

The oil yielded by the kernel of the fruit (the part eaten) is used to polish the wood. Not congealing by cold, it is found on this account most useful for painters for mixing gold-size and varnish with white and delicate colours. The oil has been used in some parts of France for frying, eaten as butter and employed as lamp oil. One bushel of nuts, producing about 15 lb. of peeled kernels, will yield about 7 lb. of the oil. The green husks of the fruit, boiled, make a good yellow dye. No insects will touch the leaves of the Walnut, which yield a brown dye, which gypsies use to stain their skin. It is said to contain iodine.

The husks and leaves, macerated in warm water impart to it an intense bitterness, which will destroy all worms (if the liquid be poured on to lawns and grass walks) without injuring the grass itself.

Preparation and Dosage:

An infusion of 1 OZ. of dried bark or leaves (slightly more of the fresh leaves) to a pint of boiling water, allowed to stand for six hours, and strained off is taken in wineglassful doses, three times a day, the same infusion being also employed at the same time for outward application.
Obstinate ulcers may be cured with sugar, well saturated with a strong decoction of Walnut leaves.
The bark, dried and powdered, and made into a strong infusion, is a useful purgative.
The husk, shell and peel are sudorific, especially if used when the Walnuts are green.
Whilst unripe, the nut has worm destroying virtues.
The fruit, when young and unripe, makes a wholesome, anti-scorbutic pickle, the vinegar in which the green fruit has been pickled proving a capital gargle for sore and slightly ulcerated throats.
The juice of the green husks, boiled with honey, is also a good gargle for a sore mouth and inflamed throat, and the distilled water of the green husks is good for quinsy and as an application for wounds and internally is a cooling drink in agues.
The thin, yellow skin which clothes the inner nut is a notable remedy for colic, being first dried, and then rubbed into powder. It is administered in doses of 30 grains, with a tablespoonful of peppermint water.
The oil extracted from the ripe kernels, taken inwardly in 1/2 OZ. doses, has also proved good for colic and is efficacious, applied externally, for skin diseases of the leprous type and wounds and gangrenes.

Bladderwrack: Fucus vesiculosis

Mrs. M. Grieve:

Medicinal Action and Uses:

It has alterative properties, has been used in scrofula, and is thought by some authorities to reduce obesity through stimulating the thyroid gland. The charcoal derived from Kelp has been used in the treatment of goitre and scrofulous swellings under the name of Æthiops vegetabilis or vegetable ethiops, introduced by Dr. Russell in 1750 , who also used a jelly for similar purposes, both internally and externally. He was also successful in dispersing scrofulous tumours by rubbing in the mucus of the vesicles of Bladderwrack, afterwards washing the parts with sea-water. The charcoal was also helpful in goitre.

In 1862 Dr. Duchesne-Duparc found while experimenting in cases of chronic psoriasis, that weight was reduced without injuring health, and used the drug with success for the latter purpose. Dr. Godfroy experimented on himself, losing five and a quarter pounds in a week after taking before three meals a day an extract made into pills containing 25 grams (3.75 grains). The bromine and iodine stimulated the absorbent glands to increased activity, without causing an atrophied wasting of the glands. Later experiments of Hunt and Seidell indicated that the result is brought about by stimulation of the thyroid gland.

Bladderwrack is not largely used at present, any virtues it may have being due to the iodine contained in it. The iodine from other sources led to the neglect of kelp products.

Editor: Mrs. Grieve states that the Laminaria species of Kelp contains ten times as much iodine as Bladderwrack. See Kelp.

Preparation and Dosage:

Sea-pod liniment, is the expressed juice and decoction of fresh seaweed as dispensed by sea-side chemists for rheumatism, and the extract, taken continuously in pills or fluid form is reputed to relieve rheumatic pains as well as to diminish fat without harm.
Sea-pod essence is good for rubbing into sprains and bruises, or for applying on wet lint under oiled silk, as a compress, changed as often as hot or dry. It may be preceded by fomentations of the hot decoction.
Embrocation for strengthening the limbs of rickety children can be made from the glutinous substance of the vesicles, bottled in rum.
Fucus or Seaweed wine, from grapes and dried Fucus, has been praised as a remedy in diseases of the hip and other joints and bones in children.
For external application to enlarged or hardened glands, the bruised weed may be applied as a cold poultice.

Blessed Thistle: Carbenia benedicta / Cnicus benedictus

(Same species, the latter name having obtained the popular usage.)

Mrs. M. Grieve

Medicinal Action and Uses:

Tonic, stimulant, diaphoretic, emetic and emmenagogue.

In large doses, Blessed Thistle acts as a strong emetic, producing vomiting with little pain and inconvenience. It is said to have great power in the purification and circulation of the blood, and on this account strengthens the brain and the memory. It is chiefly used now for nursing mothers the warm infusion scarcely ever failing to procure a proper supply of milk. It is considered one of the best medicines which can be used for the purpose.

Turner (156says: ‘It is very good for the headache and the megram, for the use of the juice or powder of the leaves, preserveth and keepeth a man from the headache , and healeth it being present. It is good for any ache in the body and strengtheneth the members of the whole body, and fasteneth loose sinews and weak. It is also good for the dropsy. It helpeth the memory and amendeth thick hearing. The leaves provoke sweat. There is nothing better for the canker and old rotten and festering sores than the leaves, juice, broth, powder and water of Carduus benedictus.’

Mattheolus and Fuschius wrote also of Carduus benedictus: ‘It is a plant of great virtue; it helpeth inwardly and outwardly; it strengthens all the principal members of the body, as the brain, the heart, the stomach, the liver, the lungs and the kidney; it is also a preservative against all disease, for it causes perspiration, by which the body is purged of much corruption, such as breedeth diseases; it expelleth the venom of infection; it consumes and wastes away all bad humours; therefore, give God thanks for his goodness, Who hath given this herb and all others for the benefit of our health.

Many of the other Thistles may be used as substitutes for the Blessed Thistle. The seeds of the Milk Thistle (Carduus Marianus), known also as Silybum Marianum, have similar properties and uses, and the Cotton Thistle, Melancholy Thistle, etc., have also been employed for like purposes.

Preparation and Dosage:

The green leaf may be eaten with bread and butter for breakfast, like Watercress.
The dried leaves may be made into a powder and a drachm (one eighth of a fluid ounce) taken in wine or otherwise every day.
A wineglassful of the juice may be taken every day which is the usual and the best method.
An infusion may be made of the dried herb, taken any time as a preventive, or when intended to remove disease, at bed time, as it causes copious perspiration.
Cold infusions in smaller draughts are valuable in weak and debilitated conditions of the stomach, and as a tonic, creating appetite and preventing sickness.
The warm infusion – 1 OZ. of the dried herb to a pint of boiling water – in doses of a wineglassful, forms in intermittent fevers one of the most useful diaphoretics to which employment can be given.
The plant was at one time supposed to possess very great virtues against fevers of all kinds – fluid extract, 1/2 to 1 drachm.
The leaves, dried and powdered, are good for worms.

Blood Root: Sanguinaria Canadensis

WARNING: POISONOUS IN HIGH DOESES! (Though very useful in small doses)

Mrs. M. Grieve

Medicinal Action and Uses:

Emetic cathartic expectorant and emmenagogue, and of great value in atonic dyspepsia, asthma, bronchitis and croup. (The taste is so nauseating, that it may cause expectorant action.) Of value in pulmonary consumption, nervous irritation and helpful in lowering high pulse, and in heart disease and weakness and palpitation of heart of great use. Also good for torpid liver, scrofula, dysentery.

Preparation and Dosage:

For ringworm apply the fluid extract.
It is applied to fungoid growths, ulcers fleshy excrescences, cancerous affections and as an escharotic.
Sanguinaria root is chiefly used as an expectorant for chronic bronchitis and as a local application in chronic eczema, specially when secondary to varicose ulcers.
In toxic doses, it causes burning in the stomach, intense thirst, vomiting, faintness vertigo, intense prostration with dimness of eyesight.

Blue Cohosh: Caulophyllum thalictroides

Mrs. M. Grieve

Medicinal Action and Uses:

Emmenagogue, antispasmodic, diuretic, diaphoretic and anthelmintic. Said to be successfully used in rheumatism, dropsy, epilepsy, hysteria and uterine inflammation, specially for chronic cases. It is sometimes combined with Mitchella repens and Eupatoria aromatica. In use it is preferable to Ergot, expediting delivery, where delay results from debility, fatigue or want of uterine nervous energy.

Blue Vervain: Verbena hastata

Mrs. M. Grieve

Medicinal Action and Uses:

It is recommended in upwards of thirty complaints, being astringent, diaphoretic, antispasmodic, etc. It is said to be useful in intermittent fevers, ulcers, ophthalmia, pleurisy, etc., and to be a good galactogogue. It is still used as a febrifuge in autumn fevers. As a poultice it is good in headache, earneuralgia, rheumatism, etc. In this form it colours the skin a fine red, giving rise to the idea that it had the power of drawing the blood outside.

Preparation and Dosage:

A decoction of 2 OZ. to a quart, taken in the course of one day, is said to be a good medicine in purgings, easing pain in the bowels.
It is often applied externally for piles.

Boneset: Eupatorium perfoliatum

Mrs. M. Grieve

Medicinal Action and Uses:

Stimulant, febrifuge and laxative.

It acts slowly and persistently, and its greatest power is manifested upon the stomach, liver, bowels and uterus. It is regarded as a mild tonic in moderate doses, and is also diaphoretic, more especially when taken as a warm infusion, in which form it is used in attacks of muscular rheumatism and general cold.

In large doses it is emetic and purgative. Many of the earlier works allude to this species as a diuretic, and therefore of use in dropsy, but this is an error, this property being possessed by Eupatorium purpureum, the purple-flowered Boneset, or Gravel Root.

It has been much esteemed as a popular febrifuge, especially in intermittent fever, and has been employed, though less successfully, in typhoid and yellow fevers.

It is largely used by the negroes of the Southern United States as a remedy in all cases of fever, as well as for its tonic effects.

It is stated that the popular name Boneset is derived from the great value of this remedy in the treatment of a species of influenza which had much prevailed in the United States, and which from the pain attending it was commonly called Break-Bone Fever.

This species of Eupatorium has also been employed in cutaneous diseases, and in the expulsion of tapeworm.

Preparation and Dosage:

The infusion of 1 OZ of the dried herb to 1 pint of boiling water may be taken in wineglassful doses, hot or cold.
For colds and to produce perspiration, it is given hot, as a tonic, cold.
As a remedy in catarrh, more especially in influenza, it has been extensively used and with the best effects, given in doses of a wineglassful, warm every half hour, the patient remaining in bed the whole time – after four or five doses, profuse perspiration is caused and relief is obtained.
As a mild tonic it is useful in dyspepsia and general debility, and particularly serviceable in the indigestion of old people.

Buchu: Barosma betulina

Mrs. M. Grieve

Medicinal Action and Uses:

In gravel, inflammation and catarrh of the bladder it is specially useful. Buchu has long been known at the Cape as a stimulant tonic and remedy for stomachic troubles, where it is infused in Brandy and known as Buchu Brandy. Its use was learnt from the Hottentots. It was introduced into official medicine in Great Britain in 1821 as a remedy for cystitis urethritis, nephritis and catarrh of the bladder.

Preparation and Dosage:

The infusion (B.P.) of 1 OZ. of leaves to 1 pint of boiling water is taken in wineglassful doses three or four times a day.

Buckthorn: Rhamnus Frangula

Mrs. M. Grieve

Medicinal Action and Uses:

Tonic, laxative, cathartic. Dried seasoned bark from one to two years old alone should be used, as the freshly stripped bark acts as an irritant poison on the gastro-intestinal canal. The action of the bark becomes gradually less violent when kept for a length of time and more like that of rhubarb. It is used as a gentle purgative in cases of chronic constipation.

Preparation and Dosage:

Buckthorn is principally given in the form of the fluid extract, in small doses, repeated three or four times daily.
A decoction of 1 OZ. of the bark in 1 quart of water boiled down to a pint, may also be taken in tablespoonful doses.

Burdock: Arctium lappa

Mrs. M. Grieve

Medicinal Action and Uses:

Alterative, diuretic and diaphoretic.

One of the best blood purifiers. In all skin diseases, it is a certain remedy and has effected a cure in many cases of eczema, either taken alone or combined with other remedies, such as Yellow Dock and Sarsaparilla.

The root is principally employed, but the leaves and seeds are equally valuable. The anti-scorbutic properties of the root make the decoction very useful for boils, scurvy and rheumatic affections, and by many it is considered superior to Sarsaparilla, on account of its mucilaginous, demulcent nature; it has in addition been recommended for external use as a wash for ulcers and scaly skin disorders.

Americans use the seeds only, considering them more efficacious and prompt in their action than the other parts of the plant. They are relaxant and demulcent, with a limited amount of tonic property. Their influence upon the skin is due largely to their being of such an oily nature: they affect both the sebaceous and sudoriferous glands, and probably owing to their oily nature restore that smoothness to the skin which is a sign of normal healthy action.

It was regarded as a valuable remedy for stone in the Middle Ages, and called Bardona. As a rule, the recipes for stone contained some seeds or ‘fruits’ of a ‘stony’ character, as gromel seed, ivy berries, and nearly always saxifrage, i.e. ‘stone-breaker.’ Even date-stones had to be pounded and taken; the idea being that what is naturally ‘stony’ would cure it; that ‘like cures like’ (Henslow).

Culpepper gives the following uses for Burdock:

‘The Burdock leaves are cooling and moderately drying, wherby good for old ulcers and sores…. The leaves applied to the places troubled with the shrinking in the sinews or arteries give much ease: a juice of the leaves or rather the roots themselves given to drink with old wine, doth wonderfully help the biting of any serpents- the root beaten with a little salt and laid on the place suddenly easeth the pain thereof, and helpeth those that are bit by a mad dog:… the seed being drunk in wine 40 days together doth wonderfully help the sciatica: the leaves bruised with the white of an egg and applied to any place burnt with fire, taketh out the fire, gives sudden ease and heals it up afterwards…. The root may be preserved with sugar for consumption, stone and the lax. The seed is much commended to break the stone, and is often used with other seeds and things for that purpose.’

Preparation and Dosage:

Both root and seeds may be taken as a decoction of 1 OZ. to 1 1/2 pint of water, boiled down to a pint, in doses of a wineglassful, three or four times a day.
An infusion of the leaves is useful to impart strength and tone to the stomach, for some forms of long-standing indigestion.
When applied externally as a poultice, the leaves are highly resolvent for tumours and gouty swellings, and relieve bruises and inflamed surfaces generally.
The bruised leaves have been applied by the peasantry in many countries as cataplasms to the feet and as a remedy for hysterical disorders.
From the seeds, both a medicinal tincture and a fluid extract are prepared, of benefit in chronic skin diseases.
The infusion or decoction of the seeds is employed in dropsical complaints, more especially in cases where there is co-existing derangement of the nervous system, and is considered by many to be a specific for all affections of the kidneys, for which it may with advantage be taken several times a day, before meals.

Calendula: Calendula officinalis

Mrs. M. Grieve

Medicinal Action and Uses:

Marigold (the more common name for Calendula) is chiefly used as a local remedy. Its action is stimulant and diaphoretic.

Given internally, it assists local action and prevents suppuration. It is useful in chronic ulcer, varicose veins, etc. It was considered formerly to have much value as an aperient and detergent in visceral obstructions and jaundice.

Preparation and Dosage:

The infusion of 1 ounce to a pint of boiling water is given internally, in doses of a tablespoonful, and externally as a local application.
It has been asserted that a Marigold flower, rubbed on the affected part, is an admirable remedy for the pain and swelling caused by the sting of a wasp or bee.
A lotion made from the flowers is most useful for sprains and wounds, and a water distilled from them is good for inflamed and sore eyes.
An infusion of the freshly-gathered flowers is employed in fevers, as it gently promotes perspiration and throws out any eruption – a decoction of the flowers is much in use in country districts to bring out smallpox and measles, in the same manner as Saffron.
Marigold flowers are in demand for children’s ailments. The leaves when chewed at first communicate a viscid sweetness, followed by a strong penetrating taste, of a saline nature. The expressed juice, which contains the greater part of this pungent matter, has been given in cases of costiveness and proved very efficacious.
Snuffed up the nose it excites sneezing and a discharge of mucous from the head.
The leaves, eaten as a salad, have been considered useful in the scrofula of children, and the acrid qualities of the plant have caused it to be recommended as an extirpator of warts.
A yellow dye has also been extracted from the flower, by boiling.

Cascara: Rhamnus purshianus

Mrs. M. Grieve

Medicinal Action and Uses:

Cascara Sagrada is a mild laxative, acting principally on the large intestine. It is considered suitable for delicate and elderly persons, and may with advantage be given in chronic constipation, being generally administered in the form of the fluid extract. It acts also as a stomachic tonic and bitter, in small doses, promoting gastric digestion and appetite.