Asarum

Therapy. In acute nasal catarrh, where the discharge has not appeared, or has been suppressed, with the usual symptoms of headache and general oppression, muscular aching and general discomfort, it is given with good results.

Properties and Uses. This root is one of the positive aromatics, stimulating and relaxing, rather prompt in diffusiveness, and somewhat tonic. Its influence is expended largely through the circulation and nerves, both of which it arouses and sustains.

Description. Natural Order, Aristolochiaceae. Stem subterranean, as a dark-brown, creeping rhizoma, several inches long, an eighth of an inch in diameter, with numerous fibers, brittle. Leaves two, on long petioles, kidney-shaped, three to six inches wide, soft-pubescent, thin, growing very closely together from the rhizoma.

Synonym. Wild Ginger. Dose, from one-half to one dram of the specific medicine, Dr. Houts, claims that asarum is a reliable emmenagogue, and perfectly safe. He gives it alone when he needs to restore the menses, and says he needs nothing with it.