California buckthorn

Chronic muscular or rheumatoid pain with a sluggish, atonic constitution, dosed just short of a laxative effect

Obstinate, longstanding dysmenorrhea in a patient with no structural cause requiring correction

Overview. Rhamnus californica, now generally classified as Frangula californica, is a shrub or small tree native to the coastal ranges and Sierra foothills of California, extending into Arizona and northern Mexico. Its bark was gathered by nineteenth century American herb dealers and sometimes sold, deliberately or by confusion, as a thinner substitute for cascara sagrada bark. The Eclectic physicians took it up in its own right, valuing it less as a laxative than as a remedy for chronic rheumatic and muscular complaints, a use credited largely to the physician Webster.

Clinical Notes. The bark works much like its close relative cascara sagrada, containing anthraquinone glycosides that stimulate peristalsis, and like cascara it needs to be aged or dried for a year or more before use, since fresh bark is harshly griping.

Action and Therapy. Rhamnus californica is cathartic and antirheumatic. It sometimes is indiscriminately gathered with cascara sagrada (Rhamnus Purshiana) and is known to coast dealers as “thin cascara bark.” As a domestic medicine it has long been used in rheumatic disorders, and its introduction into Eclectic medicine for that purpose is due to Webster, who regards it as one of the best of antirheumatics.

The bark of Rhamnus californica, Eschscholtz ( Frangula californica, Gray), (Nat. Ord. Rhamnaceae). Sparingly in northern California and more abundant southerly in the Sierras, and easterly, especially in Mexico and Arizona.