Eastern Hemlock

Chronic, atonic diarrhea with relaxed bowel tissue and little active inflammation

Profuse, boggy leucorrhea calling for an astringent douche

Superficial wounds or mouth ulcers oozing serum, benefiting from a tannin-rich wash

Overview. Eastern hemlock is a large coniferous tree native to the cool forests of eastern North America, long used by Eclectic and physiomedicalist physicians of the nineteenth century for its astringent inner bark. The bark, rich in tannins, was decocted or tinctured for internal use in relaxed, atonic conditions of the mucous membranes, while the resinous exudate known as Canada pitch was applied externally as a warming plaster. It should not be confused with poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), an unrelated and dangerously toxic plant that shares only the common name.

Clinical Notes. Eclectic practitioners reached for hemlock bark much as they used other tannin-rich astringents such as oak bark or witch hazel, favoring it where tissue was described as relaxed, boggy, or atonic rather than acutely inflamed.

Therapy. External. A strong decoction of the bark is a satisfactory astringent for the checking of leucorrhoea and a good local application of this type for aphthous and other oral ulcerations, gangrenous ulcers, prolapsus ani and prolapsus uteri.

Therapy. Gastric irritation and vomiting in cholera morbus, leucorrhea, prolapsus uteri, chronic diarrhea and dysentery, irritation of the urinary organs, croup, rheumatism, eczema asthenic catarrhal conditions, with feeble digestion, and pallid mucous membranes, profuse bronchial secretion.