Five-finger

Loose, watery stools with a sense of mucosal relaxation rather than acute inflammation

Sore, spongy gums or mouth ulcers calling for a mild astringent wash rather than a strong tannin agent

Overview. Potentilla canadensis, known traditionally as five-finger or cinquefoil, is a low, trailing perennial of the rose family native to eastern North America, closely resembling wild strawberry in habit. The whole herb, sometimes including the root, is used medicinally. Physiomedicalist and Eclectic practitioners of the nineteenth century valued it as a gentle astringent tonic, considering it a milder counterpart to the European tormentil (Potentilla erecta) and comparable in action to raspberry leaf.

Clinical Notes. In the physiomedicalist framework, five-finger was regarded as an astringent that firms lax, relaxed tissue rather than one that forcefully constricts, making it suitable for conditions of mild atony with excess secretion, such as loose stools, catarrhal discharge, or a boggy, bleeding gum line, rather than for acute inflammatory states where a cooling relaxant might be chosen instead.

Properties and Uses. The herb five-finger was at one time in high repute as a medicine, and was accredited with almost miraculous powers; but it is only a mild astringent with tonic powers, nearly resembling the leaf of the raspberry, and usable for the same purposes. The common mode of exhibition is by infusion. The tormentil roots are quite purely and actively astringent; and though much employed in some sections of Europe, are scarcely known or used in this country. Medical Herbalism journal and medherb.com The Physiomedical Dispensatory by William Cook, M.D., 1869

Description. Natural Order, Rosaceae. This is a small plant, with a hairy and procumbent stem running upon the ground two or more feet, sometimes ascending, giving off runners after the manner of the strawberry, to which genus (fragaria) it is closely allied in appearance and habit.