Frostweed

Chronic diarrhea in a poorly nourished, scrofulous patient with pale, relaxed mucous membranes

Aphthous or ulcerated sore throat and mouth, used as a gargle or wash

Chronic mucous discharges from bowel or vagina in a debilitated, tissue-lax constitution

Overview. Frostweed is a small, downy native North American herb of the rockrose family, growing on sandy, open ground mostly east of the Alleghenies. Its name comes from the curious ribbons of ice that extrude from cracks at the base of the dried stem in early frosts, a phenomenon unrelated to its medicinal use. The whole herb, sometimes with root, was employed by physiomedicalist and Eclectic practitioners of the nineteenth century as a mild astringent tonic for weak, discharging mucous membranes.

Clinical Notes. Cook placed frostweed among the alterant tonics, a category meant to describe agents that both tighten lax tissue and gradually improve the quality of nutrition reaching it. In practice this meant it was reached for in patients described as scrofulous: pale, poorly nourished, prone to glandular swelling and to a chronic, low-grade diarrhea that did not respond to simple astringents alone.

Properties and Uses. This plant possesses astringent and stimulating properties, of the class commonly termed alterant tonics. It strengthens the mucous membranes and the assimilative apparatus. Its principal employment is in those forms of scrofula where there is a tendency to diarrhea, with impurities dependent upon the absorption of ill-vitalized nutriment; in which cases it is an excellent agent, though a mild one.

Description. Natural Order, Cistaceae. A small herb, found mostly on sandy soils east of the Alleghenies, but also common in some places westward. Leaves simple, nearly an inch long, oblong, nearly sessile, tomentose beneath, opposite below, alternate above. Flowers of two sorts, the earlier ones being an inch wide, with five yellow petals, an indefinite number of stamens, and pods about half an inch long, bearing many seeds; the later ones with very small petals or none at all, three to ten stamens, and pods about as large as a pin’s head, and only a few seeds; the yellow petals open but once, and fall off the next day. The whole plant has a downy look.