Western Herbalism
Hair-cap moss
Polytrichum juniperum
Also known as Juniper haircap moss, Bird's wheat, Polytrichum, Bear's bed, Ground moss, Robin's rye, Herba adianthi aurei.
Polytrichum juniperinum, commonly called hair-cap moss, is a small, wiry, dark green bryophyte that forms dense mats on acidic soils, burned ground, and rocky banks across temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The whole plant, gathered fresh or dried, was used by nineteenth century American Eclectic physicians as a urinary diuretic. It occupied a modest place in that tradition as a folk remedy for dropsical swelling and irritable bladder conditions, valued mainly where more standard diuretics were unavailable or poorly tolerated.
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Indications what the tradition reached for it in
- Anasarca
- Ascites
- Urinary obstruction
- Suppressed urination in children
- Febrile inflammatory conditions
- Uric acid gravel
- Phosphatic gravel
- Acute gonorrhea with burning urination
- Bladder irritation
- Difficult urination in pregnancy
- Difficult urination during labor
Specific indications
Scanty, burning urination with a sense of bladder irritation and gravel formation
Generalized puffy edema with reduced urine output and fullness of the abdomen
Safety
Pregnancy: Avoid unless under experienced supervision: traditional use in pregnancy is recorded, but no modern safety data exist to confirm this is prudent.
Breastfeeding: Avoid: no safety data are available for use during breastfeeding.
The record lists 3 contraindications; open the plate in the library to read them in full.
In practice
Hair-cap moss was reached for by Eclectic practitioners chiefly as a simple diuretic in dropsy (anasarca and ascites) and in cases of scanty, painful urination, including the burning of acute gonorrhea and the bladder irritation sometimes seen in late pregnancy or labor.
Dosing as the sources wrote it
| Preparation | As written | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Specific Medication (Scudder, historical, low-dose tradition) | 0.3-4 mL tincture, in divided small doses, several times daily | 0.3-4 mL |
| Tincture (1:5, historical Eclectic use, higher-dose tradition) | 1-4 mL tincture three times daily | 1-4 mL |
| Specific Polytrichum | Dose, from five to sixty minims. | 0.31-3.7 mL |
| In doses of 2 fluid ounces of the infusion, every ½ hour, it has been known to remove from a dropsical patient from 20 to 40 pounds of water in the space of 24 hours. | 59.15 mL |
Doses are reproduced from the sources for practitioners and are not a recommendation for any person.
From the sources
Clinical Notes. Hair-cap moss was reached for by Eclectic practitioners chiefly as a simple diuretic in dropsy (anasarca and ascites) and in cases of scanty, painful urination, including the burning of acute gonorrhea and the bladder irritation sometimes seen in late pregnancy or labor.
Therapy. The agent is a hydragogue diuretic and causes a very large evacuation of urine when administered in dropsy, while it promotes the absorption of the fluid at the same time. It tends to relieve the pain of urinary calculi and to prevent their formation. Though it is not always effective, probably on account of using a spurious article, the genuine has been known to remove forty pounds of urine from a dropsical patient in twenty-four hours.
Specific indications and reasoning. (HAIR-CAP Moss.) The hair-cap moss has been especially employed as a diuretic, and so long as it could be readily procured without admixture, gave good satisfaction. I do not know that it has any direct influence, other than to increase the secretion of water in the urine ... a hydragogue diuretic; but it might be well to study its action more closely. . • . BPECIFIC MEDICATION.
Specific Symptomatology. The agent is used in anasarca, ascites, urinary obstruction, suppression of urine in children, febrile and inflammatory diseases, uric and phosphatic acid gravel, acute gonorrhea with severe burning pain on passing urine, irritation of the bladder, difficult micturition of pregnancy, and often occurring during parturition.
Drawn from Scudder's Specific Medication and Specific Medicines; King's American Dispensatory, 18th edition (Felter and Lloyd); Ellingwood's American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, and the Bountiful Herbs editorial.
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