Laminaria

A firm, undilated cervical os requiring slow, gentle mechanical widening before a gynecological or obstetric procedure

A soft, diffuse nontoxic goiter in a person with dietary iodine insufficiency

Overview. Laminaria is a genus of large brown kelps growing in cold coastal waters, harvested for their long, tough stipes and mineral-rich fronds. The dried stipe swells markedly on absorbing moisture, a property that made it a mainstay of nineteenth century eclectic practice both as an internal alterative rich in iodine and, more distinctively, as a mechanical tent for gradually dilating the cervix. That mechanical use has carried forward essentially unchanged into modern obstetric and gynecological practice.

Clinical Notes. The eclectic physicians valued laminaria chiefly for two very different jobs. Taken internally as a tincture or in small doses of the dried thallus, it served as an alterative and thyroid tonic in the days before iodized salt, useful for the soft, diffuse goiters of straightforward iodine deficiency and for sluggish glandular states more generally.