Logwood

Persistent watery, painless loose stools in a weakened or convalescent patient with little urgency or colic

Chronic diarrhea in a child following a febrile illness, stools pale, frequent, and lacking in tone

Overview. Logwood is the deep-red heartwood of a small, spiny tree native to Central America, long harvested from Honduras and the Yucatan region for its dye. In the physiomedical tradition it was valued as a gentle astringent for relaxed, atonic states of the bowel, particularly in convalescence, when a milder agent than the stronger mineral or tannic astringents was wanted. The wood is cut into chips and prepared as a decoction, its rich red liquid turning purplish and then black on contact with iron salts, a property once used to test its strength.

Clinical Notes. Logwood decoction was reached for in the physiomedical clinic when a patient's bowels remained loose and toneless after a fever or other debilitating illness, especially in children, where a mild rather than a harsh astringent was preferred.

Action and Therapy. A mild, unirritating astringent and tonic formerly much used in chronic diarrhoea and summer complaint of children, and in passive hemorrhages, and colliquative sweats. It is now seldom employed.

Properties and Uses. This wood is a mild and slightly aromatic astringent. It is seldom employed in medicine at the present time; but may be used in the laxity of the bowels following the summer complaints of children. A serviceable ink may be made from it, by observing the following exact proportions: Dissolve four ounces of logwood extract in a gallon of rain water, in a porcelain vessel; bring it to the boil, and skim well.