Penthorum

Chronic catarrh of the throat with mucosa that is relaxed, dusky purple, dry, sore, and irritable, resisting ordinary throat remedies

Chronic diarrhea or dysentery with a persistent, watery or mucous stool and a lax, atonic bowel

Overview. Penthorum sedoides is a perennial marsh plant native to wet meadows, ditches, and streambanks across eastern North America, from which the aerial parts are gathered for use as a specific medicine. It held a defined but narrow place in nineteenth and early twentieth century American eclectic practice, valued chiefly as a mild astringent and restorative for relaxed, chronically irritated mucous membranes of the throat and bowel. It never entered mainstream pharmacopoeias and is little used today outside a small circle of practitioners working from the eclectic materia medica.

Clinical Notes. Eclectic physicians reached for penthorum specifically when the throat was not acutely inflamed but chronically relaxed, boggy, and dusky or purplish in color, a picture that had often failed to respond to more standard astringent or stimulating throat remedies.

Action and Therapy. External. A wash for catarrhal surfaces, producing an astringent effect but no corrugation of the tissues. Internal. While of some value in catarrhal diarrhea, this is a remedy best adapted to chronic catarrhal and congested states of the posterior nares and pharyngeal vault. It should be used locally while it is being administered internally; and quick results are not to be expected.

Therapy. It influences the functional activity of the stomach through the direct action on the glandular structure of the mucous membranes. It will impart tone to the stomach and increase the appetite and power of the digestion.