Red rose

Red, relaxed, or bleeding mucous membranes of the mouth and throat that benefit from a cooling astringent gargle

Persistent night sweats or debilitating perspiration in a weakened patient, used historically as a mild adjunct astringent

Overview. Rosa gallica is one of the oldest cultivated roses, native to central and southern Europe and western Asia, long grown for its intensely fragrant, deep crimson petals. The dried petals were an official drug in many European and American pharmacopoeias of the nineteenth century, valued chiefly as a gentle astringent and as a pleasant vehicle for other medicines. In eclectic and earlier European practice the petals were prepared as an infusion, syrup, or conserve and used both for their own mild therapeutic effect and to flavor and color less palatable preparations.

Clinical Notes. Red rose petals are a soft, cooling astringent, gentler than oak bark or agrimony, and are well suited to irritated or slightly bleeding mucous membranes rather than to frank hemorrhage. A strong infusion or syrup makes an agreeable gargle for sore throat, pharyngitis, and mouth ulcers, and can be sipped for mild diarrhea in convalescents or children where a harsher astringent would be unwelcome.

Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage. (See Lini Farina.) Useful in acute respiratory disorders, but the liquorice impairs its usefulness in intestinal inflammations. It may be freely used for the administration of magnesium sulphate and quinine salts, though it is employed chiefly for coloring and flavoring purposes. Buccal and faucial inflammations and ulcerations maybe washed with it, and given internally, through the sulphuric acid contained in it, it exerts some control over colliquative sweats. Dose, 1 to 4 fluid ounces.

Pharmaceutical Uses. The conserve made by beating the pulp with sugar, is called conserve of dog rose, or conserve of hips (Confectio Rosae Caninae, Br.), and is tenacious, retaining its softness for a long time, even under exposure to the air. It is a useful material for forming pill masses, and, as it contains less tannic acid, may be used as a substitute for the conserve of red roses, when preparations of iron are to enter into the pill mass.