Rosin weed

Wet, loose cough with abundant thin mucus in a person of otherwise sluggish constitution

Chronic loose stool with a coated tongue and diminished appetite calling for a bitter, drying resinous tonic

Overview. Silphium laciniatum is a tall, coarse, resin-rich prairie perennial native to the central and western plains of North America, easily recognized by its large basal leaves that orient their flat faces north and south, giving the plant its common name of compass plant. The leaves, and to a lesser extent the root, were used by nineteenth century American physiomedical and eclectic practitioners for their bitter, resinous, stimulating qualities. It has never entered mainstream modern herbal practice and is now mostly a historical curiosity, occasionally gathered regionally for folk use in respiratory and digestive complaints.

Clinical Notes. Physiomedical writers reached for the leaf decoction in what they called humid or damp asthma, meaning a wheezing chest with abundant loose secretions rather than a dry, tight cough, and paired it conceptually with other resinous bitter expectorants of the period.

Properties and Uses. The leaves of this singular and coarse plant contain much resinous material, which is bitter and stimulating. They are reputed of good effect in asthma of the humid character, used by decoction; and also in spitting of blood and chronic diarrhea. They are said also to act upon the kidneys, as a diuretic and tonic. The root is quite nauseant, and in large quantities emetic; and is much used in some sections for the heaves of horses. The plant seems deserving of professional attention. Medical Herbalism journal and medherb.com The Physiomedical Dispensatory by William Cook, M.D., 1869

Description. Natural Order, Compositae. This is a plant peculiar to the western and southwestern prairies. Stem three to six feet high, round, naked above, alternate-leaved toward the base, rough-bristly throughout. Leaves large, pinnately parted, divisions lanceolate; lower leaves a foot to two feet long, ovate in outline, fully developed before the stem rises, and standing with their faces uniformly north and south. Flower-heads few, one to two inches broad; flowers radiate; rays numerous, fertile, with their ovaries in two or three rows; disks numerous, sterile; achenia broad, winged, and notched. July.