Spicebush

A recent cold or feverish eruptive illness where the skin is cold, dry, and the rash is slow to come out, calling for a warm diffusive diaphoretic

Colicky, griping abdominal pain with flatulence, especially in children

Overview. Spicebush is a deciduous aromatic shrub of moist eastern North American woodlands, a member of the laurel family and a relative of true benzoin and sassafras in the pungency of its bark. Early American folk and physiomedical practitioners used the twig bark and berries as a warming, spicy diaphoretic and stomachic, and the berries were also dried and ground as a home substitute for allspice. It holds a modest place in nineteenth century American herbal practice as a gentle domestic remedy for colds and digestive upset rather than a heroic agent.

Clinical Notes. In the older American tradition, a warm infusion of the bark was given freely at the first sign of a cold or a feverish eruptive illness, the idea being to open the skin and encourage the eruption of measles or chickenpox to come out fully and quickly rather than being suppressed.

Properties and Uses. The bark of this shrub is a diffusive relaxant, with mild stimulating properties. A warm infusion, of an ounce to a pint of water, may be used freely; and is a mild diaphoretic in recent colds, tardy appearance of the eruption of measles and small-pox, and in the early stages of typhus.

Description. Natural Order, Lauraceae. Genus BENZOIN: Shrubs five to twelve feet high. Flowers dioecious; calyx six-cleft, open, yellow; corolla wanting; sterile flowers with nine stamens in three bands; fertile flowers fifteen to sixteen rudiments of stamens; deciduous scale-like bracts, four. Inflorescence in clusters, made up of umbels of four to six honey-scented flowers. Leaves appearing after the flowers, deciduous, entire. B. ODORIFERUM: Leaves two to four inches long, half as wide, obovate-lanceolate, veinless, entire, pale beneath. Flowers in small, sessile umbels. Drupes red. Common to moist woods in America. Whole plant spicy, aromatic, resembling benzoin. May.