Spikenard

Chronic, loose cough with abundant thin mucus in a debilitated patient who cannot clear the chest easily

Cold, damp rheumatic pains that worsen with weather change and respond to warming circulatory herbs

Irritative cough of debility with excessive secretion.

Overview. Aralia racemosa is a tall herbaceous perennial of the ginseng family, native to rich, moist woodlands of eastern North America. Its thick, aromatic root was a staple of nineteenth century American Eclectic and physiomedical practice, valued as a warming pectoral and alterative. The root was traditionally combined with other pulmonary herbs in syrups for chronic chest complaints, and it was also used, less commonly, as a substitute for true sarsaparilla in alterative formulas.

Clinical Notes. American spikenard root was reached for in the Eclectic era when a patient presented with a loose, rattling cough and copious mucus but insufficient strength to clear it, particularly in older or debilitated individuals recovering slowly from a chest infection.

Action and Therapy. A pleasant aromatic stimulating expectorant for chronic pulmonic affections, with cough from marked irritation and excessive catarrhal secretions. The syrup is a really valuable cough remedy in greatly debilitated subjects. When used in very small amounts the specific medicine is an agreeable flavor for syrupy cough mixtures. A number of apocryphal uses have been recorded for it, but outside of its good effects upon the respiratory and renal mucosa it has nothing to commend it. ARISÆMA TRIPHYLLUM. The fresh corm of Arisaema triphyllum, Torre (Nat. Ord. Araceae). Common in damp woods and wet situations in North and South merica.

Therapy. Arisaema has been recommended for a variety of disorders, chiefly of the respiratory tract, and as a stimulant in low forms of fever, when delirium is marked and the membranes are inflamed and the tongue red, painful and swollen.