Sweet cicely

A weak, unproductive cough in a person of low vital tone, calling for a gentle stimulating expectorant rather than a harsh one.

Flatulent dyspepsia with underlying nervous tension, where an aromatic carminative that also settles the nerves is wanted.

Overview. Osmorhiza longistylis is a perennial woodland herb of the carrot family native to rich forests of eastern and central North America, prized for its thick aromatic root that smells and tastes strongly of anise. The root was used by several Indigenous nations and later adopted into physiomedicalist and Eclectic practice as a mild, warming stimulant to the mucous membranes and digestion. It has largely fallen out of modern use, surviving mainly as a wild edible and flavoring agent, but the old physiomedical texts valued it as a gentle tonic for feeble coughs and weak digestion.

Clinical Notes. In the physiomedical framework the root was regarded as combining a relaxant and a mild stimulant action, useful where tissue tone was low rather than where irritation or excess heat predominated. It was reached for in feeble, unproductive coughs in debilitated patients, often compounded with other pectoral and nervine agents such as aralia, rather than used alone for acute, forceful coughs.

Properties and Uses. This root is of a sweetish taste, and a flavor somewhat like anise, easily impaired by heat. It is a mild stimulant and relaxant, of the nervine and antispasmodic order, promoting mucous flow, and leaving a gentle tonic impression.

Description. Natural Order, Umbelliferae. This pretty member of the parsnip tribe has a thick perennial root, and an annual stem from two to three feet high. Leaves large, compound, the leaflets pinnatifid, short-pointed, cut-toothed, slightly pubescent when young, light yellowishgreen, lower ones on long petioles, upper ones sessile.