Sweet magnolia

Low fever with marked debility and poor appetite during convalescence

Chronic rheumatic pain that is worse in damp weather, in a patient with sluggish, atonic digestion

Overview. Magnolia virginiana (long known as Magnolia glauca), the sweetbay magnolia, is a small evergreen to semi-deciduous tree native to swamps and wet coastal woodlands of the eastern United States, from Massachusetts south to Florida and west to Texas. Its aromatic bark, taken from the trunk and root, was a favorite tonic of nineteenth century American Eclectic and physiomedicalist physicians, who valued it as a gentler, more pleasant tasting alternative to the bark of the related cucumber tree, Magnolia acuminata. It has no established place in modern pharmacy and is now mainly of historical and horticultural interest.

Clinical Notes. Eclectic physicians reached for sweetbay bark chiefly as a warming bitter tonic for the tail end of febrile illness, when a patient was weak, appetite poor, and digestion sluggish. It was given as an infusion or tincture, often alongside other bitters or mild stimulant diaphoretics, to rouse tone in convalescence and to support the body through low, lingering fevers, including the intermittent fevers common in malarial regions of the old South before quinine became universally available.

Therapy. In the treatment of intermittent fevers, after the active stage has passed, magnolia has been used. It is not an agent for inflammatory conditions, but restores the tone of the gastro-intestinal tract, which has been lost through the persistence of prostrating fevers, or active malarial conditions. In chronic rheumatism, accompanied with prostration, and loss of appetite, with mal assimilation, the remedy may be used to advantage. It is not an active remedy, but one that has a few enthusiastic advocates.

Properties and Uses. This root is a mild tonic, with stimulating and relaxing qualities, and moderately diffusive. A warm infusion acts gently toward the surface, improving the pliancy and outward circulation, but scarcely procuring perspiration.