This section of the book is from "The Complete Herbalist" by Dr. O. Phelps Brown. Also available from Amazon: The Complete Herbalist: The People Their Own Physicians By The Use Of Nature's Remedies.
COMMON NAME. Cotton.
MEDICINAL PART. The inner bark of the root.
Description. -- Cotton is a biennial or triennial
herb, with a fusiform root, with a round pubescent branching stem about
five feet high. The leaves are hoary, palmate, with five sub-lanceolate,
rather acute lobes; flowers are yellow; calyx cup-shaped, petals five,
deciduous, with a purple spot near the base; stigmas, three or five; and
the fruit a three or five-celled capsule, with three or five seeds involved
in cotton.
History. -- It is a native of Asia; but is
cultivated extensively in many parts of the world, and in the Southern
portions of America more successfully than anywhere else. The inner
bark of the recent root is the part chiefly used in medicine. Its
active principle, which is that administered by all educated herbal physicians,
is called Gossypiin.
Properties and Uses. -- The preparation Gossypiin
is most excellent for diseases of the utero-genital organs. In these
diseases it evinces its sole and only virtues, and it ought, on every occasion
where it can be procured in its purity, to be used in the stead of ergot,
or smut rye, in cases of difficult labor. The latter will produce
uterine inflammation and puerperal fever, while gossypiin will achieve
the beneficial effects for which ergot is usually administered, and leave
the system perfectly free from any prejudicial after-results. The
active principle of fresh cotton root forms a most wonderful uterine tonic,
and, if correctly prepared, will be found invaluable in sterility, vaginitis,
whites, menstrual irregularities, green sickness, etc. I do not recommend
the use of the decoction of the root by inexperienced persons. The
seeds are said to possess superior anti-periodic properties.
 
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