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.
MEDICINAL PART. The herb.
Description. -- Tansy has a perennial creeping
root, and an erect herbaceous stem, one to three feet high. The leaves
are smoothish, dark-green; flowers, golden-yellow; fruit, an achenium.
History. -- Indigenous to Europe, but has
been introduced into this country and cultivated by many; but grows also
spontaneously in old grounds, along roads, flowering in the latter part
of summer. Drying impairs much of the activity of the plant.
It contains volatile oil, wax, stearine, chlorophyll, bitter resin, yellow
coloring matter, tannin with gallic acid, bitter extractive gum, and tanacetic
acid, which is crystallizable and precipitates lime, baryta, and oxide
of lead.
Properties and Uses. -- It is tonic, emmenagogue,
and diaphoretic. In small doses, the cold infusion will be found
useful in convalescence from exhausting diseases, dyspepsia, hysteria,
and jaundice. The warm infusion is diaphoretic and emmenagogue.
It bears a good reputation in suppressed menstruation, but should be used
only when the suppression is due to morbid causes.
 
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