In 1876, a famous patent medicine (containing several herbs, including black cohosh) was invented by an enterprising woman, Lydia
E. Pinkham. Over the years, Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound became tremendously popular partly due to its treatment of ‘female complaints.’ Pinkham’s Compound had a reputation for causing abortion if taken in large amounts. Pinkham’s Compound can still be purchased, but the black cohosh has been removed from the contemporary recipe.
Black cohosh was thought to have estrogenic properties, acting in the body like the female sex hormone estrogen, however this is being debated. In some scientific tests, black cohosh has been found to lack estrogenic effects in animals.[171] Black cohosh does not contribute to estrogen dependent cancer cells,[172] in fact black cohosh has been shown to inhibit proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro.[173] In Europe, black cohosh root is widely used in prescription medications for menopausal discomforts. Black cohosh has been shown to affect estrogen receptors in rat uteruses and pituitary glands.[174] Black cohosh has also been shown in scientific tests to suppress luteinizing hormone in ovariectomized rats.[175]
Gathering: The commercial supply of black cohosh grows in the open woodlands and cleared hillsides of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The gathering of wild black cohosh is threatening the species. Conscientious gathering of black cohosh is stressed. Black cohosh root is gathered in the fall (around September in the United States) after the fruit (seed pod) has ripened.
Preparation: Black cohosh, often used in decoction or tincture form, is often combined in equal parts with blue cohosh in labor inducing, emmenagogual, and abortifacient preparations. Black cohosh is sometimes combined with mistletoe or ginger. Black cohosh is most effective if used during the first four weeks of pregnancy.
Words to the Wise: Black cohosh may be estrogenic. Estrogenic herbs contain estrogen-like substances, which act to produce the effects of the female hormone estrogen. Estrogenic herbs can cause estrogen-like side effects: abnormal blood clotting, liver problems, and may encourage the growth of estrogen-dependent tumors. Estrogenic herbs should be avoided by anyone taking birth control pills, estrogen medications, or blood pressure medications. Estrogenic herbs may notbe as effective for premenopausal women. Estrogenic substances are known teratogens.
In addition, black cohosh can depress the heart rate; anyone with a history of heart disease should not use black cohosh. Black cohosh may contribute to abnormal blood clotting and liver problems. There have been cases of liver toxicity in women who used black cohosh to regulate menopausal hormones.[176] Large doses of black cohosh may irritate nerve centers causing tremors and convulsions.
Watch for Signs of Toxicity Specific to Black Cohosh: Nausea, diarrhea, abdominal or joint pain, tremors, headache, visual dimness, depressed heart rate, tremors, and convulsions.
Decoction (root): 3 tsp. (12 g) dried root to 1 cup (250 ml) water.
Simmer 5 - 15 minutes, three to four times a day.
Fresh Root Tincture: 1:3, 60% alcohol, ½ - 1 tsp. (2.5 - 5 ml), two to three times a day.
Powdered (root): 1-4 #0 capsules, three to four times a day.
Black Hellebore
In antiquity, Greek women wore certain gold ornaments called hellebores. The exact nature of these ornaments was made plain some years ago by the discovery, in the south of Russia, of four small gold plates of ancient Greek manufacture. The blossom of the hellebore is represented on them and there are holes in the plates for fastening them to the dress.
-James George Frazer in Pausania’s Description of Greece, 1898
AKA: Melampode, Christmas rose, Christe herb, melampodium
Part Used: Root
Medicinal Properties: Drastic cathartic purgative, emmenagogue, anthelmintic, violently narcotic.
Effects on the Body: In small doses, black hellebore diminishes the rate of the pulse, increases the force and output of the heart, and causes a rise in blood pressure. In larger doses, hellebore is a narcotic, cardiotoxic, cathartic purgative.
Abortifacient Action: Cathartic purgative and embryo toxic.
Contains: Helleborin (narcotic) and helleborein (cardiac poison and purgative).
Description: Black hellebore is native to the mountainous regions of central and southern Europe, Greece, and Asia Minor. It is a perennial, short plant with dark waxy leaves and flower stalks rising directly from the root with white flowers appear in mid winter.
Hellebore was anciently associated with purging evil spirits and death. Arrows rubbed with hellebore were thought to render animal flesh tenderer. Ancient tradition held that women who became ‘soul-sick’ with a gloomy temper were sent away on vacation to a city in Greece called Anticyra, where hellebore grew plentifully.[177]
In Greek mythology, Melampus of Pylos used the milk of goats fed on hellebore to save the daughters of the King of Argos from a hysterical madness, induced by Dionysus. During the siege of Kirka, in 585 BC, the Greeks used hellebore in the water supply to poison the Kirkan troops. The troops were so weakened by diarrhea; they were unable to defend the city from the Greeks.
Hellebore is rarely used in modern medicine, but harking back to Melampus, hellebore homeopathics are used for mental disorders.
Gathering: The black hellebore rhizome is collected from mature plants in autumn and dried. Black hellebore has been known to cause contact dermatitis when touched to the skin; use caution when gathering.
Words to the Wise: Black hellebore root powder can cause violent sneezing. Black hellebore is a narcotic and a cardiac poison no longer used in medicine. Use extreme caution.
Watch for Signs of Toxicity Specific to Black Hellebore: Gastrointestinal inflammation, dizziness, inflammation, painful spasms, catharsis, thirst with abdominal heat, dilation of the pupils, cold sweats, convulsions, heart failure.
Abortifacient Powder: 2 – 3 g powdered root, taken in a single dose. Abortifacient Decoction: ¼ oz. (7 g) herb to 2 cups (500 ml) of water, then 1 fl. oz. (30 ml) every four hours for up to two days.
*Extreme caution! Narcotic and dangerous cardiac poison!
Blue Cohosh
Blue Cohosh is emmenagogue (excites menstrual flow), and its use as a parturifacient originated in the custom of the Indian squaws of employing a decoction of the root for two or three weeks previous to labor to facilitate childbirth.
-King's American Dispensatory, 1854
171
N. Einer-Jensen, J. Zhao, K. P. Andersen, K. Kristoffersen, “Cimicifuga and Melbrosia Lack Oestrogenic Effects in Mice and Rats.”
172
E. Liske, “Therapeutic Efficacy and Safety of
173
D. Dixon-Shanies, and N. Shaikh, “Growth Inhibition of Human Breast Cancer Cells by Herbs and Phytoestrogens,”
174
H. Jarry, G. Harnischfeger, and E. Duker, “The Endocrine Effects of Constituents of
175
H. Jarry and G. Harnischfeger, “Endocrine Effects of Constituents of
176
D. Joy, J. Joy, and P. Duane, “Black Cohosh: A Cause of Abnormal Postmenopausal Liver Function Tests,”
177
Charles Montgomery Skinner,