Collinsonia canadensis is a perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 medicinal herb

Herb

Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...

 in the mint family. Common names include Canada Horsebalm, Richweed, Hardhack, Heal-All, Horseweed, Ox-Balm and Stone root. It is native to eastern North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 from Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

 south to Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 and as far west as Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, although it is mainly found east of the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

. It is endangered in Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

.

Medicinal History

The plant was discovered by Peter Collinson (1693–1768), an enthusiastic English merchant botanist, who took great interest in transporting to England and cultivating new American plants. Collinsonia was not, however, used in European or American medicine at that early date, which the Lloyd Brothers pamphlet on the herb says, "nor did it attract the attention of such authoritative observers of the regular school as the Bartons, Dunglison, Zollicoffer and Griffith, probably because it possessed no prominent, poisonous or violent quality to make it conspicuous. It does have a distinct odor, described by herbalist David Winston

David Winston

David Winston RH is an American herbalist and ethnobotanist. He has been in practice and teaching since 1977 and has written several books on the subject. He works in the Cherokee, Chinese and the Western eclectic herbal traditions...

 as smelling like "Lemon Pledge."

It was not until later after observing Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 medicinal uses of the plant that the herb came into the materia medica. By the 1850s it was listed in King's American Dispensatory

King's American Dispensatory

King's American Dispensatory is a book first published in 1854 that covers the uses of herbs used in American medical practice, especially by those involved in Eclectic medicine which was the botanical school of medicine in the 19th to 20th centuries...

 and in Lee's New York Plants. Lee noted that the bruised leaves had been used for many years as poultices for bruises and that the Thompsonian medicalists had referred to it in their pamphlets. One factor in the long adoption was that the elements of the plant only appeared with long extraction. Another was that the root was hard and knotty: the Lloyd Brothers pamphlet on the plant notes that it tended to break grinding machines and was difficult to extract:

ROOT.-Collinsonia is dark-brown, nearly black, knotty, very heavy, and is
covered by a mass of tough, black, wire-like fibers. The green crushed root has a slight, peculiar
odor, which disappears on drying. Internally, the dried root is white, odorless, and imparts little taste, even when long chewed.
The active principles are very difficult to abstract, whether the drug be finely ground or
powdered, its constituents demanding an element of time for their solution,
regardless of the menstruum employed. Either the green or the dried root of
Collinsonia imparts a deep, red-brown color to any menstruum that finally
abstracts its full qualities. This color arises from the fact that its virtues reside
largely in the rootlets, the brown epidermis, and the slightly colored
subjacent portions, which must not be excluded if the operator expects to
produce a representative preparation.

According to the 1869 Cook's Physiomedical Dispensatory:

Description: Natural Order, Labiatae. Genus COLLINSONIA: Strong scented herbs; with large, ovate and petiolate

Petiole (botany)

In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...

 leaves; and yellow flowers in a terminal and leafless panicled raceme. Calyx ten-striate, upper lip truncate and three-toothed, lower lip two-cleft; corolla exserted, ringent; stamens two, long exserted. C. CANADENSIS: Indigenous plants, growing in rich and moist woods and fields. Stem four-sided, three to four feet high, often very smooth, but sometimes slightly pubescent. Leaves few, thin, three to four inches .long, two to three inches broad, acuminate, coarsely serrate, abrupt or subcordate at base. Flowers in large, loose, compound racemes; corolla half an inch or more in length, yellow tinged with green, the lower lip elongated and fringed, exhaling a lemon odor. July to September.

The root of this herb is medicinal. It is perennial, knotty, rough, very hard,. dusky brown, throwing out many slender fibers, and of a somewhat unpleasant balsamic odor when fresh. From the confusion that arises from similar common names, it is necessary to distinguish this particular hardhack from the shrub Spirea tomentosa; and also to note that Ptelia trifoliata and Scrophularia marylandica are frequently called heal-all.

Medicinal uses

Petersen's Materia Medica describes the use: "Has a special influence on the nervous system

Nervous system

The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous...

 and mucous membrane

Mucous membrane

The mucous membranes are linings of mostly endodermal origin, covered in epithelium, which are involved in absorption and secretion. They line cavities that are exposed to the external environment and internal organs...

s, removing congestion and improving circulation

Circulatory system

The circulatory system is an organ system that passes nutrients , gases, hormones, blood cells, etc...

 of the capillaries

Capillary

Capillaries are the smallest of a body's blood vessels and are parts of the microcirculation. They are only 1 cell thick. These microvessels, measuring 5-10 μm in diameter, connect arterioles and venules, and enable the exchange of water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and many other nutrient and waste...

. This influence is most marked in relaxed conditions of the mucous membranes of the throat and lower bowels. A valuable remedy in sore throat, laryngitis

Laryngitis

Laryngitis is an inflammation of the larynx. It causes hoarse voice or the complete loss of the voice because of irritation to the vocal folds . Dysphonia is the medical term for a vocal disorder, of which laryngitis is one cause....

, pharyngitis

Pharyngitis

Pharyngitis is an inflammation of the throat or pharynx. In most cases it is quite painful, and is the most common cause of a sore throat.Like many types of inflammation, pharyngitis can be acute – characterized by a rapid onset and typically a relatively short course – or chronic....

, with relaxed and enfeebled capillary circulation. May be combined to advantage with other indicated remedies in atonic

Atony

Pronounced In medicine, atony refers to a muscle that has lost its strength. It is frequently associated with the conditions Atonic seizure, atonic colon, uterine atony, gastrointestinal atony and choreatic atonia.Atony can also refer to the paralyzed or extremely relaxed state of skeletal...

 dyspepsia

Dyspepsia

Dyspepsia , also known as upset stomach or indigestion, refers to a condition of impaired digestion. It is a medical condition characterized by chronic or recurrent pain in the upper abdomen, upper abdominal fullness and feeling full earlier than expected when eating...

, catarrh

Catarrh

Catarrh is a disorder of inflammation of the mucous membranes in one of the airways or cavities of the body. It can result in a thick exudate of mucus and white blood cells caused by the swelling of the mucous membranes in the head in response to an infection...

al gastritis

Gastritis

Gastritis is an inflammation of the lining of the stomach, and has many possible causes. The main acute causes are excessive alcohol consumption or prolonged use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin or ibuprofen. Sometimes gastritis develops after major surgery, traumatic...

 with defective circulation and irritable condition of the heart from weakness. In hemorrhoids, when indicated, it is our best remedy. In these cases it should be used in small doses. Scudder recommends it in nurse's sore mouth, and no doubt it is effective in such cases where there is relaxed condition with impaired capillary circulation in the parts. It is generally given in doses of 4 to 6 drops, with the exception of hemorrhoid

Hemorrhoid

Hemorrhoids or haemorrhoids , are vascular structures in the anal canal which help with stool control. They become pathological or piles when swollen or inflamed. In their physiological state they act as a cushion composed of arterio-venous channels and connective tissue that aid the passage of...

s, where 1/2 to 1 drop doses are more effective than the larger doses."

External links

• A listing of linked classic and eclectic herbals containing information on this plant at Henriette's Herbal