Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Blue Cohosh also known as Papoose Root, Blue Berry
Herbal Labor Inducer
Family: Berberidaceae; (includes Mayapple, Mandrake, Barberry)
Genus and Species: Caulophyllum Thalictroides
Also known as: Papoose Root, Blue Berry
Parts used: Root
The Indians called blue cohosh papoose root, believing it triggered labor and hastened childbirth. They were right, Science shows that an active substance found in blue cohosh can induce labor. This substance is so powerful, in fact, that the herb should be used only under medical supervision.
Blue cohosh is not related to black cohosh-they belong to different botanical families. But the Indians used both as gynecological herbs and called them both cohosh, Algonquian for “rough,” because they both have gnarled roots. The “blue” refers to this herb’s bluish stem and dark blue berries.
Herb of Many Uses
In addition to using it to induce labor, menstruation, and abortion, the Indians also used blue cohosh to treat sore throat, hiccups, infant colic, epilepsy, and arthritis. Some Indian women even drank a strong decoction as a contraceptive.
Nineteenth-century American Eclectic physician lohn King popularized blue cohosh as a labor inducer and menstruation inducer in the first edition of his King’s American Dispensatory. The Eclectics also prescribed it for menstrual cramps, breast pain, bladder and kidney infection, insomnia, bronchitis, and nausea.
Non-Eclectic (”regular”) physicians never adopted blue cohosh, but it was listed in the U.S. Pnarmacopoeia as a labor inducer from 1882 to 1905.
Modern herbals recommend blue cohosh as a labor inducer and menstruation promoter. Some herbalists also suggest it for asthma, anxiety, cough, arthritis, and high blood pressure.