Herbs & Herbal Remedies @ Green Papaya

Blue cohosh is a powerful herb that should be administered by a physician. The decoction tastes initially somewhat sweet, then bitter and unpleasant.

Blue Cohosh the Safety Factor

No one with high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, glaucoma, or a history of stroke should use blue cohosh.

When powdered, blue cohosh root irritates mucous membranes. Handle it with care. Take care not to inhale any or introduce it into your eyes.

Blue cohosh should be used only at term to induce labor, and then only under medical supervision.

Native Cultivation - Easy to Find

Blue cohosh is not a garden herb, but it’s easy to recognize in early spring in forests from the Appalachians to the Mississippi. Before other forest-floor plants have shown signs of new life, blue cohosh’s blue-purple stem and single large leaf have risen 2 to 3 feet. As spring turns to summer, blue cohosh produces three branches with three compound leaves each.

In summer, the plant produces small yellowish flowers and dark blue berries, which are poisonous and potentially fatal to children. Make sure children do not eat the berries.

Blue cohosh’s traditional uses in gynecology appear to stand up to scientific scrutiny.

Labor Inducer, Researchers have discovered a chemical (caulosaponin) in blue cohosh that provokes strong uterine contractions, thus supporting its primary Indian use.

However, caulosaponin also narrows the arteries that supply blood to the heart. Blue cohosh has produced heart damage in laboratory animals, and human heart damage seems quite possible from overdose.

On the other hand, blue cohosh does not appear to be significantly more hazardous than Pitocin, the standard drug used to induce labor, which may also cause heart damage and other serious side effects, including even maternal and fetal death.

Pitocin requires constant professional monitoring. Blue cohosh should also be used under strict medical supervision. If you’d like to use it at term, discuss your desire with your obstetrician and/or midwife and use it only with your doctor’s consent and supervision.

Menstruation Promotion - As a powerful uterine stimulant, blue cohosh could certainly trigger menstruation. But women should not use it for this purpose. It’s too powerful, and its side effects are potentially too serious.

Intriguing Possibilities - Researchers in India have discovered tantalizing evidence that the American Indians may have been on the right track in using blue cohosh as a contraceptive. In animals, the herb inhibits ovulation, according to a report published in the Journal of Reproduction and Fertility.

European researchers have identified some antibiotic and immune-stimulating properties in blue cohosh, possibly explaining its use by Eclectic physicians for bladder and kidney infections.

Finally, blue cohosh also has anti-inflammatory activity, lending credence to its traditional use for arthritis.

Myth - Despite its traditional reputation as a treatment for high blood pressure, studies show blue cohosh is more likely to cause this serious condition than treat it.

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.