LADY’S SLIPPER
Cypripedium pubescens
COMMON NAMES: Nerve root, Noah’s ark, yellow lady’s sliper, American valprian, yellow moccasin
flower.
FEATURES: Lady’s slipper is among the primitive members of the family Orchidaceae and is among the
most beautiful and best-known orchids. Some fifty species comprise the genus Cypripedium, found in
Europe, Asia, and North America and as far south as the tropics. There are eleven species found in North
America. Professor Rainesque of the University of Pennsylvania says in Medical Botany: “All species
are equally remedial.”
The plant grows in North America in rich woods and meadows and flowers in May and June. The two
or more folded and prominently ribbed leaves are sheathed, located near the base of the plant or on the
stem. The usually showy flowers (numbering 1–12) are characterized by the sessile, inflated or pouch-
shaped, variously colored lip, from which the plant receives its general name, Aphrodite’s shoe. Native
Americans called the beautiful plant “mocassin flower”; its use was known to them for generations. The
empirics of New England, particularly Samuel Thompson, had much respect for mutual evidence. The
fibrous roots are the parts used in medicine, and they should be gathered and carefully cleaned in August
or September.
MEDICINAL PART: Root.
SOLVENTS: Boiling water, diluted alcohol.
BODILY INFLUENCE: Antiperiodic, nervine, tonic.
USES: This medicine is an excellent nervine and acts as a tonic to the exhausted nervous system,
improving by circulation and nutrition of the nerve centers. It relieves pain (if present) and produces a
calm and tranquil condition of body and mind. From the quick response and high attributions many
suppose it possesses narcotic properties, but to this the answer is “none present.”
It is of special value in reflex functional disorders or chorea, hysteria, nervous headache, insomnia,
low fevers, nervous unrest, hypochondria, and nervous depression accompanying stomach disorders.
During fevers its use is indicated for restlessness, and during the early fever stages of pneumonia,
combined with a little lobelia (Lobelia inflata) and ginger (Zingiber), it will often cut short the trouble.
Combine with skullcap (Scutellaria) in various nervous affections such as hysteria, headache, Saint
Vitus’ dance, or other diseases of this nature. For the feeling of depression due to stomach disorders,
lady’s slipper (Cypripedium) and chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) should be taken before meals and
on retiring. As a home remedy the root is best roughly ground, 5 tablespoonfuls in 1 pint of boiling water;
steep for an hour, take 1 tablespoonful every hour, as needed. Of the tincture of Cypripedium alone, 5–30
drops, according to age and severity of condition.
HOMEOPATHIC CLINICAL: Tincture and infusion of fresh root gathered in autumn for brain affections,
chorea, convulsions, debility and sleeplessness, delirium tremens, ecstasy, epilepsy, mental despondency,
nervous debility, neuralgia, postinfluenza debility, sleeplessness, spermatorrhea, stye.