- Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. Available from: http://www.naturaldatabase.
com/(S(rwdt5xm035hbik55dg4fkzf0))/home.aspx?csmun&sND. It is not the purpose
to list herbal databases here, but another widely used in North America is Natural
Standard. Available from: http://www.naturalstandard.com (both accessed October 2008). - Unfortunately, the majority of sources of information on herbs do not provide evidence
that a specific botanical specimen was gathered by or known to an informant. - Hamel PB, Chiltoskey MU. Cherokee plants and their uses – a 400 year history.
Cherokee: privately printed, 1975: 22. Reference to purgative action seems out of
keeping with other uses that can be rationalised on the basis of astringency (see below)
and confusion with another ‘alder’ (in fact, alder buckthorn) has to be considered. - To offer just one point: a number of illnesses are listed because of a reputation to relieve
a common symptom, although the latter is not specifically mentioned, e.g. the property
of astringency seemingly accounts for the use of alder, as noted in the database, for
‘pharyngitis’ and the associated styptic action for ‘intestinal bleeding’. - Native American ethnobotany. Available from: http://herb.umd.umich.edu (accessed July
2008). - Comments based on a review of occasional publications on Micmac usage. A recent
account merits notice to underscore the diversity of reputations. Lacey L. Micmac Medi-
cines. Remedies and recollections. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 1994: 22, on the use of
alder in Conne River relates a case of ‘lameness’ – the patient recovered despite a doctor
saying that there was ‘no cure’: ‘The individual collected a large bag of alder leaves and
spent the following night treating the problem. The leaves were placed over the affected
areas of the body, and were replaced with a fresh covering whenever they became “too
hot.” This cured the lameness.’ Elsewhere, in Nova Scotia, Lacey records Mi’kmaq
people making a tea by steeping the bark and using it for ‘stomach cramps, kidney
ailments, fever and neuralgic pain... diphtheria [and] the bark and leaves were used
together in poultice form as a treatment for festering wounds’. - This account by Chief Joe has been told to many visitors to the Conne River reserve,
especially on a walk through the community’s Medicine Trail. - For example, from the writings of well-known herb author, Steven Foster: Black cohosh
Cimicifuga racemosa (Actaea racemosa). Available from: http://www.stevenfoster.com/education/
monograph/bkcohosh.html (accessed October 2008) and countless commercial websites.
See also Foster S. Black cohosh: a literature review.HerbalGram1999; 45 :35–50. - Vogel V. American Indian Medicine. Normal: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970: 370.
- Dunglison R. New Remedies: Pharmaceutical and therapeutically considered. Philadelphia,
PA: Lea & Blanchard, 1843: 164–6. - Dunglison R. General Therapeutics and Materia Medica, vol 2. Philadelphia, PA: Lea &
Blanchard, 1850: 196–7. Dunglison’s reference to Wood was to: Wood GB, Bache F. The
Dispensatory of the United States of America. Philadelphia, PA: Grigg, Elliot & Co.,
1847: 211–12. - For an account for practitioners: Lichstein PR. Rootwork from the clinicians’ perspective.
In: Kirkland J, Mathews HF, Sullivan III CW, Baldwin K (eds), Herbal and Magical
Medicine. Traditional healing today. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992: 99–117. - For discussion of limited impact on professional medicine: Cowen DL. The impact of the
materia medica of the North American Indians on professional practice. In: Hein W-H,
ed. Botanical Drugs of the Americas in the Old and New Worlds. Stuttgart:
Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1984: 51–63. - For some reference to this with regard to black cohosh: Crellin JK. ‘Traditional use’
claims for herbs: the need for competent historical research. Pharm Hist (Lond)2008; 38 :
34–40. - Richardson MK. Black cohosh: will there ever be an answer or answers. Menopause
2006; 13 :164–5. The comment is based on a clinical paper in the same issue of the
journal: Wuttke W, Gorkow C, Seidlova-Wuttke D. Effects of black cohosh (Cimicifuga
racemosa) on bone turnover, vaginal mucosa, and on various blood parameters in post-
menopausal women: a double-blind placebo-controlled and conjugated estrogens-controlled
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