27. Cimicifuga foetida, Linn.

The medicinal plant Cimicifuga foetida is a member of the Ranunculaceae (buttercup) family. This page includes its habitat, botanical descption, medicinal uses (eg., Ayurveda), chemical constituents and history of use in modern and ancient India.

Index in Flora of British India (Hooker): 1. 30.

From Latin cimex, a bug; fugare to drive away.

Vernacular:—Jiunti (Pb.).

Habitat:—Temperate Himalaya, from Bhotan to Gores and Kashmir; altitude 7-12,000 ft. Patarnala forest, Simla.

Botanical description:—A perennial, more or less pubescent herb.

Stems: 3-6 ft., erect, leafy, branched.

Leaves: 6-18 in., pinnately compound; leaflets 1-3 in., rarely more, ovate or lanceolate, deeply and sharply toothed, terminal leaflet 3-lobed.

Flowers: nearly regular, hardly ¼ in. diam., white, crowded in short or long racemes, solitary in the axils of the upper leaves, and combined in a terminal, sometimes large and spreading panicle.

Sepals and petals: 5-7 (no clear distinction between them), imbricate, ovate, concave; one or two of the inner ones deeply 2-lobed, the tips white, broad, notched.

Stamens: numerous, ultimately longer than the sepals.

Ovaries: 2-5, rarely more, many-ovuled, style short, stigma pointed.

Follicles: ⅓ in. long, flat, tipped with the persistent style.

Seeds: 6-8 (Collett).

Part used:—The root.

Medicinal uses:—The root is said to be poisonous. In Siberia, it is used to drive away bugs and fleas. “Under the name of a nearly allied plant (Actaea spicata), I have already referred to this plant, and I have done so chiefly with the view of attracting attention to these useful, but apparently neglected plants.” (Watt.).

Garrod in his Materia Medica, calls Cimicifuga racemosa, Linn., the Black Snake Root, and remarks that it is a remedy much used in America. He gives the dose of the tincture as 30 to 40 minims. He remarks:—“Its use is said to have been attended with much success in rheumatic fever, in chorea, and in lumbago, and in some forms of puerperal hypochondriasis.”

There seems every reason to expect that the Indian species, which differs from Cimicifuga racemosa only very slightly, will be found to possess all its medicinal virtues. Cimicifuga racemosa is chiefly prescribed in the form of tincture and employed in rheumatic affections, dropsy, the early stage of phthisis, and chronic bronchial diseases. Externally, a strong tincture has recently been used to reduce inflammations. See (Year-Book of Pharmacy, 1872). The root contains a resinous active principle which has been termed Oimicifugin or Macrotin. In its action this drug resembles hellibore on the one hand, and colchicum on the other. It is most useful in acute rheumatism, and a powder of the root is perhaps the best mode in which to give the drug, in doses of 20 to 30 grains. (Royles Mat. Med. by Harley.)

A poultice prepared from the fresh leaves is used here, and said to be very useful in rheumatic affection of joints (Surgn. Meadows, Barisal).