History and Description.—The Indians of Southern California, Mexico, and Arizona, according to Dr. Palmer (Amer. Jour. Pharm., Dec., 1878), employ both the roots and leaves of this plant. Dr. William H. George, of California, first brought the drug to our notice, the root being the part employed.
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—This plant was introduced to the profession by Dr. W. H. George, of California. He states that the natives esteem it a panacea far excelling the Yerba santa, and successfully employ it in all malarial fevers, in diarrhœa, and in dysentery (Eclectic Med. Jour., 1877, p. 238). In a letter to Prof. King, he observes that the natives frequently carry the root with them, chewing it and swallowing the juice, and consider it a certain remedy for cough and pulmonary affections. They likewise employ a strong infusion of it as an efficacious local application to saddle and collar galls on horses. Dr. George considers it a stimulant tonic, astringent, carminative, and anti-emetic. He has successfully employed it in gonorrhœa with profuse discharge, and thinks it equal to cubebs in this disease, and more pleasant to take. Prof. King has tried it in one case of gonorrhœa, and in several cases of bronchial cough, with favorable results. The dose of the fluid extract is from 10 to 60 minims, in syrup, repeated every 3 or 4 hours.
History and Description is transcribed only to its second sentence; the rest describes the dried root.