Focus – A.D.H.D Powder

The Following is an exciting culmination of quotes that we've found in historically relevant texts, that reference some of the individual plants in this formula! As always, the following text should never be interpreted as medical advice in any way. These quote are supplied only as entertainment and do not reflect the opinion/s of HomeGrown Herbalist. None of these items or statements are approved by FDA. Consult your physician before taking any supplement. Do not take herbs or tinctures during pregnancy without consulting your healthcare provider. This product is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease. All information here is for entertainment and educational purposes only.

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King's American Dispensatory By Harvey Wickes Felter and John Uri Lloyd 1898 - Panax Ginseng

Botanical name: Panax ginsengPanax quinquefolius Fig. 189. Aralia quinquefolia.The root of Aralia quinquefolia, Decaisne and Planchon (Panax quinquefolium, Linné; Ginseng quinquefolia, Wood). Nat. Ord.—Araliaceae. COMMON NAME: Ginseng. ILLUSTRATION: Johnson, Med. Bot. of N. A., Fig. 132. Botanical Source.—Ginseng has a perennial, fusiform, whitish, thick, and fleshy root, transversely wrinkled, and terminating in fibers; its upper portion slender and marked with the scars of the former shoots. The stem is round, smooth, green, often with a tinge of red, about 1 foot high, regularly divided at top into 3 petioles, with a flower-stalk in their center. The petiole is round, smooth, and swelling at the base. Leaves 3, ternate, quinate, or septentate. Leaflets pedicellate, obovate, sharply serrate, acuminate, smooth on both sides, with scattered bristles on the veins above. Flowers small, greenish, in a simple umbel, supported by a round, slender peduncle, which rises from the top of the stem, in the center of the petioles. The involucre is composed of a multitude of short, subulate bracts, interspersed among the flower-stalks, which are so short as to give the appearance of a head rather than an umbel. Calyx with 5 small, acute teeth. Petals 6, oval, reflexed, and deciduous. Stamens 5, with oblong anthers. Styles 2, reflexed and persistent. Ovary large, inferior, ovate-cordate, and compressed. The berries are kidney-shaped, retuse at both ends, compressed, of a bright-scarlet color, crowned with a calyx and styles, and contain 2 and sometimes 3 semicircular seeds. The outermost florets ripen first, and their berries often obtain their full size before the central ones are expanded; the central florets are frequently abortive (L.—W.). History and Description.—Ginseng is a native of most of the middle and northern states, and extends on the mountains far south, growing in rich soil and in shaded situations, and flowering in July. C. S. Rafinesque (Med. Flora of the U. S., Vol. II, 1830, p. 53) states that the Jesuits, knowing the plant from their sojourns in Tartary, found it afterward, toward 1718, in Canada, and instituted the trade in this root with China. The root is somewhat fusiform, 2 or 3 inches in length, and about ½ an inch in diameter, and sends off a few delicate fibers. When dried, it consists of a soft, yellowish-white, corrugated bark, inclosing a central, woody substance. It has a faint smell, and its taste is sweetish, somewhat bitter, mucilaginous, and feebly aromatic. Water or alcohol takes up its properties. Large quantities of it are now gathered and sent to China, where it commands an enormous price, as the Chinese ascribe wonderful medicinal virtues to it. The American drug is cheapest (about $1.86 per pound), next ranks Corea ginseng ($16.50 per pound), and highest in price is the genuine Chinese ginseng. The latter is seldom found in the stores, and the finest qualities command the price of from $60 to $100 for a weight of about 580 grains. In Corea, the cultivation and trade in ginseng is a government monopoly (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1887, p. 597; 1897, p. 551, and 1898, p. 251). Ginseng is also grown in Japan, but is considered inferior to Corea ginseng. The genuine Chinese ginseng is the root of Aralia Ginseng, A. Meyer (Panax Ginseng, Nees), an east Asia plant. Altogether, 5 commercial grades of ginseng are distinguished in China. It is often adulterated by mixing it with the root of some species of Convolvulus and other roots. (On the cultivation of ginseng in America, see Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1891, p. 411.) Ginseng is becoming very scarce and, unless a method of cultivation becomes practical, bids fair to be exterminated. The price now is from $4.00 to $7.50 per pound and advancing. Chemical Composition.—Rafinesque (loc. cit.) states that the roots have a pleasant, camphorated smell, and that they owe their active properties to a peculiar substance similar to camphor, which he calls panacine—white, pungent, soluble in alcohol and water, more fixed than camphor. The roots also contain a volatile oil, sugar, mucilage, resin, etc. S. S. Garrigues (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1854, p. 511) obtained from an aqueous infusion a sweetish-bitter, amorphous yellow principle, which he calls panaquilon. It is soluble in ether and alcohol, insoluble in water. Concentrated sulphuric acid dissolves it with purple-red color. If the solution is poured into water, a white precipitate (panacon) results (see Davydow, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1890, p. 338). Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—A mild tonic and stimulant. Useful in loss of appetite, slight nervous debility, and weak stomach. Continued for some length of time, for its temporary administration gives but little benefit, it is a very important remedy in nervous dyspepsia, and in mental exhaustion from overwork. It gives fairly good results in nervous prostration, and in cerebral anemia. By some, it is considered useful in asthma, gravel, convulsions, paralysis, to invigorate the virile powers, etc. It gives fairly good results in atonic laryngitis, bronchitis, and some relief in phthisis, being a secondary remedy for these complaints. Dose, of the powder, from 10 to 60 grains; of the infusion, from 2 to 4 fluid ounces; specific panax, 5 to 60 drops. Specific Indications and Uses.—Nervous dyspepsia; mental and other forms of nervous exhaustion from overwork.

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Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick. - Gingko

aloba Ginkgo biloba Linn. Coniferae. Ginko. Maiden-Hair Tree. China and Japan. The fruit of the ginko is sold in the markets in all Chinese towns and is not unlike dried almonds, only whiter, fuller and more round. The natives seem very fond of it, although it is rarely eaten by Europeans. In Japan, the seeds furnish an oil used for eating and burning. The fruit of the maiden-hair tree is called in China pa-kwo. The Chinese consume the nuts of this tree at weddings, the shells being dyed red; they have a fishy taste. This tree is largely cultivated as an ornamental in Europe, Asia and North America.

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The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics Written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D. 1922 - Oat Straw

Botanical name: Avena sativa The unripe seed of the Avena sativa, Linné, and the farina derived from the ripened seed (Nat. Ord. Graminaceae). Probably indigenous to Sicily and to an island off the coast of Chili. Cultivated everywhere. Common Names: Oat, Common Oat. Principal Constituents.—Starch, oil, albumen, potassium and magnesium salts, silica, and a nitrogenous body, avenine. Preparations.—1. Avenae Farina, Oatmeal. Chiefly a food and to prepare oatmeal water. 2. Tinctura Avenae, Tincture of Avena. (Cover best unripe oats [in "milk"] with strong alcohol.) Dose, ½ to 2 fluidrachms. 3. Specific Medicine Avena. Dose, ½ to 2 fluidrachms. Specific Indications.—Nervous exhaustion; nervous debility of convalescence; cardiac weakness of nervous depression; nocturnal losses following fevers and from the nervous erethism of debility; nervous headache from overwork or depression. Action and Therapy.—Oatmeal water is sometimes useful to dilute "baby foods" and milk when children are not well nourished and suffering from summer diarrhoeal disorders. It is also used as a demulcent drink in diarrhea and dysentery of adults. When so used, it should be about the consistence of milk. Oatmeal gruel, when not otherwise contraindicated, as in diabetes mellitus or amylaceous indigestion, is an excellent and easily digested food in convalescence from exhaustive illness. It may be sweetened if desired. A paste, made by moistening a small quantity of oatmeal, held in the hands, with water, will soften roughened skin of the palms and fingers; and also remove the odor of some substances, as iodoform. Tincture of Avena is a mild stimulant and nerve tonic. It is regarded by many as a remedy of some importance for nervous debility, and for affections bordering closely upon nervous prostration. It seemingly acts well in the exhaustion following typhoid and other low fevers and is thought to hasten convalescence, particularly where there is much nervous involvement and enfeebled action of the heart. In the nervous erethism or the enervated conditions following fevers and giving rise to spermatic losses it is sometimes effectual, but it seldom benefits such a state when due to prostatic irritation, masturbation, or sexual excesses. It may be given to relieve spasms of the neck of the bladder; and in some cases of relapsing rheumatism. Webster asserts it is useful, not as an antirheumatic, but for the debility underlying the rheumatic diathesis, so that the patient is less affected by meteorologic influences. Probably its chief value as a medicine is to energize in nervous exhaustion with or without spasms. It is useful in headache from exhaustion or overwork, or the nervous headache of menstruation. It is not a remedy of great power and will be found effective, probably, in but few of the conditions mentioned. However, many agents of this type sometimes, in exceptional cases, accomplish that which no other remedy seems to do. To fortify some of the claims made for this remedy is to unwisely challenge the credulity of physicians of bedside experience. The much-heralded reputation of this drug to enable the morphine habitué to throw off the habit has not been sustained. In our own experience we have utterly failed to accomplish any good with it in any form of drug habit.a