Mellow Mommy Tincture

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.

---

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, Edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others. - Lemon Balm

Melissa. U. S. 1890. Melissa. Balm.—Under this name were formerly recognized by the U. S. P. the leaves and tops of Melissa officinalis L. (Fam. Labiatae), or the ordinary balm of Southern Europe, which has become naturalized in this country. Balm contains some tannic acid, and a yellowish, highly flavored essential oil which, however, is present in such small quantities that the plant has practically no remedial value. The allied Satureja Calamintha (L.) Scheele, var. Sylvatica Brig., is said to contain sufficient aromatic volatile oil to be of possible commercial interest. Under the name of oil of lemon balm or oil of balm the essential oil of melissa has been used as a diaphoretic in doses of from one to three minims (0.06 to 0.2 mil). This oil is a yellow liquid with a specific gravity of 0.9 to 0.925. Its most important constituent is citral.

---

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.

---

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

Medicago sativa Linn. Alfalfa. Lucerne. Europe and the Orient. The leaves are eaten by the Chinese as a vegetable.

---

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

Botanical name: Arctium lappa The root and seeds of Arctium Lappa, Linné (Nat. Ord. Compositae). Europe, Asia, and America. Dose, 5 to 60 grains. Common Name: Burdock. Principal Constituents.—The glucoside lappin, fixed oil, inulin, and an altered tannin called phlobaphene. Preparations.—1. Specific Medicine Lappa. Dose, I to 60 drops. 2 . Tinctura Lappae Seminis, Tincture of Lappa Seeds. (Seed, 4 ounces; 75 per cent Alcohol, 16 fluidounces.) Dose, 1 to 60 drops. Specific Indications.—Feeble cutaneous circulation; dry, scaly skin eruptions; aphthous ulcers; recurrent boils and styes; urinary irritation; psoriasis. Action and Therapy.—Lappa is a potent but neglected alterative and diuretic. It relieves urinary and bronchial irritation, favors the elimination of waste material, and secondarily proves tonic. Lappa is especially valuable in psoriasis, crusta lactea, stubborn eczema, obstinate ulcers, and in catarrhal and aphthous ulcerations. It is one of the best of agents for recurrent boils and styes. Bronchial cough, with much irritation of the pulmonary tract, is relieved by it, and it is sometimes beneficial in dyspepsia due to irritation of the stomach in cachectic individuals. As it gently stimulates the kidneys and promotes waste it should be largely used in strumous and cachectic conditions, with tendency to dry, scaly, cutaneous eruption and low grades of cellular inflammation, with feeble circulation in the skin.

---

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, Edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others. - Licorice

Glycyrrh. (Licorice Root, Licorice, Liquorice Root] "The dried rhizome and roots of Glycyrrhiza glabra typica Regel et Herder, known in commerce as Spanish Licorice, or of Glycyrrhiza glabra glandulifera Regel et Herder, known in commerce as Russian Licorice (Fam. Leguminosae). Preserve powdered and whole Glycyrrhiza in tightly-closed containers to which a few drops of chloroform or carbon tetrachloride are added from time to time to prevent attack by insects." U S. "Liquorice Root is the peeled root and peeled subterranean stem of Glycyrrhiza glabra, Linn., and other species of Glycyrrhiza." Br. Glycyrrhizae Radix, Br.; Radix Glycyrrhiza Hispanicae. Spanish Licorice Root; Reglisse, Fr. Cod.; Racine de Reglisse, Bois doux, Racine douce, Bois de Reglisse, Fr.; Radix Liquiritiae, P. G.; Spanisches Süssholz, Spanische Süssholzwurzel, Süssholzwurzel, G.: Liquirizia, It.: Regalia (Raiz de), Orozus, Palo dulce, Sp. Glycyrrhiza glabra has a perennial root, which is round, succulent, tough, and pliable, furnished with sparse fibers, rapid in its growth, and in a sandy soil penetrates deeply into the ground. The stems are herbaceous, erect, slightly branching, and usually four or five feet in height. The leaves are alternate, pinnate, consisting of several pairs of ovate, blunt, petiolate leaflets, with a single leaflet at the end, of a pale-green color, and clammy on their under surface. The flowers are violet or purple, formed like those of the pea, and arranged in axillary spikes supported on long peduncles. The calyx is tubular and persistent. The fruit is a compressed, smooth, acute, one-celled legume, containing from one to six small kidney-shaped seeds. There are two very distinct varieties of the plant yielding the root: in the typical form, or var. typica, the underground portion is spreading, producing slender rhizomes. This plant grows best on sandy soil near streams, usually not being found more than fifty meters from a body of water. It is indigenous to southern Europe and southwestern Asia, and is cultivated in England, Germany and Austria and has been grown on an experimental scale in the United States. The second variety, var. glandulifera, has been sometimes designated as a distinct species, because the entire plant is pubescent or roughly glandular. The underground portions are not spreading and it produces a large fusiform root. This variety is indigenous to southeastern Europe and in western Asia. It is also cultivated to some extent in Russia. Asiatic licorice, known as "Chuntschir," is obtained from G. uralensis Fisch. The plant is found in Siberia, Turkestan and Mongolia, and it is claimed that the root is of better quality and is but little inferior to the best Russian licorice. (Pharm. Journ. Russ., 1908, p. 1063; also P. J., 1908, lxxxi, 164.) It is probable that a portion of the root from Italy and Sicily is the product of G. echinata, which grows wild in Apulia. This species is also abundant in the south of Russia, where, according to Hayne, sufficient extract is prepared from it to supply the whole Russian empire. Large quantities of licorice root are now imported for the purpose of making the extract. The annual imports of licorice root in the United States is enormous. Between 75,000,000 and 100,000,000 pounds are annually imported from Turkey and about half of this quantity from Russia. The U. S. Department of Agriculture has had Spanish licorice under cultivation in South Carolina and the plant thrives in various localities in this country. It is said that the soil and climatic conditions in the Coachella Valley of California are ideal for the growing of the licorice plant. Ozmun describes the plantation of licorice in Turkey and the Levant and the manner of harvesting and handling this article. The licorice plant has been cultivated according to precedence of date in Spain, Italy, Greece, The Ottoman Empire, Russia, China, Turkestan and Persia. (See Proc. A. Ph. A., 1905, p. 273, A. J. P., 1907, p. 39; Oil, Paint and Drug Sep., 1906, p. 37, and 1908, p. 22.) A species of Glycyrrhiza, G. lepidota Pursh., grows abundantly about St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, and flourishes from Colorado to New Mexico, westward into Nevada and Northern California and northward to Washington. It is probably the same as the licorice plant mentioned by Mackenzie as growing on the northern coast of this continent. Nuttall states that its root possesses in no inconsiderable degree the taste of licorice, and M. L. McCullough found it to contain 6.39 per cent. of crude glycyrrhizin, in contrast with 7.18 per cent. in the official species. (A. J. P., 1890.) Schneider reports that G. lepidota glutinosa Pursh., a native of California, is much like G. glabra and can no doubt be substituted for the true licorice. (Pacific Pharm., II, p. 144.) Properties.—The two varieties are described in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia as follows: "Spanish Licorice (also known as Italian, Levant, Persia, Turkish, or Arabian Licorice)—Nearly cylindrical, upper portion more or less knotty; usually in pieces from 14 to 20 cm. or more in length and from 5 to 20 mm. in thickness, externally yellowish-brown or dark brown, longitudinally wrinkled, the thinner rhizomes often having prominent alternate buds, the thicker rhizomes having distinct corky patches; fracture coarsely fibrous; internally lemon-yellow, radiate; bark from 1 to 3 mm. in thickness; wood porous, in narrow wedges, rhizome with small pith; odor distinctive; taste sweetish and slightly acrid. Under the microscope, transverse sections of pieces of the older rhizome of Spanish Licorice show a periderm of numerous layers of yellowish-brown cork cells, a phellogen and one or more rows of cells of the phelloderm, the cells showing a tendency to collenchymatous thickenings and with occasional monoclinic prisms of calcium oxalate; a middle bark of starch-bearing parenchyma and whitish groups of bast-fibers surrounded with crystal-fibers; inner bark with a very characteristic radial arrangement of phloem and medullary rays, the phloem consisting of wedges of small groups of bast-fibers and parenchyma, separated by an almost continuous, obliterated sieve tissue, the cells of the latter being very irregular in outline and with thick, highly refracting walls; medullary rays from 1 to 8 cells wide; wood characterized by broad wedges consisting of large tracheae with yellowish walls, small compact groups of wood-fibers and starch-bearing parenchyma alternating with the broad medullary rays; pith composed of parenchyma, the cells being large, more or less polygonal in outline and containing numerous starch grains, or prisms of calcium oxalate. In sections of roots the pith is absent. "Russian Licorice.—Nearly cylindrical, somewhat tapering, sometimes split longitudinally, from 15 to 30 cm. in length and from 1 to 5 cm. in diameter; when deprived of the outer corky layer, it is externally pale-yellow; fracture coarsely fibrous; internally lemon-yellow; wood radially cleft; odor distinct; taste sweetish. Under the microscope, transverse sections of the rhizome and roots of Russian Licorice somewhat resemble those of Spanish Licorice, but the cork cells are absent. Powdered Glycyrrhiza is pale brownish-yellow (Spanish Licorice) or pale yellow (Russian Licorice); starch grains numerous, mostly single and elliptical or oval, and from 0.002 to 0.02 mm. in diameter; tracheae mostly with bordered pores; wood- and bast-fibers numerous, strongly lignified, very long, much attenuated at the ends and about 0.01 mm. in width; crystal-fibers with monoclinic prisms of calcium oxalate, the latter from 0.01 to 0.02 mm. in diameter, occasional fragments of reddish-brown cork cells occur in Spanish Licorice, but are practically absent in the Russian Licorice. Add 10 Gm. of powdered Glycyrrhiza to 100 mils of distilled water, allow the mixture to macerate for fifteen minutes with occasional stirring; and then heat it for one-half hour on a water bath. Filter the mixture and add through the filter enough water to make the filtrate measure 100 mils; not less than 0.2 Gm. of residue remains on evaporating 10 mils of this filtrate and drying it at 100° C. (212° F.). Glycyrrhiza yields not more than 7 per cent. of ash." U. S. "When 5 grammes are macerated with 50 millilitres of chloroform water for twenty-four hours, shaken occasionally and filtered, 10 millilitres of the filtrate evaporated in a flat-bottomed dish yield not less than 0.200 gramme of residue dried at 100° C. (212° F.). Ash not more than 6 per cent." Br. Formerly commerce was chiefly supplied with licorice root by Italy and Spain, but the amount coming from these sources is at present probably not more than 10 per cent. of the whole, the greater portion coming from Southern Russia, a large amount from Anatolia and Syria, and a little from Turkey and Persia. The Spanish variety has been most esteemed, but, according to H. N. Rittenhouse, the peeled Russian licorice is richer in glycyrrhizin and extractives than is any other variety, and is in fact the most valuable. Russian licorice is usually very large, quite sweet, but at the same time rather more bitter and acrid than is the Spanish variety. Licorice root is often worm eaten and more or less decayed; such root should be rejected, as should also the small fibrous roots often shipped from Spain. The best pieces are large, bright yellow internally, and have the layers and the bark distinct. Rusby has stated that he has seen ground licorice imported which apparently consisted of the peelings of Russian licorice. (Ph. Era, 1909, p. 634.) A character said by Rothrock (A. J. P., 1884) to be diagnostic is the occurrence of crystal fibers adjoining the wood and bast fibers. These are recognized in the official description of the powdered drug. In the Russian root the parenchymatous wood-cells are larger than in the Spanish. The powder is of a grayish-yellow color, when the root is pulverized without being deprived of its epidermis; of a pale sulphur-yellow, when the epidermis has been removed. Bobiquet found the following ingredients in licorice root: (1) a peculiar transparent yellow substance, called glycyrrhizin, of a sweet taste, scarcely soluble in cold water, very soluble in boiling water, with which it gelatinizes on cooling, thrown down from its aqueous solution by acids, readily soluble in cold alcohol, insusceptible of the vinous fermentation, yielding no oxalic acid by the action of nitric acid, and therefore wholly distinct from sugar; (2) a crystallizable principle named agedo'ite by Robiquet, but subsequently proved to be identical with asparagin; (3) starch; (4) albumen; (5) a brown acrid resin; (6) a brown nitrogenous extractive matter; (7) lignin; (8) salts of calcium and magnesium, with phosphoric, sulphuric, and malic acids. Flückiger states that a small amount of tannin is also always contained in the root, or rather its bark. The chief constituent, glycyrrhizin, C44H63NO18, Gorup-Besanez (Ann. Ch. Ph., 118) considered to be a glucoside, as on boiling with diluted acids it breaks up into glycyrrhetin and an uncrystallizable sugar capable of fermentation. Roussin (J. P. C., July, 1875) found that the sweet taste of the root was not owing to the free glucoside, but to its compound with ammonia. Habermann (Ann. Ch. Ph., 197) found that glycyrrhizin-ammonia was the acid ammonium salt of glycyrrhizic acid, a nitrogenous acid, and gave the formula C44H62NO18.NH4 for it. He succeeded in extracting from the commercial "ammoniacal glycyrrhizin," glycyrrhizic acid, which may be considered to be the active constituent of licorice. It was obtained by dissolving the crude glycyrrhizin in glacial acetic acid at a boiling temperature, rapidly filtering, again treating the crystalline parts of the filtrate in the same manner, and finally purifying by repeated crystallizations from 90 per cent. alcohol. Its properties are peculiar, and account to a great extent for the singular behavior of liquid licorice preparations. With water, in which the substance is but little soluble at ordinary temperature, it forms a transparent, faintly yellow jelly. On mixing 1 Gm. of the body with 100 mils of water, the mixture after a few hours becomes so jelly-like that the open vessel may be inverted without losing any substance. It is insoluble in ether, but slightly soluble in absolute alcohol (even boiling), more so in alcohol of 90 per cent., and especially so when hot. Its solubility increases with the decrease of the percentage of alcohol. The apparent glucosidal character of glycyrrhizic acid Habermann explains by the fact that it breaks up on boiling with diluted sulphuric acid into glycyrrhetin and parasaccharic acid, according to the reaction: C44H63NO18 + 2H2O = C32H47NO4 + 2C6H10O8. (Ann. Ch. Ph., cxcvii; N. R., Sept., 1879.) By fusing glycyrrhizin with potassium hydroxide, Weselsky and Benedikt (Ber. d. Chem. Ges., 1876) obtained paraoxybenzoic acid. For methods of quantitatively determining glycyrrhizin, see Ext. Glycyrrh., p. 452. Uses.—Powdered licorice root is used for various pharmaceutical purposes as in the preparation of pills, either to give due consistence or to cover their surface and prevent them from cohering, and as a diluent of powdered extracts, etc. As a remedial agent it has been almost entirely replaced by the extract.

---

The Family Herbal, 1812, was written by John Hill. - Raspberry Leaf

Botanical name: Rubus idaeus Rubus idaeus. A little shrub, common in our gardens, but wild also in some parts of the kingdom. The stalks are round, weak, tender, of a pale brown, and prickly. The leaves are each composed of five others: they are large, of a pale green, indented about the edges, and hairy. The flowers are little, and of a whitish colour, with a great quantity of threads in the middle. The fruit is the common raspberry, composed like the blackberry of several grains: it is soft to the touch, and of a delicate taste. The colour varies, for white ones are common. The juice of ripe raspberries, boiled up with sugar, makes an excellent syrup. It is pleasant, and agreeable to the stomach, good against sicknesses and reachings.

---

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, Edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others. - Red Clover

Botanical name: Trifolium pratense Trifolium. N. F. IV, Red Clover Blossoms.—"The dried inflorescence of Trifolium pratense Linné (Fam. Leguminosae)." N. F. It is described in the N. F. as "Heads are ovoid with rounded summit, mostly from 12' to 25 mm. in length and breadth, shriveled, purplish and more or less brown from drying, consisting of many small papilionaceous flowers, crowded together and clothed at the base with broad, pointed, ciliate stipules of a pale green color with darker veins and which may or may not be accompanied by diminutive trifoliate leaves. The individual flowers are from 12 to 15 mm. in length, longer than the four nearly equal teeth and shorter than the narrower fifth tooth, calyx-teeth subulate, tapering; petals united into a tube below, the standard longer than the wings, but when recurved appearing shorter; stamens diadelphous (nine and one); style slender. The odor is faintly aromatic and somewhat tea-like, the taste being sweetish, then slightly bitter. Trifolium yields not more than 10 per cent. of ash." Red clover blossoms were introduced into the N. F. IV and are used to make the fluidextract. For the results of a research of the constituents of T. pratense by Power and Solvay, see C. D., 1910, 273. Clover has, by the superstitious, been supposed to possess alterative properties. It also enters into the composition of some antiasthmatic cigarettes. There is, however, no sufficient reason to suspect it of any medicinal virtue.

---

A Manual Materia Medica Pharmacology. Comprising All Organic And Iinorganic Drugs Which Are Or Have Been Official In The United States Pharmacopia by David M. K. Culbreth, Pn.G., M.D. 1917 - Skullcap

Allied Plants: 1. Scutella'ria lateriflo'ra, (Mad-dog) Skullcap.—The dried plant, official 18GO-1910; N. America, United States, damp thickets, ditch banks. Perennial herb .3-.G M. (1-2°) high; stem branched, smooth, quadrangular; leaves opposite, 5 Cm. (2') long, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, coarsely serrate, rounded at base, petiolate; flowers 6 Mm. (J') long, 1-sided axillary leafy racemes, pale blue corolla and bilabiate calyx, closed in fruit, upper lip helmet-shaped, including 4 didynamous stamens (upper pair shorter); odor slight; taste bitter; 502 ORGANIC DRUGS FROM THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM solvents: diluted alcohol, boiling water; contains scutellarin, volatile oil, tannin, sugar. Tonic, nervine, antispasmodic; epilepsy, hysteria, nervous exhaustion, chorea, delirium tremens, tremors, spasms, mus cular twitching, hypenesthesia, neuralgia, convulsions, intermittents, enuresis, hydrophobia. Dose, 5ss-l (2-4 Gm.); decoction, 5 p. c., 5j-2 (30-«0 Ml. (Cc.)); extract, gr. 5-10 (.3-.G Gm.); fluidextract (diluted alcohol), 5ss-l (2-4 Ml. (Cc.)). S. integrifo'lin, hairy, racemes terminal, S. pilo'tta, hairy, racemes terminal, leaves in distant pairs, iS. galericiila'ta, nearly smooth, flowers single, axillary; all used interchangeably.

---

A Manual Materia Medica Pharmacology. Comprising All Organic And Iinorganic Drugs Which Are Or Have Been Official In The United States Pharmacopia by David M. K. Culbreth, Pn.G., M.D. 1917 - Yellow Dock

Ru'rnex cris'pus, The Yellow Dock.—dried root, official 1800- 1900; Europe, N. America. Compact perennial springing from a yellow fusiform root, which penetrates far into the ground; stem rises annually 1-1.3 M. (3-4°) high; leaves lanceolate, smooth, margins strongly wavy-curled; flowers greenish, racemes. Root, 10-30 Cm. (4-12') long, 6-18 Mm. (|-f ') thick, fusiform, deeply wrinkled, rustybrown—internally whitish with reddish medullary rays; bark rather thick, fracture short; odor slight, peculiar; taste bitter, astringent; contains chrysophanic acid (rumicin, lapathin), nepodin, lapodin, tannin, calcium oxalate, starch. Astringent, alterative, tonic, laxative, antiscorbutic; similar to rhubarb and sarsaparilla; cutaneous erup tions, scorbutic manifestations, itch, scrofula, syphilis, hepatic conges tion, dyspepsia, intermittents; leaves used as a laxative diet, and as spinach. Dose, gr. 15-60 (1-1 Gm.); fluidextract (diluted alcohol), TUxv-60 (1-4 Ml. (Cc.)) ; decoction and ointment also employed.

---