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WARNING: All medicines, drugs, plants, chemicals or medicial precedures below are for historical reference only. Many of these treatments are now known to be harmful and possibly fatal. Do not consume any plant, chemical, drug or otherwise without first consulting a licensed physician that practices medine in the appropriate field.

Felter's Materia Medica on Helonias

ALETRIS FARINOSA
   The rhizome of Aletris farinosa, Linné, gathered after the plant has flowered (Nat. Ord. Haemodoraceae). United States. Dose, 5 to 60 grains. Common Names: Blazing Star, Star Grass, Starwort, False Unicorn root. Preparation.—Specific Medicine Aletris. Dose, 5 to 60 drops. Action and Therapy.—Owing to the confusion that has long existed resulting from the unwitting substitution of aletris, for Helonias (Chamaelirium) the virtues of the latter, as a remedy for various disorders of the female reproductive organs, have been ascribed also to the former. It is probably nothing more than a gentle stomachic and tonic, and as such may be employed to promote the appetite and aid digestion. It is accredited with value in atonic dyspepsia, with flatulence and borborygmus. Even the carminative effects thus ascribed would seem to belong to helonias rather than to aletris, which is neither bitter nor aromatic like the former. 1

HELONIASHELON
   The rhizome of Chamaelirium luteum, Gray (Helonias dioica, Pursh)-(Nat. Ord. Liliaceae). Abundant in woodlands, meadows, and wet places in some parts of the United States. Dose, 10 to 30 grains. Common Names: Blazing Star, Unicorn Root, Starwort, Drooping Starwort, Devil's Bit. Principal Constituent.—A yellowish, bitter principle, chamaelirin. Preparation.—Specific Medicine Helonias. Dose, 10 to 30 drops. Specific Indications.—Sense of weight, congestion, or expulsion of the pelvic contents, with mental torpor, despondency, or irritability; gastric and other disturbances reflexly due to pelvic relaxation; strong, sticky leucorrhea; pelvic fullness with discharge. Action and Therapy.—Tonic, diuretic, and vermifuge. (For relation to Aletris, compare Aletris.) Helonias is a valuable uterine tonic, specifically adapted to uterine weakness in which relaxation of tissue is so great as to give the sensation of downward pressure, dragging or expulsion-or as the patient expresses it, “a sensation as if everything in the pelvis would fall out or be expelled.” Marked irritability and despondency are often associated with such disorders, and when menstruation occurs there is a feeling of undue fullness, as if the womb and rectum were distended with blood, and about to be pushed out of the body. There is associated aching and propulsive pain. In anemic cases the drug is useful in amenorrhea, and in leucorrhea should be given internally, while hot antiseptic and astringent injections are used locally. Helonias is said to correct sexual lassitude in both sexes, and to have checked nocturnal losses due to excesses and associated with enfeebled body, impaired memory, and mental apathy. In chlorotic anemia dependent in a measure upon uterine and ovarian weakness, it is also asserted to be very serviceable, and reputed to improve loss of appetite, indigestion, and malassimilation when aggravated by sexual weakness. It is also said to relieve the nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, to prevent miscarriages, and to correct gastric complications of albuminuria.1

MITCHELLAMITCH
   The whole plant of Mitchella repens, Linné (Nat. Ord. Rubiaceae). Dry woods, hemlock forests, and damp places in the United States. Dose, 5 to 60 grains. Common Names: Partridgeberry, Squawberry, Squaw-vine, Checkerberry, Deerberry, One-berry. Principal Constituent.—An undetermined saponin-like body. No alkaloid, glucoside, nor volatile oil present. Preparations.—1. Specific Medicine Mitchella. Dose, 5 to 60 drops. 2. Syrupus Mitchellae Compositus, Compound Syrup of Partridgeberry (Mothers' Cordial). (Contains Mitchella, Helonias, Viburnum Opulus and Caulophyllum, Brandy, Sugar and Essence of Sassafras.) Dose, 2 to 4 fluidounces, 3 times a day. Specific Indication.—As a partus praeparator. Action and Therapy.—Based upon the practice and traditions of the American Indians this plant was eagerly adopted into domestic and early botanic and Eclectic therapy. It is believed by some to have a salutary influence upon the pregnant woman, easing many of the distresses incident to her condition, giving a sense of well-being and strengthening her for the ordeal of child birth. If it has any virtue it lies in quieting nervous irritability and giving a psychologic balance throughout the latter months of pregnancy. There seems to be reliable testimony to the effect that it assists in sustaining against miscarriages where such accidents have previously occurred. As a female regulator it has also had many devoted advocates. The Mother's Cordial is a popular and more rational preparation.1


References

1) Felter, Harvey Wickes, 1922, The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Cincinnati, Ohio.