William Bartram's unpublished manuscript of 89 pages was the basis for Benjamin Smith Barton's treatis on medicinal plants, Collections for an Essay towards a Materia Medica of the United States, published in Philadelphia. RE: pp 604 William Bartram Travels and Other Writings. 1996.
We can surmise that the following were included in Bartram's Pharmacopoea:
hooping-cough --- spigelia anthelmintica (well known remedy to prevent the troublesome and fatal effect of this disease.
worms --- lixivium prepared from ashes of bean-stalks and other vegetables is added to all food prepared from corn.
venereal disease (sypilis) --- vegetable derived cathartics, e.g., Iris, Ir. versicolor, Ir. verna. Also, croton or Styllingia. Cr. decumbens.
Yaws --- yaw-weed (wild-mulberry)
Other diseases --- Similax, Bignonia crucigera, bays (laurus) Lobelia syphilitica
Ulcers of skin/wounds/proud flesh - white nettle root (Jatropha urens) and convoluvulus panduratus.
Nephritic complaints --- Convoluvulus panduratus root
Emollient and duscutient --- Swamp lilly (saururus cernuus)
Emetic --- Mayapple, (podophyllum peltatum) root
Cathartic --- Mayapple
Expelling worms - Mayapple (more effective than the Spanish Ipecacuanha)
Carminative --- Panax ginseng or Nonda (aka white root or belly-ache root or perhaps - angelica Incida)
Dry belly-ache, disorders of intestine, colic, hysterics --- Panax ginseng
--- Immune system enhancer, pain killer --- Coneflowers (Echinachea augustifolia) roots used by American Indians and was popular in 1920s ref: Sioux City Journal August, 1996
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