PHOTO CREDIT: ©2006, Valérie Chansigaud, CCBY-SA 3.0
Black Cohosh Benefits
This herb was named
black because of its medicinal roots.
Cohosh is Algonquian for "rough," another reference to its roots.
The Indians boiled black cohosh's gnarled roots in water and drank the decoction.
Wild black cohosh grew most profusely in the Ohio River valley, which was fitting because the herb was championed by 19th-century Eclectic physicians, whose medical school was in Cincinnati on the banks of the Ohio.
Physicians argued about black cohosh a century ago, and the debate continues today. A 1986 Food and Drug Administration report dismissed black cohosh as having "no therapeutic value" and warned of its possible side effects. Other experts say the herb has many potentially beneficial effects but consider it too toxic to use. The Germans, meanwhile, include the herb in several prescription drugs.
Black cohosh overdose may cause dizziness, light-headedness, nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting and a depressed heart rate.
Black cohosh is a leafy perennial that reaches 9 feet. It has knotty black roots and a smooth stem with large, toothed, compound leaves and small, multiple white flowers that develop in midsummer on long projections called racemes.
Black cohosh grows from seeds sown in spring or root divisions taken in spring or fall.
Harvest the roots in fall after the fruits have ripened. Cut them lengthwise to dry.