Homoeopathic Clinical: Tincture of whole fresh plant— Diarrhoea, Gonorrhoea, Haemorrhage, Metrorrhagia, Orchitis.
FIVE FINGER GRASS Potentilla tormentilla, Neck.( Potentilla( L.) Rausch.),( Tormentilla erecta, L.).( N. O.: Rosaceae)
Common Names: Five Leaves Grass, Cinquefoil, Rough-Fruited, Silvery Cinquefoil. Features: Five finger is common to the United States, growing by roadsides, an meadow banks and waste ground. The herb grows like the strawberry, rooting at joints; the leaflets have five parts, scattered hairs, veins prominent below. The bright yellow flowers bloom from June to September, extending on long stalks from the stem. The root has a bitterish, styptic taste. Medicinal Part: The root. Solvents: Water-milk, vinegar. Bodily Influence: Astringent, Tonic. Uses: The long established, hidden talent of Cinquefoil has many uses. Culpeper states:“ Let no man despise it because it is plain and easy, the ways of God are all such.” He gives us a preparation for epilepsy, or as it used to be called, falling sickness:“ The juice here of drunk, about 4 ounces at a time for certain days together cureth the quinsey, and yellow jaundice; and taken for 30 days together, cureth the falling sickness.”
It is a specific in all inflammations and fevers of infections, or mixed with other herbs to cool and temper the blood and humours in the body. The root boiled in milk is effective for male and female complaints to the extent of haemorrhage. The juice or decoction taken with a little honey clears hoarseness of the throat and cough of the lungs, makes an excellent gargle for spongy, bleeding gums and ulcerated mouth and throat. Externally: The root boiled in vinegar and applied to all kernels and hard swellings growing in any part of the flesh will soften them, and is quietening to shingles and all sorts of running and foul scabs, sores, itch and bruises. At the same time, drink the tea of Five fingers. Dose: 20 grains in white wine, milk or water in wineglass amounts. Russian Experience: Kalgan, Lapchatka, Kurinye Lapke( Chicken Foot) and many other names are given to this small but potentially useful plant. Used in Russia for medical and industrial purposes. Folk Medicine: Use the rhizome, which is collected late in the spring before the leaves are overgrown, or in late autumn. The decoction as a very strong astringent for inflammation of the mouth or stomach, colitis, loose bowels, dyspepsia to stop bleeding of the stomach or female disorders. Mostly used in Folk Medicine( Saratov University, 1965).
In some parts of Russia the home medicine is given as a tonic for heart conditions, pains in the chest, inflammation( internal and external), amenorrhoea, coughs( Bello-Russ. Academy of Science, 1965).