Folk Medicine: Stomach trouble of diarrhoea, dysentery and gastritis, gall-bladder, kidney and bladder, liver colics, disturbed metabolism, venereal disease, lung TB, bleeding lungs, malaria. For stomach ulcers and bleeding ulcers and also for typhus it is used with vodka( Nastoika). Clinically: In gynaecology it is used for female bleeding, bloody urine and bleeding from the stomach.
SKULL CAP Scutellaria lateriflora, L.( N. O.: Labiatae)
Common Names: Blue Skull Cap, Blue Pimpernel, Hood-Wort, Mad-Dog Weed, Side Flower, Skull Cap Helmet Flower, American Skull Cap. Features: Indigenous to North America, this little herb is very abundant throughout the land, growing in damp places, meadows, ditches and by the sides of ponds, from Connecticut, south to Florida and Texas.
This small perennial, with fibrous yellow roots, has an erect and very branching square stem, 1 – 3 ft. in height. The tooth-edged leaves grow opposite each other on short stalks. It derives its common name from the helmet-shaped upper lid of its small seed pods; the pale blue flowers bloom in pairs just above the leaves in July and August.
The whole plant is medicinal and should be gathered while in flower, dried in the shade and kept in well-closed tin vessels, as it deteriorates rapidly from age and heat. Chemically it contains essential oil, yellowish-green fixed oil, a volatile matter, albumen, an astringent principle, lignin, chloride of soda, salts of iron, silica, etc. Medicinal Part: The whole herb. Solvents: Dilute alcohol, boiling water. Bodily Influence: Tonic, Nervine, Antispasmodic, slightly Astringent. Uses: Skull cap, by its action through the cerebro spinal centres, is a most valuable remedy for controlling nervous irritation. In many cases of hydrophobia it has been known to eventually render the patient. free from disturbances, also in cases of insomnia, excitability, restlessness, wakefulness, St. Vitus dance, hysteria, epilepsy convulsions, shaking palsy, tickets, bites of poisonous insects and snakes, and all nervous affections. It supports the nerves, quietening and strengthening the system. It is also effective in reducing temperature and inducing perspiration in feverish children.
Skull cap was known to the original people of the New World and our country people as Hoodwort or Mad-dog weed.
For persons troubled by undue sexual desires, Skull cap taken freely and persistently will prove a most efficient regulator without damage of any character. When given with Pennyroyal( Hedeoma pulegioides) as a tea, it is also successfully used as a female remedy for cramps and severe pain caused by suppressed menstruation due to colds.
The following formulae have been proved effective by prominent herbalists and doctors of both the past and present:
Weakness of the heart: Tincture of Skull cap( Scutellaria lateriflora), 3 – 15 drops Tincture of Golden peal( Hydrastis canadensis), 7 – 10 drops Tincture of Cayenne pepper( Capsicum) 2 – 4 drops In warm water as often as required.
For irritable and nervous conditions: