Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines: Menispermum, Canada Moonseed

 

Menispermum canadense is very little used in Herbal Medicine, but I would mention it anyway as it is likely the only poisonous look alike for wild Grapes. It is important to be able to identify this plant, although it is not particularly common in my region.

King’s American Dispensatory of 1898 tells us:

This is a valuable American remedy, not in extensive use among physicians. It grows in woods and hedges near streams, from Canada to Carolina, and west to the Mississippi, flowering in July. The rhizome, with its roots, is the official part. It has a bitter, persistent, but not unpleasant acrid taste, and yields its virtues to water or alcohol. The root of this plant has been offered in our markets as a Texas sarsaparilla (see Amer. Jour. Pharm., Vol. XXVII, page 7).

Description.—The U. S. P. describes yellow parilla as follows: "Rhizome several feet long, about 5 Mm. (⅕ inch) thick, brown or yellowish-brown, somewhat knotty, finely wrinkled longitudinally, and beset with numerous thin, rather brittle roots; fracture tough, woody; internally yellowish, the bark rather thick, the wood-rays broad, porous, and longest on the lower side; pith distinct. Nearly inodorous; taste bitter"—(U. S. P.).

Chemical Composition.—Prof. J. M. Maisch found in it a small amount of berberine, and a large quantity of a white, amorphous, bitter alkaloid, which is soluble in ether, alcohol, and in much water with alkaline reaction (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1863, p. 303). It does not dissolve in benzene or alkaline solutions, but dissolves in 20 parts of chloroform. H. L. Barber (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1884, p. 401) has shown it to differ in its properties from menispermine (from Cocculus indicus) and oxyacanthine (from Berberis vulgaris). Maisch has named it menispine; its taste is a pure bitter, like that of gentian. Tannin, gum, resin, and starch are also present in the drug.

Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Yellow parilla is tonic, laxative, alterative, and diuretic. In small doses, no obvious effects are produced on the general system, but in larger doses, a slight increase of the volume of the pulse may be perceived, as well as increase of the appetite, and the action of the bowels. In excessive doses, purging and vomiting will follow, but no other unpleasant effect. It is a superior laxative bitter. It acts quite prominently upon the glandular structures. It was formerly much esteemed as a remedy in scrofulous, cutaneous, arthritic, rheumatic, syphilitic, and mercurial diseases. Likewise employed in dyspepsia, general debility, and chronic inflammation of the viscera. Externally, the decoction has been used with good effect as an embrocation in gouty and cutaneous affections. Indications seem to point to its probable value in leucocythaemia, especially when the spleen is prominently involved. Dose of the decoction, from 1 to 4 fluid ounces, 3 times a day; of the extract, from 2 to 6 grains, 3 or 4 times a day; of the saturated tincture, from ½ to 1 fluid drachm.

Specific Indications and Uses.—"Skin brown, tongue coated at the base, tip red, irregular appetite, constipation" (Scudder, List of Specific Indications).

Related Drug.—Pangium edule. East India. Contains an alkaloid which has been compared to menispermine. Anthelmintic and narcotic, and, in large doses, toxic.

Plants for A Future states:

Medicinal use of Canada Moonseed: Canada moonseed has occasionally been used in the past for its medicinal virtues, though it is little, if at all, used in modern herbalism. The roots are a bitter tonic, diuretic, laxative, nervine, purgative (in large doses), stomachic and tonic. A tea made from the root has been used in the treatment of indigestion, arthritis, bowel disorders and as a blood cleanser. The root is applied externally as a salve on chronic sores. Use with caution, see notes above on toxicity.

Known hazards of Menispermum canadense: All parts of the plant are poisonous. The fruit has been known to cause death in children.

This article is an excerpt from 

Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast An Herbalist's Guide

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