Trifolium.

Botanical name: 

The blossoms of Trifolium Pratense, Linné (Nat. Ord. Leguminosae). Cultivated everywhere.
Common Name: Red Clover.

Principal Constituents.—Resins and Tannin.
Preparation.—Specific Medicine Trifolium. Dose, 1 to 60 drops.
Specific Indications.—Irritability of the respiratory passages, with dry, explosive cough; carcinomatous cachexia.

Action and Therapy.—Trifolium is alterative and antispasmodic. It relieves irritability of the respiratory tract, alleviating dry, irritable and spasmodic cough. Whooping cough is especially moderated by it, and it is frequently effective in lessening the distressing cough of measles, though in both disorders it fails as often as it succeeds. It also modifies cough in bronchitis and laryngitis. Its alterative powers are underrated, and it should be given where a general deobstruent effect is desired in chronic skin diseases, and unquestionably has a retarding effect upon malignant neoplasms. Though by no means curative in carcinoma, patients who have been operated upon for cancer are slower in redeveloping the growths when given tincture of trifolium daily.


The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 1922, was written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D.