Xanthium. Xanthium spinosum.

Synonyms—Cocklebur, Clotbur.

PREPARATIONS—

Extractum Xanthii Fluidum; Fluid Extract of Xanthium. Dose, from ten to twenty minims.

Specific Medicine Xanthium. Dose, from five to fifteen minims.

Physiological Action—The agent has mild diuretic, diaphoretic and sialagogue properties. Xanthium is mentioned as a remedy influencing the blood in malarial conditions, tending to overcome periodicity. As an alterative some enthusiastic writers give it high rank, even claiming that it will cure hydrophobia. It is advised in hemorrhages of a passive character, to be relied upon even in post-partum hemorrhage. In the writer's hands it has an influence which would seem to be advantageous in hematuria of a passive character, as it has a soothing influence upon the urinary apparatus.

Therapy—Dr. Homsher suggested its use in irritable bladder troubles; specifically in chronic cystitis, with thickening of the bladder walls, with frequent urination, painful tenesmus, constant sensation of weight in the region of the bladder, with the continued passage of minute calculi, cases in which there are doubtless sand or gravelly deposits in the folds of the bladder, perhaps imbedded in the mucous structure, a condition not uncommon in females.

The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1919, was written by Finley Ellingwood, M.D.
It was scanned by Michael Moore for the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine.