Lycopus. Lycopus virginicus. Bugle-weed. Lycopus europaeus.
Lycopus. U. S. 1870. Lycopus virginicus L. Lycope de Virginie, Fr. Virginischer Wolfsfuss, G.—The bugle-weed is a labiate which grows throughout the greater part of the Eastern United States. The whole herb is used. Jos. L. Weil found 0.41 per cent. of fat melting at 50° C. (122° F.), 0.68 per cent. of a granular wax melting at 70° C. (158° F.), 0.43 per cent. of a crystallizable resin soluble in ether, a crystallizable glucoside, and a small quantity of gallic acid and tannin. (A. J. P., 1890, 72.) It has a peculiar odor and a nauseous slightly bitter taste, which it imparts to boiling water.
Lycopus europaeus L., a native of Europe, growing in waste places from Massachusetts to Virginia, is said to be frequently collected and sold for L. virginicus. The former may be distinguished by its acutely quadrangular stem, its narrow lanceolate leaves, of which the lower are somewhat pinnatifid, its more crowded flowers, and the acute segments of its calyx, armed with short spines. It has been employed in Europe as a substitute for quinine.
According to A. W. Ives, the bugle-weed is a mild narcotic and an astringent, useful in pulmonic and other hemorrhages. Dose of decoction (one ounce to one pint of boiling water), from one to four fluidounces (30-120 mils).
