Pipsissewa

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This is from, Grieves, " Modern Herbal "

 

Pipsissewa

Botanical: Chimaphila umbellata (LINN.)

Family: N.O. Ericaceae

 

 

---Synonyms---Pyrola umbellata. Winter Green. Butter Winter. Prince's

Pine. King's Cure. Ground Holly. Love in Winter. Rheumatism Weed.

---Parts Used---Dried leaves only are official, though the whole

plant, including root, is used.

---Habitat---Europe, Asia, Siberia, America, and found in all parts

of the United States.

 

 

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---Description---The name Chimaphila is derived from two Greek words

meaning 'winter' and 'to love.' There are two varieties of this

plant, Chimaphila umbellata and C. maculata. The former alone is the

official plant, a small evergreen perennial with a creeping yellow

rhizome, which has several creeping, erect or semi-procumbent stems,

angular, marked with the scars of former leaves, and woody at the

base. These are 4 to 8 inches high, with the leaves on upper surface,

shiny, coriaceous, dark green and underside paler. Flowers corymbose,

light purple colour, corolla five cream-coloured petals, fragrantly

perfumed, purplish at base. Capsule erect, depressed five-celled,

five-valved, numerous seeds, linear, chaffy. It flowers May till

August; leaves when dried have only a slight odour, but when fresh

and rubbed are sweet-smelling; taste astringently sweetish and not

disagreeably bitter.

 

---Constituents---Leaves contain various crystalline constituents,

Chimaphilin, etc. also arbutin gum, resin, starch, pectic acid,

extractive fatty matter, chlorophyll tannic acid, sugar, potassa,

lime, iron, magnesia, chloride of sodium, sulphuric phosphoric and

silicic acids.

 

---Medicinal Action and Uses---Diuretic, astringent, tonic,

alterative. The fresh leaves, when bruised and applied to the skin,

act as vesicants and rubefacients, of great use in cardiac and kidney

diseases, chronic rheumatism and scrofula. The decoction is

advantageous for chronic gonorrhoea, strangury, catarrh of the

bladder, and a good cure for ascites. It is said to diminish lithic

acid in the urine; for dropsy it is useful combined with other

medicines; it is a substitute for uva-ursi and less obnoxious; said

to be of value in diabetes, but this has not yet been confirmed; and

it is very efficacious for skin diseases.