Ornamental shrub blooming in fall with fragrant yellow flowers. The bark contains a powerful astringent and vasoconstrictor which is still the major ingredient in most hemorrhoid preparations.
Native Americans took leaf tea for colds, sore throats. Twig tea rubbed on athletes' legs to keep muscles limber, relieve lameness; tea drunk for bloody dysentery, cholera, cough and asthma. Astringent bark tea taken internally for lung ailments. Widely used today as an astringent for piles, toning skin, suppressing profuse menstrual flow, eye ailments. Used commercially in preparations to treat hemorrhoids, irritations, minor pain, and itching.
References:
Bown. D. Encyclopaedia of Herbs and their Uses. Dorling Kindersley, London. 1995 ISBN 0-7513-020-31
Chevallier. A. The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants Dorling Kindersley. London 1996 ISBN 9-780751-303148
Grieve, M. (Maud). A Modern Herbal; the Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-Lore of Herbs, Grasses, Fungi, Shrubs, & Trees with All Their Modern Scientific Uses. New York :Harcourt, Brace & company, 1931.