Gentiana Quinqueflora
Clarke, A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, 1900, Vol. I, p. 819
Five-flowered Gentian. Gall of the Earth. N. O. Gentianaceae. Decoction of the herb. Tincture of fresh plant in flower (September, October).
Clinical
Anorexia. Intermittent fever.
Characteristics
This unproved Gentian has a great popular reputation in Ohio and other parts of the United States as an antiperiodic and tonic. Hale quotes Yelvington of Susquehanna (who says he learned its value from a tribe of Indians) as saying " he has succeeded in obstinate intermittents where Quinine and other antiperiodics had failed. He used the decoction of the herb. A fluid extract or the saturated tincture is a better form for administration in fever. It is a valuable tonic for old cases of dyspepsia and torpid liver.' It is a pleasant bitter, and appears to be, like the other Gentians, 3, positive tonic. Dr. Yelvington also used it in cases of infantile fever and cholera infantum. '' As a tonic in enfeebled patients and in chronic diseases," he says, " it is a remedy par excellence appearing to exert an action over the organs of nutrition and assimilation, as well as being a stimulant to the excretory organs."