Black CohoshActaea racemosa

Did you know?

• The word cohosh comes from Eastern Abenaki, a Native American language of the Algonquian family, and "black" refers to the dark color of the rhizome^{[4, 8, 9, 13]}.

• Its old genus name, Cimicifuga, joins the Latin cimex, "bug", and fugare, "to drive away." The plant was once used to keep insects away, and one of its English names, bugbane, says the same^{[4, 7, 10, 13]}.

• Its tall white flower spikes are made of tiny flowers with no petals, each one a fluffy tuft of stamens^[10]. They are showy, but they have an unpleasant smell^{[5, 10]}.

• Carl Linnaeus named the plant Actaea racemosa in 1753. In 1818 the botanist Thomas Nuttall moved it to Cimicifuga, and botanists have since returned it to Actaea^{[1, 6]}.

• Black cohosh was one of the ingredients in Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, an old-time American tonic of the early 1900s^[4].

• It is a caterpillar food plant of the Appalachian azure butterfly, and of the spring azure too^[10].

Origins and history

Black cohosh grows in shady woodlands and along forest edges^{[4, 10]}. From an underground rhizome it sends up large compound leaves^{[5, 10]}, and in summer, flowering stems up to about 8 feet (2.5 m) tall, topped with long, slender spires of small white flowers^{[4, 5, 11]}. Its range runs from Ontario and New York south to Georgia and Alabama, and west to Missouri and Arkansas^{[1, 10, 11]}.

Native Americans used the root for women's health, and European settlers took it up as a tonic for women too^{[2, 3, 4]}. In the 19th century black cohosh became an important herb of America's Eclectic physicians, who knew it as macrotys^{[4, 5]}. In 1835 the Eclectic physician John King prepared the first resin from its root^[5]. Its historical names include black snakeroot, bugbane and rattleweed^{[2, 3, 5]}. Rattleweed comes from the dry seed pods, whose loose seeds rattle in the wind^[13], and another name, fairy candles, suits its tall white flower spires^[10].

Black cohosh then crossed the Atlantic. In Germany, women have used black cohosh root for more than 70 years^{[3, 4]}. Today European herbal regulators recognize its use by women going through menopause^[12].

Traditional uses

Black cohosh has been studied in many clinical trials in women going through menopause^{[2, 3]}, and its use for women's health goes back to Native American tradition^{[2, 3, 6]}.

• Women's health through menopause

  This is black cohosh's best-known use today, in North America and in Europe. Black cohosh supports women's health through menopause.*^{[3, 12]}

• Women's health through the monthly cycle

  Native Americans used the root for women's health through the monthly cycle, and settlers took it as a women's tonic.*^{[2, 3, 4]}

• A long European tradition

  In Germany, black cohosh root has been part of women's herbal practice for more than 70 years.^{[3, 4]}

Plant compounds

Black cohosh root and rhizome contain triterpene glycosides, such as actein, 23-epi-26-deoxyactein and cimicifugoside^{[2, 4, 6]}. They also contain aromatic acids, including caffeic, isoferulic and fukinolic acids, and resins such as cimicifugin^{[2, 4, 5]}.