Crocus. Crocus sativus.

Synonym—Saffron.

CONSTITUENTS—

Crocin, volatile oil, picrocrocin (saffron bitter), gum, wax, fat, albumen.

PREPARATIONS—

Tincture Croci, Tinctura Croci, Tincture of Saffron. Dose, from one to three drams.

Tinctura Serpentariae Composita, Compound Tincture of Serpentaria. Dose, from ten to sixty minims.

Therapy—Saffron tea was long in good repute among the grandmothers of our older men as an essential remedy to start new-born babes in normal health channels. It was thought necessary to encourage the action of the liver and to cleanse the intestinal canal and stomach. It was positively indicated, if the skin was yellow and infantile colic.

It has mild diaphoretic, stimulant, antispasmodic and tonic properties. It may be given in the early stages of fevers, and especially in eruptive fevers, in full doses if there is a retrocession of the eruption.

It checks mild cases of irregular uterine hemorrhage, menorrhagia or metrorrhagia, and encourages the lochial discharge when suppressed after confinement.

The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1919, was written by Finley Ellingwood, M.D.
It was scanned by Michael Moore for the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine.