Melilotus. Melilotus officinalis alba.

Synonym—Sweet clover.

CONSTITUENTS—

Coumarin, melilotic acid, coumaric acid.

PREPARATIONS—

Emplastrum Meliloti, Melilot plaster.

Specific Melilotus. Dose, from one to ten drops.

Specific Symptomatology—Spasms, colic, dysuria, dysmenorrhea; in painful cough, spasms from dentition, pain in the stomach, rectum, or uterus, neuralgic rheumatism.

Dr. Reed gives melilotus in cases where ergot would seem to be indicated; where there is fullness of circulation of the brain; a tendency to nose bleed, often followed by sick headache; where the action of the heart is oppressed with occasional palpitation. He believes that in all three cases it is an excellent remedy.

Therapy—Melilotus is a stimulant to the local circulation, and is adapted to those cases where debility or a feeble vital power, as in delicate females and poorly nourished infants, is associated with congestion, as in atonic neuralgias and spasms occurring during the period of dentition, and in congestion of the uterus, ovaries, rectum, bowels, stomach, or bladder in feeble subjects. It is also a remedy for pain from determination of blood as in headache with throbbing.

An ointment made from the leaves is an efficacious application to all kinds of ulcers.

A fomentation of the leaves and flowering tops may be applied with good effect in inflammation of joints, and local pain in the abdomen.

Engorged conditions of the uterus are treated very successfully by four or five-drop doses every two hours of melilotus.

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.