Gossypii Cortex

Cotton Root Bark, Gossypii radicis cortex, is used as a stimulant and emmenagogue, the decoction being considered, in the days of American slavery, capable of producing abortion. It was thus introduced empirically by the Negroes, and came from thence into the hands of the profession, being first employed by physicians of the Southern United States. Following this introduction, Wallace Brothers, of Statesville, S. C., at the request of the writer (Eclectic Medical Journal, February, 1876, p. 70), forwarded to him a barrel of fresh cotton root bark, preserved in alcohol. This was made into a fluid extract, and distributed to American practicing physicians, with a request that the results of its use be reported in contrast with the dried bark deemed by some to be inert. A summary of more than forty reports from practicing physicians, together with remarks concerning the preparation of gossypium employed, was read before the Twenty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Association, 1876. The paper, in full, titled, "Fluid Extract of Gossypium Herbaceum," was published in the Eclectic Medical Journal, December, 1876, pp. 537-547. This treatise, together with the increasing demand from physicians throughout America for pharmaceutical preparations of gossypium root bark, led to its introduction to the Pharmacopeia of the United States. The credit for the discovery of its uses, as before stated, must be given to the Negroes of the South.

The History of the Vegetable Drugs of the U.S.P., 1911, was written by John Uri Lloyd.