Viburnum prunifolium - Black Haw
"CONSTITUENTS: A brown resin, viburnin, valerianic, tannic, oxalic, citric and malic acids, sugar, earthy carbonates and phosphates. Viburnin, a greenish-yellow, bitter principle, resinous, soluble in alcohol, sparingly soluble in water.
PREPARATIONS: Extractum Viburni Prunifolii Fluidum, Fluid Extract of Viburnum Prunifolium. Dose: from half a dram to one dram. Specific Medicine Viburnum. Dose: from five to sixty minims.
Therapy: It is the remedy for dysmenorrhea, especially that characterized by cramp-like pains of spasmodic character. It promotes normal uterine contractions and antagonizes those of an irregular character. It is valuable in menorrhagia and metrorrhagia, either of an acute or a passive character. In all of these cases its use should be begun a few days in advance of the anticipated disorder and continued through and beyond the menstrual period.
Viburnum prunifolium is especially a uterine sedative in threatened miscarriage. It is particularly indicated in habitual abortion, preventing an anticipated occurrence and permanently overcoming the habit. I have had practical experience extending over thirty years, and have perfect confidence in the agent based on repeated success. In one of my cases it caused the womb to suspend expulsive action and to retain a dead fetus for months; given in large doses after the fourth month no return of the expulsive effort occurred until the seventh, when the agent was discontinued, after which a four-months mummified fetus was expelled without detriment to the health of the patient. She had decreased in size since the fourth month and there was no fetal movement. The agent, when there is no habit of abortion, will probably accomplish the desired result if begun after hemorrhage has continued some hours, if the membranes are not detached or the sac ruptured....
(Finley Ellingwood: The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1915)"