Phytolacca americana - Poke
"CONSTITUENTS: Phytolaccic acid, phytolaccine, calcium malate, resin, starch, wax, gum, tannin, mucilage. The ashes contain over fifty per cent of caustic potassa.
PREPARATIONS: Extractum Phytolaccae Radicis Fluidum. Fluid Extract of Phytolacca Root. Dose: from five to thirty minims. Unguentum Phytolaccae, Ointment of Phytolacca. Specific Phytolacca. Dose: from one to ten minims.
Therapy: This agent must now have especial attention in its influence in the treatment of acute inflammations of the throat. It makes but little difference what forms of throat disease we have, from the simplest forms of pharyngitis, through all the variations of tonsillitis, to the extreme forms of diphtheria, this remedy may be given in conjunction with other indicated agents. But few of our physicians neglect its administration in these cases, and they are unitedly profuse in their praises of its influence. If there be an infection of the local glands of the neck, from the throat disease, the agent should be applied externally, as well as administered internally...."
(Finley Ellingwood: The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1915)