Chionanthus virginicus - Fringe Tree
"CONSTITUENTS: Chionanthin, saponin.
PREPARATIONS: Specific Medicine Chionanthus. Dose: ten to twenty minims.
Therapy: It is a cholagogue cathartic in full doses, but its best influence is in acute congestion of the liver with imperfect discharge of bile, or catarrh of the common bile duct. We have no agent more certain in its action when indicated. The indications are acute jaundice evidenced by yellowness of the conjunctiva first, subsequently of the skin, with distress in the right hypochondrium, with cramp-like pains in the abdomen.
It overcomes catarrh, liquefies the bile, prevents the formation of calculi, and promotes the discharge of those formed. It is a remedy for chronic forms of liver disease, but its influence is not so plainly apparent, being much slower in its operations. It is not indicated in jaundice from permanent occlusion of the duct, from impacted gall stones or foreign and malignant growths. ..."
(Finley Ellingwood: The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1915)