It is a tall herbaceous plant with feathery racemes of white blossoms 1 to 3 feet long which being slender droop gracefully. The fruits are dry. The plant produces a stout blackish rhizome (creeping underground stem) cylindrical hard and knotty.

Alterative, analgesic, antirheumatic, antispasmodic, astringent, blood cleanser, cardiac, diuretic, emetic, emmenagogue, expectorant, laxative, sedative, stimulant, sudorific and tonic.

Cimicifugin or Macrotin, amorphous resinous substance of which it contains about 18 per cent. The bitter taste is due to a crystalline principle named Racemosin. The drug also contains two resins together with fat, wax starch, gum, sugar and an astrin.

Bronchitis, cancer (tongue), children's ailments, chorea, chronic bronchitis, common cold, cough, cramps, diarrhea, dysmenorrhea, female ailments, fever, hysteria, itch, kidney ailments, malaise, malaria, nerves, orthopedic ailments, parturition.

Grieve. M. A Modern Herbal. 1931 (www.botanical.com).