ANTHEMIS PYRETHRUM

PELLITORY OF SPAIN, SPANISH CAMOMILE

Description:  Natural Order, Compositae. This is scarcely a camomile, though so closely allied as to be thrown into the same genus by most Botanists. It is a native of Spain and all Southern Europe, as well as of Syria and Arabia. It has numerous procumbent and slightly pubescent stems; spreading leaves cut into linear and pinnatifid segments, of which the cauline are sessile and the radical are petioled; a single flower terminal to each branch, the ray florets being a bluish-white and the disk-florets yellow; and a light-brown, wrinkled root, as large as a puill.

Properties and Uses:  The root of pellitory possesses very pungent stimulating properties, which, when chewed, give a sharp and tingling sense of heat in the mouth, and excite a copious flow of saliva. Alcohol and ether extract its properties, but water acts on it only moderately. It has long been used as an application for toothache; and may be found useful in extreme dryness of the mouth, and paralysis of the tongue and vocal organs. It is prepared in tincture–an ounce of the root to eight ounces of alcohol.