Women's Health Update

The medicinal use of black cohosh (Actaea racemosa or Cimicifuga racemosa) has a long herhal tradition in North America and Europe. A member ofthe huttercup family, black cohosh is native to the eastern part of North America and found as far west as Arkansas. Black cobosh was used by Native Americans for a range of disorders, including menstrual cramps, labor pains, general malaise, malaria, kidney ailments, and rheumatism. Additional uses by early settlers in the US colonies included amenorrbea, bronchitis, fevers, hack pains, nervous disorders, yellow fever, and diverse problems of tbe uterus. The Eclectic physicians ofthe 1800s used Cimicifuga for similar problems such as rheumatism, influenza, labor pains, headaches, nervous disorders, and even smallpox. The root of black cobosh has been approved by tbe German Commission E to treat premenstrual syndrome, dysmenorrheal, and a variety of menopausal symptoms, including hot flasbes, heart palpitations, nervousness, irritahility, vertigo, insomnia, and depression. For the last 50-plus years, numerous clinical trials have been conducted on black cobosb for women's disorders in particular, largely in the area of menopause issues. Much of the research on Cimicifuga racemosa indicating use for menopausal symptoms was conducted in Germany in tbe 1980s and 1990s. New research in the last several years and new studies in tbe last two years higblight the role of black cohosh in menopause and make it the single most studied botanical for perimenopause and menopause symptoms.