Black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) is a herbal medication included in dietary supplements designed for women which may help the symptoms of premenstrual tension, menopause and other gynecological problems. It was thought that black cohosh contained estrogen-like chemicals, but recent research suggests that it works by binding to serotonin receptors. Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Marchantiophyta - liverworts Anthocerotophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants Adiantum pedatum (a... Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants (also called angiosperms) are a major group of land plants. ... Orders see text Dicotyledons or dicots are flowering plants whose seed contains two embryonic leaves or cotyledons. ... Families See text The Ranunculales are an order of flowering plants, which belong among the basal eudicots. ... Genera See text The Ranunculaceae are a family of flowers in the order Ranunculales. ... Species Actaea alba - Dolls-eyes, White baneberry, White cohosh Actaea rubra - Red baneberry Actaea spicata - Herb christopher, Eurasian baneberry Actaea x ludovici - Actea Actaea (the bugbanes) are a genus of plants belonging to the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ... Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné ▶(?), and in English usually under the Latinized name Carolus Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy. ... Thomas Nuttall (January 5, 1786 - September 10, 1859) was an English botanist and zoologist, who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1842. ... A prescribed dietary supplement supplies nutrients (usually vitamins or minerals) that are missing or not consumed in sufficient quantity in a persons diet. ... Premenstrual stress syndrome (PMS, also called Premenstrual stress, Premenstrual tension, PMTand premenstrual syndrome) is stress which is a physical symptom prior to the onset of menstruation. ... Menopause (also known as the Change of life or climacteric) is a stage of the human female reproductive cycle that occurs as the ovaries stop producing estrogen, causing the reproductive system to gradually shut down. ... The shamefulness associated with the examination of female genitalia has long inhibited the science of gynaecology. ... Estrogens (also oestrogens) are a group of steroid compounds that function as the primary female sex hormone. ... Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HT) is a monoamine neurotransmitter synthesised in serotonergic neurons in the central nervous system and enterochromaffin cells in the gastrointestinal tract. ...

Cimicifuga racemosa (also known as Actaea racemosa) is a perennial plant, native to North America. It is a member of the buttercup family, and grows 9 feet tall, with white, unpleasant smelling flowers. World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the... This article is about the flower. ...

Native Americans used black cohosh to treat other disorders as well, including sore throats and kidney problems. A Hupa man, 1923 The scope of this indigenous peoples of the Americas article encompasses the definitions of indigenous peoples and the Americas as established in their respective articles. ... A sore throat, otherwise known as pharyngitis, is a painful inflammation of the throat. ...

There are few direct side-effects, except for occasional gastric discomfort, and rare hepatic dysfunction. Because of its oestrogen-like effects, it may promote metastasis of breast cancer tissue. (In an experiment done on mice, black cohosh increased metastasis of cancer to the lungs, but did not cause an increased incidence of breast cancer.) Breast cancer is cancer of breast tissue. ...

Black cohosh should not be used during pregnancy or lactation; it was once thought to contain formononetin, a plant estrogen, yet recent studies of black cohosh and popular preparations based on it ("Remifemin") indicate it contains no detectable formononetin. Previous indications of formononetin could have been caused by unintentional contamination with other plant species. Black cohosh has been used as an abortifacient. A pregnant woman Pregnancy is the carrying of one or more embryos or foeti by female mammals, including humans, inside their bodies. ... A breastfeeding infant Breastfeeding is the practice of a woman feeding an infant (or sometimes a toddler or a young child) with milk produced from her mammary glands, usually directly from the nipples. ... An abortifacient is a substance that induces abortion. ...

Garden uses: Cimicifuga racemosa in dependably moist, fairly heavy soil it can grow as much as 9 feet tall, though usually closer to 6 or 7. Cimicifuga bears tall tapering racemes of white midsummer flowers on wiry stems, whose mildly unpleasant, medicinal smell at close range gives it the common name 'Bugbane.' The drying seed heads stay handsome in the garden for many weeks. Its stylish deeply cut leaves have made it welcome in American gardens, wherever summer heat and drought do not make it die back. It is a good unusual perennial to fill gaps left by Narcissus.

A garden selection with black-purple stems, C. racemosa 'atropurpurea' ranks among the choicest garden perennials.

Cimicifuga ramosa , a somewhat smaller, later-flowering Cimicifuga, is also sometimes used in moist gardens, especially in its bronze-leaved selections.

External links

• Chemical background of black cohosh.
• General information about black cohosh.
• Article on a recent study of Black cohosh

Section Eclectic herbal information

• Cimicifuga racemosa (Black Cohosh, Macrotys) King's American Dispensatory @ Henriette's Herbal
• Cohosh, Black Mrs. Grieve's "A Modern Herbal" @ Botanical.com

Section Herbal information

• Cimicifuga racemosa (Black Cohosh) HerbMed
• Black Cohosh (pdf) Longwood Herbal Task Force
• Black Cohosh Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre

Section Homeopathic information

• Actaea racemosa (act-r.)(cimic.) "Kent's Lectures on Homeopathic Materia Medica" by Dr Robert Séror