Cimicifuga racemosa

Cimicifuga is Latin and means “to drive away”, referring to certain species that are used to repel insects.

Common names for this plant are black cohosh, bugbane, rattleroot, squawroot, snakeroot, black snakeroot.

As the majority of the common names would suggest, the Native Americans used the plant as an antidote for snakebite by applying the bruised root to the wound and drinking the juice in very small amounts.

The plant is a genus of the Buttercup family with about twenty species and is native to North America, Asia, and Europe. Found in upland woods and hillsides, it grows in dependably moist, fairly heavy soil. Black cohosh is a perennial herb with a large knotty root that has a few short roots. The wiry black-purple stem is simple, smooth, and furrowed, grows from 3 to 9 feet high and with large compound, irregular deep cut leaves. The small white flowers bloom from May to August and are numerous in wandlike tapering racemes. Their mildly unpleasant, medicinal smell at close range is the basis of the common name “bugbane”. Black cohosh (or black snakeroot) was called ga na ge in Cherokee and used in a formula for female problems, especially for menopausal symptoms.

Does Black Cohosh enhance the libido?