Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa) · Herb Profile

At a glance

Botanical name: Actaea racemosa
Family: Ranunculaceae
Part used: Root, Rhizome
Taste: Acrid, bitter, slightly sweet
Temperature: Cool to slightly cool
Moisture: Neutral, slightly drying

No pre-1900 source found for this reading.

Safety at a glance

In pregnancy

Contraindicated except at term under qualified practitioner (Eclectic parturient — King's 1898)

While breastfeeding

Insufficient lactation data; avoid during breastfeeding as precaution.

For children

Not typically indicated

Cautions

Frontal headache, nausea, dizziness at high dose ('cimicifugal headache' — King's 1898); rare hepatic reports flagged by EMA (mechanism disputed, very low incidence in European pharmacovigilance)

General contraindications

Known liver disease; estrogen-sensitive conditions (conservative precaution retained)

Stewardship

Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa) is cultivated; wild populations overharvested in Appalachia for supplement industry — buy cultivated or certified. Stewardship: the menopause herb most reached for — supply chain pressure shows that widespread need requires cultivated medicine.

In the traditional record

Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa / Cimicifuga racemosa) — used by the Cherokee, Iroquois, and Penobscot peoples for women's complaints, snakebite, and rheumatism; central to Eclectic clinical practice, championed by John Uri Lloyd, and documented extensively in King's American Dispensatory as a primary uterine and antispasmodic remedy.

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Educational use

The Apothecary is educational and does not constitute medical advice. Nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before changing what you take, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or managing a diagnosed condition.

On our sources

These entries draw on public-domain materia medica, most of it published before 1900, alongside a smaller number of modern reference works. Energetic qualities such as warming, cooling, drying and moistening are a traditional framework for describing how a plant behaves in the body, not a laboratory measurement. Where a period source states one, we cite it. Where none does, and for many North American herbs none exists, the value reflects modern herbal consensus rather than a historical text. When we cannot support a caution with real evidence, we say nothing rather than guess.