Tragacantha, Gum Tragacanth

Kateera, Katira (Unani)
Medical Botany, Woodville, Hooker, Vol. 3, 1832

Parkinson,
Theatrum Botanicum, 1640
Dioscorides Materia Medica,
Mathias, 1563
Atlas der officinellen pflanzen (2), Felix, 1899

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Botanical name:
Astragalus tragacanth (Asia minor, Perisa), A, gummifer (widely distributed through central Asia)

Parts used:
Gum

Temperature & Taste:
Neutral. Sweet

Classifications:
2E LENITIVE.    2G. CLEANSING.    2O. ASTRINGENT.    2S. STRENGTHENING.    2W. SARCOTICS
3E. DIURETIC.    3F. LITHONTRIPTIC.    3L. ANTI-TUSSIVE
4a. CEPHALIC.    4d. PECTORAL.    4e. STOMACHIC.    4j. NERVINE

Uses:
1. Stops Cough, Strengthens the Lungs:
    
2. Strengthens Spleen, Benefits Qi:

3. Strengthens the Exterior, Stops Sweating:

4. Clears Heat, Nourishes Yin:
   
5. Clears Heat, Promotes Urine:
    
6. Mucilaginous:
    
7. Promotes Bowel Movement:

8. Externally:
-Mucilage of Tragacanth has been used as an external application to burns.


Dose:
Powder: 200mg–1 gram

Correctives:
 ... available in PRO version

Substitutes:
 ... available in PRO version
Main Combinations:
Gum Arabic & Tragacanth

1. To nourish Lung Yin, stop Cough, Consumption, Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
2. Dry Cough:
i. Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
ii. Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
3. Hot Cough:
i. Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
ii. Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
4. Chronic Cough, Wheezing, Breathlessness, Asthma and Hectic Fever, Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
5. Cold Phlegm Cough, Asthma, Shortness of Breath, Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
6. Asthma from Heat, Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
7. Pleurisy, Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
8. Spitting Blood, Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
9. Excess Menstruation, Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
10. Strong heat Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version
11. Burning Fever, Tragacanth with  ... available in PRO version

Major Formulas:
Tragacanth Cooling Powder (Diatragacanth Frigidum) (Nicholas)
Tragacanth Warming Powder (Pulvis Diatragacanth Calidii) (Nicholas)
Powder of Haly
Decoction for Spitting Blood
Troches for Burning Fever (Galen)
Troches for Kidney Ulcers (Riverius)
Troches of Camphor (Nicholas)
Troches of Spodium (Trochisci Spodii) (Nicholas)
Troches for Cough (Andromachus)
Black Troches for Cough (Trochisci Bechici) (Mesue)
Pills to Hold in the Mouth for Catarrh
Pills for Hot Cough (Zacharia)
Pills for Kidney and Bladder Ulcers
Electuary of Pine Nuts (Lohoch de Pino) (Mesue)
Electuary of Poppy (Diapapaver) (Mesue)

Cautions:
Generally Safe.

Main Preparations used:
Compound Powder of Tragacanth
History
'Tragacanth has been known from a very early period. Theophrastus in the 3rd century B.C. mentioned Crete, the Peloponnesus and Media as its native countries. Dioscorides, who as a native of South-eastern Asia Minor was probably familiar with the plant, describes it correctly as a low spiny bush. The drug is mentioned by the Greek physicians Oribasius, Aetius, and Paulus Aegineta (4th to 7th cent.), and by many of the Arabian writers on medicine. The abbreviated form of its name "Dragantum " already occurs in the book "Artis veterinarise, seu mulomediciuse" of Vegetius Renatus, who lived about A.D. 400. During the middle ages the
gum was imported into Europe through the trading cities of Italy, as shown in the statutes of Pisa, A.D. 1305, where it is mentioned as liable to impost.

Pierre Belon, the celebrated French naturalist and traveller, saw and described, about 1550, the collecting of tragacanth in the northern part of Asia Minor; and Tournefort in 1700 observed on Mount Ida in Candia the singular manner in which the gum is exuded from the living plant.' (Pharmacographia, Fluckiger & Hanbury, 1879)