Rhubarb Root (Rheum Palmatum)
date: label: date made
content: ca 1883
notes: label: Description
content: This specimen of rhubarb root, <i>Rheum palmatum<i>, was donated to the Smithsonian in 1883 from the Kurrachee Municipal Library and Museum in India. The medicinal root, commonly referred to as Chinese Rhubarb, Indian Rhubarb, or Russian Rhubarb, was native to Asia and was an important article of trade between Asia and Europe, and later between China and the United States.
label: Description
content: Rhubarb root was used medicinally as a cathartic, an astringent and a tonic. According to King's American Dispensary of 1898, it has a " tonic action on the stomach, improving the appetite and digestive powers. ... Rhubarb is much used as a laxative for infants, in many infantile diseases ... In acute or chronic diarrhoea or dysentery, in convalescence from exhausting diseases, ... rhubarb is an appropriate medicine." Rhubarb was also applied moist to the skin as a compress to treat ulcerations.
place: label: place made
content: India
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
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content: Health & Medicine
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content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Kurrachee Municipal Library and Museum
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.052491
label: accession number
content: 12523
label: catalog number
content: 52491
objectType: label: Object Name
content: crude drug
label: Other Terms
content: Materia Medica; Drugs; Vegetable; Bark
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: rhubarb root (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (container material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 3/4 in x 3 3/4 in; 22.225 cm x 9.525 cm