Botanical Name: Geranium maculatum
Common Names: Cranesbill, geranium, tormentil, spotted
geranium, wild dovefoot, American tormentil,
storksbill, wild cranesbill, alum root, crowfoot, American kino root
Medicinal
Properties: Astringent, styptic, antiseptic
A powerful astringent. Very useful in cholera, diarrhea, and dysentery. Should be used both internally and externally. Rinse the mouth often with a strong tea for sores in the mouth and bleeding gums. Useful in piles. Inject a little of the strong tea several times a day. When there is bleeding from extracted teeth, rub some of the powder on. Excellent in hemmorrhaging, bleeding wounds, nosebleed, and profuse menstruation. The dry powder sprinkled on a wound or cut will stop bleeding immediately. Useful in old chronic ulcers. In womb troubles, give as a douche. A strong solution of the tea rubbed over the breast will dry up milk, or just over the nipples will harden them. For internal piles, inject two or three tablespoonfuls several times a day, and after each stool. Excellent for mucous and pus in the bladder and intestines, and for 1eucorrhea, or mucous discharges in any part of the body. Very useful in diabetes and Bright's disease. In mucous discharges it is excellent to use with an equal part of golden seal. Use a teaspoonful each to a pint of boiling water. Let steep thirty minutes. Use this liquid as an injection for piles or any trouble in the rectum, as a douche, or take internally, a tablespoonful four to six times a day. For general use steep a heaping teaspoonful in a cup of boiling water thirty minutes. Drink one or more cupfuls a day, a large mouthful at a time. Children less according to age.
Adopted from Kloss, 1939