Gossypium herbaceum
Quick Facts
- What it is: A homeopathic remedy made from cotton plant root bark, watered down until no plant matter is left.
- Main uses: Painful periods, Late or missed periods, Nausea in early pregnancy (claimed only)
- Best for: People already working with a homeopath who want a low-risk 30C trial alongside proper medical care
- Active ingredients: None in a 30C pill, Gossypol in the raw bark and very low strengths
- Forms: 30C and 6C sugar pellets, Liquid drops in alcohol, Low strengths 1X to 6X, Mother tincture (raw extract)
- Time to effect: No reliable timing; no effect beyond placebo has been shown.
- Side effects: None known from 30C pills; raw bark can cause vomiting, low potassium, heart rhythm trouble and harm in pregnancy.
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What is Gossypium herbaceum?
Gossypium herbaceum is a homeopathic remedy. It is made from the root bark of the cotton plant. Its common name is Cotton plant root bark.
Homeopaths give it for period pain, late periods, and sickness in early pregnancy. The remedy starts as bark soaked in alcohol. That liquid is then watered down again and again, step by step.
At 30C, a common strength, nothing of the plant is left in the pill. Trials do not show that it works better than a placebo (a dummy pill). Long use in a tradition is not proof of effect, so this page reports both axes: what people have used it for, and what studies show.
How does Gossypium herbaceum work?
The honest answer is that no one has shown how it could work. Homeopathy teaches that a watered-down substance can ease the same signs it would cause in large amounts.
Raw cotton root bark can make the womb tighten and bleed. So homeopaths use the watered-down form for period trouble.
But the watering-down goes far past the point where any plant is left. There is no known way for a pill with none of the plant in it to act on your body. Any change people notice is best explained as placebo (a dummy effect), or as the problem easing on its own.
What forms does Gossypium herbaceum come in?
Most people meet this remedy as small sugar pellets, usually 30C or 6C. Liquid drops in alcohol and water are also sold. A few shops sell 1X to 6X, which are far less watered down.
The raw herb is a different product. Cotton root bark tea, powder and tincture are sold as herbal goods, not as homeopathy. Those hold real plant chemicals and carry real risk.
Check the label before you buy. If it does not say C or X, treat it as a raw herb.
Where it comes from:
Cotton comes from Africa and Asia and is now grown worldwide. In the 1800s American South, enslaved women chewed the root bark to bring on a period or end a pregnancy.
Doctors of that era wrote it up as a womb herb. Homeopaths added it to their materia medica (their book of remedies) in the same century.
It stays a minor remedy today. The record is real, but it is small.
If this is an emergency
Some reactions to Gossypium herbaceum need urgent care. Call your local emergency number or go to an emergency department straight away — do not wait to see whether it passes.
Who should avoid Gossypium herbaceum?
- Do not use if you are pregnant or think you might be: this plant has a long record of being used to end pregnancies, and that use has caused deaths
- Do not use if you are trying to bring on a late period with the raw bark, tea or tincture — never use it this way
- Do not use if you are breastfeeding
- Do not use if you are a man trying to father a child, as gossypol in the raw bark can lower sperm counts
- Do not use if you take water pills (diuretics), steroid tablets, or heart rhythm drugs such as digoxin, because raw bark can lower your potassium (a salt your body needs)
- Do not use if you have low potassium, kidney disease, or a heart rhythm problem
- Do not use if you have heavy or unexplained bleeding from the vagina that a doctor has not checked
- Do not use if you take disulfiram or metronidazole and the product is alcohol drops
- Do not use if you would be stopping or delaying a treatment your doctor has prescribed
- Do not use if you are giving it to a child without advice from a doctor
When should you see a doctor?
See a doctor within a few days if your period is very late, very painful, or much heavier than normal. Get help the same day if you took raw cotton root bark and feel sick, weak, dizzy or shaky. Call emergency services or go to hospital now if you have chest pain, a racing or odd heartbeat, fainting, heavy bleeding, or vomiting you cannot stop. Always get urgent care for sharp one-sided belly pain in early pregnancy.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
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