Scutellaria.

Botanical name: 

Scutellaria lateriflora (skullcap) was in use as a domestic remedy before the publication of the first American materia medica, as shown by Schopf (582), 1785. It was afterward conspicuous in the practice of a local physician. Dr. Lawrence Van Derveer, of New Jersey, who discovered the qualities that he believed it carried. At least he made no mention of any previous therapeutic record (388d). Dr. Van Derveer's use of scutellaria as a remedy in the cure of rabies gave him great notoriety and introduced the drug to Thacher (631), whose dissertation on "Hydrophobia and Its Cure" involved the remedies employed in that disease, as well as substances other than scutellaria commended therein. Scutellaria has thus a record both as a secret cure and as a professional remedy in the treatment of this dreadful disease, the latter, however, being altogether based upon the domestic use of the drug. According to Schopf (582), 1785, the plant was used as a home remedy in the cure of fevers.


The History of the Vegetable Drugs of the U.S.P., 1911, was written by John Uri Lloyd.