Indian Physic

Indian physic is a perennial herb native to eastern North America, which Wikipedia describes as erect, up to about a metre tall, with three-lobed leaves, pale pink flowers on red stems in spring and summer, and a habitat of dry to moist upland woods and rocky banks. Grieve describes an irregular, brownish root giving rise to several stems of two to three feet, with white, reddish-tinged flowers in loose terminal panicles, and says it grows well in slightly moist, rich soil out of the midday sun. She names the root-bark as the part used and the plant as tonic, emetic, slightly diaphoretic, cathartic and expectorant, with an action resembling that of ipecacuanha, known to the American Indians and early colonists. She lists gillenin, gillein and gilleenin among the constituents, and says large doses of the infusion cause vomiting and purging.