Getting Acquainted With Black Cohosh

black cohosh perennial leaves

Black cohosh has botanical term Cimicifuga racemosa and known as a member of the buttercup family. Commonly this herb is found in rich woods of the eastern deciduous forest from southern Ontario south to Georgia, west to Arkansas, north to Wisconsin. Other common names include black snakeroot, bugbane, bugwort, rattleroot, rattletop, rattleweed, and macrotys. Insects avoid it, which accounts for some of these common names.


This perennial woodland plant likes the deep shade of moist hillsides, the home of other important medicinal plans such as Goldenseal and Ginseng. It has robust, three-divided leaves, with three-lobed terminal leaflets. The middle lobe of the sharply-toothed leaflets is the largest. The plant is little-noticed until it sends up its tall spikes of showy white flowers, three to eight feet tall.

Petals are not to be seen; the chief feature is tufts of conspicuous stamens surrounding the pistil in the center. In begins blooming in May in the southern part of its range, continuing to flower into September in more northerly regions. Black cohosh was first described by botanists in 1705. By 1732, it had been introduced into English gardens as a hardy ornamental perennial.

More than two centuries ago, Native Americans discovered that the root of the black cohosh plant (Actaea racemosa, formerly known as Cimicifuga racemosa) helped relieve menstrual cramps and symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, irritability, mood swings, and sleep disturbances. Today, people use black cohosh for these same reasons. In fact, the herb has been widely used for more than 40 years in Europe and is approved in Germany for premenstrual discomfort, painful menstruation, and menopausal symptoms.

To this day, it is more widely grown in European gardens than in America. The root is the part of the plant used in herbal traditions. Most of the root is wild-harvested, while some is grown commercially in Europe. The genus Cimicifuga includes eighteen species, one of which is native to Europe, six from North America, and the remainder from northeast Asia. Collectively, they are commonly known as bugbanes, primarily referring to the single native European species, C. europaea and an Asian representative C. foetida, which have strong, unpleasant smelling herbage, earning it a reputation as an insect-repelling plant.

The genus name Cimicifuga, itself, honors this olfactory observation. It comes from the Latin cimex meaning bug (specifically the bed bug Cimex lectularius) and fugare "to drive-away" in reference to the insect-repelling attributes. These species are also known by the names bugwort or bugbane. They have been used independently as insect repellents throughout their extensive ranges from India to Western Europe to eastern Siberia. The herbage of the American black cohosh does not possess a strong odor.