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herbs and shrubs and small trees: cotton

herbs and shrubs and small trees: cotton

Any of the cultivated varieties of Gossypium, herbs or shrubs of the Malvaceae family that yield fiber for textiles and absorbent dressings, oil from seeds, and various chemicals. The fibers cause BYSSINOSIS if inhaled over a period. GOSSYPOL is a male anti-fertility agent from COTTONSEED OIL.

Cotton; root is an emmenagogue; blossom furnishes absorbent cotton, etc.

The seeds of the Cotton Tree, Gossipium arboreum, have been administered in coughs, on account of the mucilage they contain, and a decoction of a pint of the seeds to a quart of water has been given, in the Southern States, in intermittents. A decoction of the root has been prescribed as an emmenagogue and parturifacient. The cotton wool is used in medicine for making moxas, &c., and is applied in the treatment of recent burns and scalds.

Cotton.

Cotton-root bark.

A genus of malvaceous plants.

Of the Br. Ph., absorbent cotton.

n. [Latin] The cotton plant, a shrub ranging from 6 to 15 feet high, with beautiful flowers, and producing in its pods a soft downy white substance, which is the principal material form which cloth for personal and domestic purposes in manufactured.