Other Names: Cascara Sagrada, chitticum bark
Cascara Buckthorn, Cascara, Bearberry, and in the Chinook Jargon, Chittam or Chitticum is a species of buckthorn
native to western North America from southern British Columbia south to central California, and inland to
western Montana.
It is the largest species of buckthorn, occasionally growing up to 15 m tall, though more commonly a large
shrub or small tree 5-10 m tall, with a trunk 20-50 cm in diameter. The bark is brownish to silver-grey with
light splotching. The leaves are deciduous, alternate, clustered near the ends of twigs; they are oval, 5-15 cm
long and 2-5 cm broad with a 0.6-2 cm petiole, dark shiny green on top, fuzzy and paler green below. The flowers
are tiny, 4-5 mm diameter, with five greenish yellow petals; the flowering season is brief, disappearing by early
summer. The fruit is a berry 6-10 mm diameter, bright red at first, quickly maturing deep purple or black, and
containing three seeds.
It grows in moist, acidic soils in the shady side of clearings or in the marginal forest understory, near the
edges of mixed deciduous-coniferous forests.
The dried, aged bark of this tree has been used continuously for at least 1,000 years by both native and
immigrant Americans as a laxative natural medicine, commercially called "Cascara Sagrada", but old timers call
it "chitticum bark".
Long used as a laxative by Native American groups of the northwest Pacific coast, chitticum bark or Cascara
Sagrada was accepted in medical practice in the United States in 1877, and by 1890 had replaced the berries of
the European Buckthorn (R. catharticus) as a commonly used laxative. It is still the principal ingredient in
many commercial, over-the-counter laxatives in North American pharmacies.
Very few modern human studies have been done. Some studies have investigated its use as a colon cleansing
method for colonoscopy (Hangartner et al., 1989; Phillip et al., 1990) and its effectiveness as a laxative to
treat elderly people suffering from chronic functional constipation (Petticrew et al., 1997).
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