VIBURNUM  , in

medicine, the dried bark of the black haw or Viburnum prunifolium, grown in India and North America . The black haw contains viburnin and valerianic, tannic, gallic, citric and malic acids . The British Pharmacopoeial preparation is the Extractum Viburni Prunifolii liquidum; the United States preparation is the fluid extract prepared from the Viburnum opulus . The physiological action of viburnum is to lower the blood pressure . In overdose it depresses the motor functions of the spinal cord and so produces loss of reflex and paralysis . Therapeutically the drug is used as an anti-spasmodic in dysmenorrhoea and in menorrhagia .