Side effects of caulophyllum?

Question

When used for inducing labor?

Answer 1

Caulophyllum: Cardiotoxic effects of Blue Cohosh on a fetus A newborn infant whose mother took capsules of blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) for several weeks as a preparation for birth was born with an acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and shock. The labor was also precipitous, coming on suddenly and lasting only one hour (Jones and Lawson). Some herbalists and midwives have responded to the case defensively, arguing that centuries of traditional use has never shown this effect before, and that the infant’s problems cannot be attributed to blue cohosh on the basis of this single anecdote. However, blue cohosh contains alcohol-soluble constituents with demonstrated effects on the heart (Jones and Lawson) and a similar case has appeared previously in the scientific literature (Gunn and Wright). One traditional herbal on women’s health care warns that blue cohosh can cause precipitous labor when used alone, and that it can affect fetal heart tones during delivery (Weed), and another from 1869 says that the plant was only rarely used in the form of a powder (Cook).  Use and side effects  If traditional use were followed, blue cohosh as a partus preparator would be used in relatively large dose as a decoction, in very small doses as a tincture, and would not be used alone or as powder or whole root. Among contemporary herbalists, Susun Weed states that blue cohosh should not be used alone, because it can cause precipitous labor. She also states that when using it in stalled labor “if fetal heart-tones are monitored, there may be noticeable elevation as the blue cohosh starts to work.” Simon Mills states that it is “... probably unsafe to take in pregnancy until labor has commenced,” and Sharol Tilgner states: “Overdose may cause nausea, vomiting, headache, thirst, dilated pupils, muscle weakness, incoordination, constriction of coronary blood vessels, cardiovascular collapse, and convulsions.”