Cotton: Fibers That Bind

Taxonomy/Botanical Classification:

Common Name: Cotton

Family: Malvaceae

Genus: Gossypium

Life Cycle: Warm season annual

True Grit Archetype: The Transformer

Harvest Season: 4- 5 months after sowing; usually late summer

Davis Green Cotton Seeds Being Planted at True Grit Farm

Cotton carries memory in every fiber. It has clothed generations and built empires. It has witnessed both backbreaking burden and breathtaking beauty, tracing the contours of land, body, and lineage from field to loom. Though often reduced to a commodity crop, Gossypium is far more than material. It is medicine. It is ancestral. It is legacy. In herbal practice, cotton arrives with grounding, astringent, and womb-wise strength. From its sun-reaching stalks supporting leaves of shade, to the soft capsules that burst like stars, cotton is a teacher of resilience and revelation.

This monograph offers a layered view of the plants botany and biochemistry, its cultural and clinical uses, and its place in a just and sustainable garden. I share my knowledge and relationship as well as provide reference to other herbalists who shared their own wealth of perspective.

Cotton has been cultivated for over five millennia, long before the common era. Communities across Africa, the Americas, India, and beyond have known its fullness. Not only for textiles, but for its medicinal roots, seeds, and fruits. Its fibers have been used to warm and protect, and its medicine to support life at its most tender thresholds. Among midwives and medicine carriers, cotton has long held a place in fertility support, wound care, and survival.

Cotton’s history is deeply entangled with chattel slavery, colonization, and capitalist agriculture. It has been used to exploit labor, extract wealth, and uphold entire systems of oppression detailed in “Inside The Most Horrific Slavery Breeding Farms of Cotton Plantations”. For this reason, the plant demands a careful, reverent remembrance. It invites us to hold the complexity of its pain and its power. 

Cotton is a lesson in duality. A living reminder that beauty can grow from struggle. Teaching how resilient people, generation after generation, have turned irritation into something worthwhile. Like the pearl formed from grit in the oyster’s flesh, cotton emerges from harshness as something soft, yet strong.

My first meeting with cotton left me speechless. I stood in a field of plants just beginning to burst open, stunned by the familiarity of their presence. I didn’t ask anything of the plant, only to sit and listen. And cotton spoke. With clarity and ease, it shared what it knew. Now, each time I plant, I begin with ceremony. I teach others to do the same. To work with cotton not just as crop or cloth, but as a keeper of memory. As a guide back to those who tended it before us.

Gossypium spp. bridges traditional and modern herbalism. It calls for respect and informed use. In African American midwifery and reproductive care, cotton has long been revered for its role in menstruation, childbirth, and postpartum support. Modern studies affirm many of these actions, yet industrial farming continues to strip the plant of its sacredness.

I invite you to explore what it means to reclaim the majesty of cotton. To know cotton as the fabric that covers our bodies, and as kin. Sit with it. Grow it if you can. Let it speak to you.

Cotton Blossom Grown at True Grit Farm & Flower.

Key Chemical Constituents & Actions

 Gossypol has anti-fertility, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral actions. Traditionally considered warming and drying while tannins provide astringency and mucilage soothes tissues.

Herbal Actions:

• Astringent

• Emmenagogue

• Oxytocic

• Galactagogue (in low doses)

• Antimicrobial

• Anti-inflammatory

  
  

Tissue States & Energetics:

• Relaxation with excessive discharge

• Warming, drying, downward-moving

  
  

Traditional Uses & Clinical Indications:

• Menstrual cramps, uterine atony

• Postpartum bleeding

• Lactation support

• Historically used as a contraceptive according to the retelling of enslaved Africans in the American south as well as traditions across the diaspora

  
  

Taste & Actions:

• Root bark: Bitter, acrid

• Leaves: Slightly astringent and earthy

  
  

Organ/System Affinities:

• Reproductive (uterus, ovaries, testes)

• Musculoskeletal (as anti-inflammatory poultice)

• Skin (as fiber poultice)

  
  

Uses & Administration :

• Cultural & Traditional: Midwifery herb for delayed menses or miscarriage prevention

• Clinical: Experimental use of gossypol for male contraception

• Root decoction: 1 tsp dried root per cup water, simmer 15–20 min

• Leaf infusion: 1 tbsp dried leaf to 8 oz water, steep 10–15 min

• External poultice: Crushed fresh leaves or soaked fiber for swellings

Sustainability & Ethical Considerations

Conservation Status: Gossypium is not endangered, but heirloom and native varieties are being lost due to GMO dominance and monoculture.

• Best Practices & Sustainable Harvesting:

  •  Grow your own or source from organic, small-scale growers. Avoid disrupting wild populations, especially in sacred or historical sites. Practice full-use harvesting: medicine, fiber, seed.

  
  

Safety Information:

• Avoid high doses of gossypol-containing parts in pregnancy

• Gossypol may lower male fertility

• Long-term use not recommended without guidance

• Not advised for children or during lactation unless under supervision

  
  

Research Findings:

• Studies on gossypol's anti-fertility effects in men

• Antiviral activity in lab studies

• Traditional use validated by ethnobotanical surveys

My Favorite Recipe:

 A postpartum bath blend of dried cotton root bark, calendula, and lavender—steeped into a strong decoction and poured into a warm sitz bath. Brings warmth and strength back to the center after birth or menstruation.

References

American Herbal Pharmacopoeia. (2011). Botanical pharmacognosy: Microscopic characterization of botanical medicines (1st ed.). CRC Press.

Bone, K., & Mills, S. (2013). Principles and practice of phytotherapy: Modern herbal medicine (2nd ed.). Churchill Livingstone.

Culpepper, K. (2017).  Cotton Root Bark as Herbal Resistance (Vol. 15). Journal of American Herbalists Guild 

Duke, J. A. (2002). Handbook of medicinal herbs (2nd ed.). CRC Press.

Gladstar, R. (1993). Herbal healing for women. Simon & Schuster.

Low Dog, T. (2016). Women's health in complementary and integrative medicine: A clinical guide. Elsevier.

Moerman, D. E. (1998). Native American ethnobotany. Timber Press.

Romm, A. (2010). Botanical medicine for women’s health (1st ed.). Churchill Livingstone.

Rose, K. (n.d.). Sacred Vibes Apothecary teachings. [Unpublished class notes and mentorship].

Susun Weed. (1986). Wise woman herbal for the childbearing year. Ash Tree Publishing.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. (2023). Plants Database: Gossypium. https://plants.usda.gov

World Health Organization. (2004). WHO monographs on selected medicinal plants (Vol. 2). WHO Press. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/42052

Traditional and Ancestral Knowledge Acknowledgment

Knowledge shared in this monograph is informed by oral history, familial lineages of Black and Indigenous Southern midwives, and folk herbal traditions passed through communities including but not limited to those connected with:

• Emma Dupree (NC root woman herbalist)

• Dr. Caesar (South Carolina healer)

• Maude Callen (nurse-midwife, SC)

• Tommie Bass (Appalachian herbalist)

• Michelle E. Lee (author of Working the Roots)

• George Washington Carver (botanist, agronomist, Black scientist and herbalist)

• Mariah Watkins (herbalist, Missouri)

• Harriet Tubman (freedom fighter and folk healer)

These teachers may not have published in the traditional academic sense, but their knowledge and practices are referenced with deep respect and recognition for their enduring legacy.

Supplementary Sources Consulted

These sources represent informal, traditional, oral, or community-based knowledge systems, along with farmer and grower contributions that shaped this monograph. They are not cited in formal APA style but are foundational to the integrative, experience-based approach of the True Grit voice.

Oral Traditions, Field Knowledge & Community Herbalism

• Teachings passed down through Black Southern midwives and rootworkers, including family oral traditions from the Southeastern United States

• Interviews and oral accounts from Working the Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing by Michelle E. Lee

• Conversations and mentorship from community herbalists and traditional birth workers in North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama

Seed Growers & Farming Communities

• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange: Cotton growing guides and heirloom variety notes

• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: Cultivation timelines and planting support

• Local farm notes and direct growing experience at True Grit Farm & Flower in Virginia

Open-Access Herbal & Botanical Platforms

• Plants For A Future (PFAF): https://pfaf.org

• Henriette’s Herbal Homepage: https://www.henriettes-herb.com

• Archived community forums on cotton root bark use in traditional medicine

Personal Practice & Direct Plant Relationship

• Observations, preparations, and direct work with cotton plants over several seasons

• Midwifery herbal support circles and postpartum care teachings where cotton root was discussed in community

• Ritual and ceremonial planting practices developed through years of land-based healing work

Pen and ink drawing of cotton plant shown spun into fiber and woven. Source: Smithsonian

This content is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and it sure doesn’t replace the care, advice, or guidance of a qualified healthcare provider. Got medical concerns? Respectfully — talk to your doctor, herbalist, or trusted health practitioner.

We honor the legacy of plant medicine, and we believe in bridging ancestral wisdom with modern safety. So please, do your own research, listen to your body, and stay grounded in discernment.