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Elisabeth C. Miller Library

Archives: Plant Answer Line Q & A

Plant Answer Line questions and answers.

historical medicinal uses of asafetida

What can you tell me about asafetida? I know it is used in cooking (especially in India), but is it used medicinally?

 

The plant source of asafetida is Ferula assa-foetida, a perennial in the Apiaceae (carrot) family. As you mention, it is used in cooking, primarily the cooked leaves and shoots, but also the sap or gum which is extracted from the plant’s roots and dried as resin or pulverized into powder. It has a very pungent sulfurous odor, especially in resin form. In Africa, Ferula was a substitute for Silphium, whose extinction was recorded by Pliny the Elder in 77 C.E.

The plant resin is also used medicinally in other parts of the world, including the Middle East and Europe. Around the world, it has an array of common names, many of them variants on devil’s excrement, due to the odor.

According to Judith Taylor’s Plants in the Civil War, asafetida came to America with enslaved Africans who had multiple medicinal, magical, and apotropaic (protective, warding off evil) uses for it. Among enslaved people in this country, there was a tradition of wearing a red flannel bag containing the plant’s roots and additives like red pepper, sassafras, and snakeroot. Colin Fitzgerald’s “African American Slave Medicine of the 19th Century” (Bridgewater State University Undergraduate Review, 12, 44-50, 2016) goes into greater depth. Here is an excerpt:

“Victoria Adams, of Columbia, South Carolina, recalls using the plant as a preventive measure against diseases on her plantation,'[w]e dipped asafetida in turpentine and hung it ‘round our necks to keep off disease’ (Slave Narratives). Asafetida was used as preventative against a number of pulmonary diseases such as whooping cough, bronchitis, small pox, and influenza. It was usually placed in a bag around someone’s neck so that they could breathe in the fumes. Asafetida is found to have worked as an anti-flatulent by reducing the amount of indigenous microflora in the gut. Because of its close relation with the famed silphium of Cyrene (belonging to the same family, ferula), it has also been reported to contain naturally occurring organic contraceptive compounds.”

 

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which plant goes by the name winter cherry?

What can you tell me about a plant called winter cherry? It is supposed to have medicinal properties.

 

That common name corresponds to Withania somnifera, a plant in the nightshade family (Solanaceae). It sometimes goes by the common name Indian ginseng, though it is not botanically related to the plant ginseng. It is well-known in India by the name ashvagandha (also spelled ashwagandha). According to Naveen Patnaik’s The Garden of Life: An Introduction to the Healing Plants of India (Doubleday, 1993), the root and leaves of the plant are used in Ayurvedic medicine for a wide range of conditions. (The fruit is not used, and is poisonous.) It is considered an adaptogen, i.e., useful in adapting to various kinds of stress. The Sanskrit and Hindi names refer to the odor of the root, said to smell like the sweat of horses.

As the Latin species name indicates, the plant contains substances (alkaloids) that can induce drowsiness. The plant’s names in Hebrew (Vitania m’shakeret) and Arabic (saykaran, samm al ferakh) also indicate its soporific or intoxicating properties. [Sources: Flora of Israel Online, and A Herbal of Iraq, edited by Shahina A. Ghazanfar and Chris J. Thorogood] In fact, it has been studied as a sleep aid.

According to the Iraqi herbal cited above, human uses of Withania somnifera go as far back as ancient Egypt. Fruiting branches were found in the floral burial collar of Tutankhamun. Here is the Metropolitan Museum’s description of the object: “Among the most remarkable objects found in KV 54 are three astonishingly well preserved collars of plant leaves, berries, and flowers. The color scheme was derived from alternating rows of olive leaves with the silvery undersides showing and olive leaves with the dark green upper sides showing, orange-red berries of Withania somnifera, blue cornflowers, and tiny blue faience beads, as well as yellow flowers of oxtongue (Picris asplenoides).”

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Growing hawthorn in the Pacific Northwest

Hawthorn fruit is valued in traditional Chinese medicine for digestion, circulation, blood pressure, and anything to do with the heart. What types of hawthorn could I grow here in the Pacific Northwest that share the same medicinal properties as the ones used in China? I found some fruit on a tree in my neighborhood that reminds me of the dried hawthorn fruit we used, but someone told me this was a strawberry tree, not a hawthorn.

 

Strawberry tree is the common name for Arbutus unedo. Its very bumpy fruit is edible but not especially tasty (the species name means ‘I eat one,’ because one would be enough to convince the eater to seek a better food source!). Unlike deciduous hawthorns, Arbutus is evergreen. I can imagine, if you have only seen medicinal hawthorn fruit in dried form, it would be easy to mistake it for the strawberry tree’s fruit. Chinese hawthorn fruit has a comparatively smooth surface, though it is dotted with lenticels (that allow for exchange of gases between the outside world and the fruit’s interior).

We are not medical professionals, so we cannot address the medicinal benefits of any plant. However, there are several species of Crataegus (hawthorn) that are native to China, and some of these have fruit considered useful for the medicinal purposes you mention. The species that come up most often are Crataegus pinnatifida (shan zha) and Crataegus hupehensis. In the article “Hawthorn (Crataegus) Resources in China” (Taijun Guo and Peijuan Jiao, HortScience, Vol. 30(6), October 1995), there is a list of all the species that grow in various regions of China. The most useful ones are likely those that have sizeable fruit. There are also quite a few cultivated varieties, especially of C. pinnatifida, C. scabrifolia, and C. hupehensis. There is some history of hawthorn’s medicinal use in Europe as well, but with different species (mainly Crataegus monogyna–an unregulated noxious weed in King County– and Crataegus laevigata, previously called C. oxyacantha).

If you search online nursery inventory for the Chinese hawthorn species mentioned above, you will see that a cultivar of Crataegus pinnatifida called ‘Red Sun’ is available from Raintree Nursery in Washington, and One Green World in Oregon. You could certainly try growing it here, provided you have the right space for a 15-foot tree that needs full sun. When the fruits ripen (in the fall here), you could even scoop out the seeds, fill them with red bean paste, skewer them, and dip them in sugar syrup to make tanghulu, a treat for Chinese New Year.

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About Smilax bona-nox

Can you identify a plant growing at my mother’s house in Georgia? We would like to know more about it.

 

This is Smilax bona-nox. It goes by many evocative names, and even the scientific name had me wondering. Why is the species name “good-night?” It was named by Linnaeus and in his time bona-nox would have served as a euphemistic Latin curse (the way someone might say dadgummit, goldarnit, or flipping heck), possibly uttered after getting ensnared in this viny plant’s thorns. According to Delena Tull, author of Edible and Useful Plants of Texas and the Southwest (1999 ed.), encounters with the curved prickles give rise to common names like catbrier (or catbriar) and blaspheme-vine. Other common names include saw greenbrier (or saw briar) and tramp’s trouble. It is also called zarzaparilla (Anglicized to sarsaparilla from the Spanish name which means bramble + little grape vine).

According to the Virginia Native Plant Society, the fruit of Smilax species is valued by birds, bears, foxes, possums, and squirrels. The flowers are nectar and pollen sources for bees and flies, and the leaves host the larvae of caterpillar moths. The Native American Ethnobotany Database lists medicinal uses of this species of Smilax by the Seminole, Choctaw, Houma, and Creek tribes. The Choctaw and Houma ground the dried tuberous roots into flour for use in bread and cakes. The Comanche used the leaves as cigarette rolling papers.

About the common name sarsaparilla, you may be familiar with this word as flavoring sometimes used in the beverage known as root beer. A traditional tonic made with the rhizomes was thought to ward off rheumatism. Both Smilax and Sassafras have been used in flavoring root beer, but Sassafras root bark contains safrole, a carcinogenic substance, and the Food and Drug Administration banned its use in food in 1960. There is now a safrole-free extract that is allowed in food.

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Growing conditions for Coleus forskohlii

I want to know about Coleus forskohlii a plant of South Africa. What growing conditions does it need, and what are its medicinal properties?

 

The plant you ask about is Coleus forskohlii (also known as Plectranthus forskohlii) in the family of plants called Lamiaceae. If your growing conditions resemble those of its native range (it grows wild in parts of West Bengal), you may be able to grow this plant.

The article entitled “Development of Coleus forskohlii as a medicinal crop” (no longer available online) from the Food and Agriculture Organization gives much information of interest. Here is an excerpt:

Coleus forskohlii grows wild on sun-exposed arid and semi-arid hill slopes of the Himalayas from Simla eastward to Sikkim and Bhutan, Deccan Plateau, Eastern Ghats, Eastern Plateau and rainshadow regions of the Western Ghats in India. Latitudinal and altitudinal range for the occurrence of the species is between 8 degrees and 31 degrees N and 600-800 m respectively. The species was studied for its ecological preferences in its native habitats throughout its distribution range excluding Eastern Plateau, Sikkim and Bhutan. Before the botanical studies were undertaken, the species was studied in the regional floras and herbarium specimens were examined in seven zonal herbaria of the botanical survey of India at Dehra Dun (Himalayan flora), Allahabad (Central India flora), Shillong (northeastern India flora), Jodhpur (Rajasthan flora), Pune (western India flora), Coimbatore (southern India flora) and Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar group of islands flora), as well as at the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun and the Blatter Herbarium in Bombay. Eleven representative ecogeographic areas were selected for habitat and population studies; between 1982 and 1985, 27 botanical trips were made for the purpose. Coleus-growing areas in the Himalayas in Uttar Pradesh were visited every month from April to December, and the other areas were visited at least twice during the blooming period. The following is the summary of the observations made on different populations and habitats of C. forskohlii (Shah 1989).

C. forskohlii is a subtropical and warm temperate species naturally growing at 600-1800 m elevation

The species grows on sun-exposed hill slopes and plateaus in arid and semi-arid climatic zones

The species inhabits loamy or sandy-loam soil with 6.4 to 7.9 pH

The species is herbaceous with annual stems and perennial rootstock

The medicinal uses of this plant have not been evaluated fully for safety. Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center also has useful information about Coleus forskohlii. Here is a brief excerpt: “Very limited data are available concerning the efficacy of forskolin. Most studies performed with forskolin have been human trials; those performed on heart failure and glaucoma are inconclusive.”

As with any drug or herbal medicine, you should consult a medical professional if you have questions about its use.

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on harvesting sassafras bark for tea

When and how do I harvest bark from my Sassafras tree to make tea?

 

I would suggest proceeding with extreme caution, and talking to your physician before endeavoring to make sassafras tea. According to Medical Botany: Plants Affecting Human Health by Walter Lewis (Wiley, 2003), the active component in Sassafras albidum, safrole, is no longer generally regarded as safe. It is toxic to the liver and can cause cancer. There is information on sassafras here from the Natural Medicine Database. A now-unavailable article on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website included this description of sassafras as a tea ingredient:
“Aromatic sassafras tea, once popular as a stimulant and blood thinner and as a reputed cure for rheumatism and syphilis, causes cancer in rats when taken in large amounts. Oil of sassafras and safrole, major chemical components of the aromatic oil in sassafras root bark, were taken out of root beer more than 30 years ago. And sassafras bark was banned from use in all food. Safrole-free extract, however, is allowed in food.”

Although historical sources may discuss the best time to harvest parts of the Sassasfras plant for medicinal uses, I would recommend against using it for this purpose, given the associated health risks. Tyler’s Honest Herbal by Steven Foster and Varro Tyler says that the root bark was used as a febrifuge prior to 1512 by native dwellers in Florida. The fact that its reputation for usefulness persists is mainly due to its pleasant aroma and flavor, but the authors make clear that it is unsafe.

You are welcome to come in to the Miller Library and explore our resources on medicinal plants and herbs, but I would not advise you to follow any recipes you might find there.

khat tree intoxication

Recently I met an Ethiopian couple who were picking the reddened leaves on an otherwise green bush/tree in my front yard. The man explained this was a “cat” or “chat” tree, the leaves produce a drugged like state when ingested. He asked me if he could harvest the tree, and asked me not to tell any other Somalis, Ethiopians, or Eritreans in the neighborhood about my tree. He also told me that if I lived in Mogadishu, this tree would make me a wealthy man! He ate some leaves in front of me, and I tried a couple, but they were bitter and unpalatable to my palate. I experienced a feeling of empowerment, strength, and mental alertness. Obviously the “Chat Tree” has some relationship to the “Bongo” young Somalis chew.

During the worst of the anarchy in the late 1990s in Mogadishu there was a lot of news footage of the street gangs, high on the plant they were chewing, and armed with machine guns and machetes, creating havoc.

Do you know the history of this tree?

What are the properties that cause the intoxication?

What is the tree’s botanical name?

Should I report the tree’s existence to the authorities?

Can you tell me what I have here?

p.s.-These trees are common front garden bushes that were widely planted in Perth, Western Australia. Next time I see someone hanging out under one of them, I think I will know why!

The chat, or khat tree, is Catha edulis (Celastrus edulis), and the leaves and branchlets have properties that stimulate the central nervous system. In addition to the euphoric or inebriating properties, chewing the leaves can cause irritability, decreased appetite, gastric upset, constipation, and inflammation of the mouth. Habitual use can lead to periodontal disease, and increased risk of esophageal cancer. The active compounds are Alkaloid D-norpseudoephedrine, as well as other alkaloids, and tannins. (Source: Medical Botany: Plants Affecting Human Health by Walter H. Lewis; John Wiley & Sons, 2003, 2nd ed.)

The Handbook of Medicinal Herbs by James A. Duke (CRC Press, 2002, 2nd ed.) indicates that Catha edulis has been used medicinally to treat a great number of ailments, including asthma, depression, diarrhea, glaucoma, and low blood pressure. Use of khat is an ancient, socially acceptable tradition in the Afro-Arabian culture (and became known as a recreational drug in the USA after American soldiers were exposed to its use in Somalia. Khat is subject to legal restrictions in many countries. (Medicinal Plants of the World by Ben-Erik van Wyk; Timber Press, 2004).

As for whether to report the harvesting of leaves from your tree, that would depend on whether khat use is specifically prohibited by law in Australia.

on Artemisia ludoviciana

Can you tell me about an herb called Estafiate (I think it’s Spanish)? What would the English name be, and how is it used?

 

There isn’t always a straightforward link between a common name and a specific scientific name, but it seems that Estafiate usually refers to Artemisia ludoviciana, possibly the subspecies mexicana, which goes by several different English common names, including white sagebrush, prairie sage, Louisiana sage, and Mexican wormwood. The USDA taxonomy website has information about this plant, as does their general plant database.

Duke’s Handbook of Medicinal Plants of Latin America by James A. Duke (CRC Press, 2009) lists Estafiate as Artemisia ludoviciana and several other synonymous names. Its diverse uses include analgesic, antiseptic, and fungicidal but it also has dermatitigenic and carcinogenic properties and is elsewhere (FDA) classified as a poisonous plant. One should never attempt to use a medicinal plant without full medical knowledge and consultation with a health professional! The plant has been used by Native American (Blackfoot, Apache, Cheyenne and other tribes)as well as Mexican practitioners.

Another Spanish common name for the same or similar plant is Ajenjo, which may refer to Artemisia absinthium, which is the same plant from which Absinthe is historically derived. Missouri Botanical Garden has a website with information about this species Artemisia.

Dragon’s Blood and herbal remedies

Someone told me about an herbal remedy called Dragon’s Blood which is made of the resin of Daemonorops draco. It’s supposed to be good for relief from pain and headaches. Can you tell me more about the plant, including its medicinal uses?

 

The plant in question, Daemonorops draco, is a type of palm (Family: Arecaceae). Here is the USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network page about this plant.

The common name Dragon’s Blood can refer to a number of different plant resins (such as those derived from Dracaena cinnabari, Dracaena draco, and Croton). The product you mention says it is derived from the palm Daemonorops draco. The resin of this plant has a history of use in folk medicine. Some of the plants are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Dracaena cinnabari is listed as vulnerable, as of 2009). This may be of interest to you because often the products you find for sale are not well-regulated, and there may be no way of verifying that the list of plant ingredients is either valid or complete.

Here is an excerpt:
“Few commodity dealers properly distinguish the various botanical origins of Dragon’s Blood items, and over-exploitation is starting to threaten some sources.”

As for medicinal and other uses of substances called Dragon’s Blood, here is more information from Cropwatch.org:

“The term ‘Dragons Blood’ refers to a product obtained from the resin layer consisting of diterpene acids found on the surface of fruits of the climbing palms of the Daemonorops genus found in SE Asia, and often sold out of Sumatra, Malaya & Borneo. These reddish resinous products (usually encountered as granules, powder, lumps (‘cakes’), or sticks (‘reed’) used in folk medicine as an astringent and for wound healing etc., and in other applications for colouring essential oils red to dark brown, in varnishes, staining marble, for jewelry and enameling work, and for photo-engraving. Mabberley (1998) suggests Dragons Blood was produced originally from Dracaena cinnabari, later from D. draco and more recently from Daemonorops spp.; Zheng et al. (2004) confirm this view and suggest substitutes for Dracaena spp. include Pterocarpus spp., Daemonorops draco and Croton spp.”

There is also an article by Jane Pearson published by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (2002) on the uses of Dragon’s Blood.

Excerpts:
“The term ‘Dragons Blood’ is interchangeably used to refer to plants from three quite different families: Dracaena cinnabari (Socotra) and Dracaena draco (Canary Islands) in the Dracaenaceae family; the palm genus Daemonorops (Malaysia), and the genus Croton (South America) in the Euphorbiaceae
family. […] Although Daemonorops resin is similar in appearance, its origin and preparation are different to Dracaena resin. The fruits are covered in small imbricate scales through which the resin exudes, forming a brittle, red resinous layer on the outside of the fruits. Collection occurs just before the fruit is fully ripe. […] Although used in the same way as Dracaena, the powdered form of Daemonorops was used extensively, especially in America, as an acid resist by photo-engravers up until the 1930s. It also appears to be used in both traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese herbal folk medicine. Daemonorops is traditionally used to stimulate the circulation, promote tissue regeneration by aiding the healing of fractures, sprains and ulcers and to control bleeding and pain.” [My note: Daemonorops draco is referred to as Xue Jie in Chinese medicine.]

Please note that we are not medical professionals, so if you are considering using a substance which claims to contain Daemonorops draco, you should consult your healthcare provider. However, I can tell you that there are ongoing concerns about contamination of patented herbal remedies. University of Minnesota has information on traditional Chinese herbal medicine and related safety concerns.

on the Mucuna species

I saw an interesting flowering vine growing in Japan, and I am wondering what it is and if I can grow it here in Seattle. It has very dark purple (almost black) claw-like flowers and fuzzy stems. Is it purely ornamental, or does it have other uses?

 

The plant you saw is a species of Mucuna, probably Mucuna pruriens or Mucuna nigricans. M. pruriens has various common names: velvet bean, and cowhage or cowitch (from the Hindi name, kiwach, which means “bad rubbing,” and refers to the extreme itching—pruritus–that contact with the stinging hairs on the pods causes). You might be able to obtain seeds and grow it here as an annual, but it prefers tropical regions and is native to southern China and eastern India.

The plant has uses in Ayurvedic medicine and is also considered an analog of the hallucinogenic ayahuasca. According to the scientific article “The Magic Velvet Bean of Mucuna pruriens“ (Lampariello et al. Journal of Traditional Complementary Medicine, 2012 Oct-Dec), the pods are used as a vegetable for human consumption, and its young leaves are used as animal fodder in parts of Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and America.

Strangely, the beans are sometimes used with malice, to cause discomfort, as this information from the Centers for Disease Control explains:
“On October 6, 1985, a Paterson, New Jersey, Fire Department ambulance responded to a call reporting two people with severe pruritus. On arrival, the two emergency medical technicians (EMTs) found a Spanish-speaking couple living above a beauty salon who described severe itching, which they attributed to ‘voodoo beans’ found in their beds. They displayed several fuzzy bean pods. Soon after their arrival, the EMTs developed pruritus. All four individuals went to an emergency room complaining of itching and skin discomfort. On examination, both members of the couple had erythematous macular rashes on their extremities and bodies; the EMTs had rashes on their arms. There were no respiratory problems. Because of the unknown etiology of the symptoms, two were given epinephrine injections; the others received antihistamines and topical steroid cream. Symptoms resolved within 1-2 hours of treatment. The admitting nurse, who put an arm around one patient, developed a pruritic erythematous area on her inner forearm approximately 20 minutes later. This resolved an hour after washing her skin with soap and water. A policeman who went to the apartment and a worker who collected trash outside the following day also developed itching and received similar emergency-room treatment. Patrons and employees of the shop below and neighbors of the couple had no similar symptoms over the 2-day period.”

If you do decide to grow this interesting plant, only handle it while wearing substantial gloves.

The seeds of some species of Mucuna (those called “sea beans”) are used in making jewelry. Here is an excerpt from Wayne’s Word (a natural history website):
“[the flowers] are pollinated by night-flying bats that sip the sweet nectar and transfer pollen from one plant to another. After pollination, the ovary of each flower develops into a legume pod containing several large seeds resembling miniature hamburgers. They have a hard, thick, woody seed coat which makes them impervious to water. Internal air cavities also make them buoyant in water. The conspicuous, dark, central attachment scar (hilum) produces the layered appearance, and their superficial resemblance to a miniature hamburger. Sea beans are washed down gullies and creeks where they are carried into rivers that eventually flow into the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. The buoyant seeds drift for months (or years) at sea, eventually washing ashore on the sandy beaches of a distant continent or tropical island. They are often collected and polished by natives and made into lovely necklaces and bracelets.”