Following Elecampane
https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/07/following-elecampane.html
Elecampane is an herb with very ancient use. Its Latin name, Inula helenium, relates to a legend that Helen of Troy was gathering this herb when she was abducted by Paris. Pliny stated that no day passed that the Empress Julia Augusta did not eat some of the candied
root to help her “digestion and cause mirth”. Dioscorides wrote of Helenium in
de Materia Medica:
A decoction (taken as a drink) induces the movement of urine and the menstrual flow. The root itself (taken in a syrup with honey) helps coughs, asthma, hernias, convulsions, gaseousness, and the bites of venomous creatures, being generally warming. The leaves boiled in wine are effectively applied to those who have sciatica. The root is good for the stomach preserved in passum [raisin wine]. The confectioners, drying it a little and afterwards boiling it, then steep it in cold water and put it into a decoction they keep in jars for use. Pounded and taken in a drink it is good for bloody excretions. It is also called symphyton, persica, medica, orestion, nectarion, cleonia, rubus idaeus or verbascum idaeum; the Romans call it terminalium, others, inula campana, and the Egyptians call it lone.
He also recommended a wine made front his herb:
Nectarites is made from elecampane. Tie five ounces of dried elecampane root in a linen cloth, put it into six gallons of must, and after three months take it out. It is good for the stomach and chest, and expels urine. It is also called medica, symphytum, idaeum verbascum, orestion, or nectarion.
In the monastic medicine of the Middle Ages, Elecampane seems to have been used more for colds and respiratory issues. Saint Hildegard von Bingen wrote of this herb around 1100 AD:
Elecampagne is of both hot and dry nature, and has beneficial powers in it. Dry or green, it may be put in pure wine all year long. After it has shriveled in the wine its powers have faded, and it should be thrown out and replaced by new. One who has pain in his lungs should drink this wine in moderation every day, before and after eating. It carries away poisons from the lungs, suppresses migraine and clears the eyes. But, if someone drinks this frequently, it would injure him by its strength.
Brother Aloysius, a member of the monastery Monseigneur Savelberg in Heerlen, wrote in Comfort To the Sick in 1901:
The root is used medicinally. It has a strong, aromatic, penetrating smell. Its sap is sour and bitter. The roots of two or three year old plants should be gathered in the autumn, finely chopped and dried in the oven. The root decoction consists of 4 to 5 teaspoons per 2 cups water and may be used fruitfully for the treatment of leukorrhea and green sickness. Take one cup daily. The decoction also stimulates appetite and dissolves phlegm; it is recommended for asthma, lung complaints, flatulence, heartburn, catarrh, dropsy indigestion and irregular menstruation in young girls. It can also be applied externally for itching eczema and scabies.
The British Herbalists made good use of Elecampane. Gerard wrote of its virtues:
A. It is good for shortness of breath, and an old cough, and for such as cannot breathe unless they hold their necks upright.
B. It is of great virtue both given in a lohoch, which is a medicine to be licked on, and likewise preserved, as also otherwise given to purge and void out thick, tough, and clammy humours, which stick in the chest and lungs.
C. The root preserved is good and wholesome for the stomach: being taken after supper it doth not only help digestion, but also keepeth the belly soluble.
D. The juice of the same boiled, driveth forth all kind of worms of the belly, as Pliny teacheth: who also writeth in his twentieth book, and fifth chapter, the same being chewed fasting, doth fasten the teeth.
E. The root of Elecampane is with good success mixed with counterpoisons: it is a remedy against the bitings of serpents, it resisteth poison: it is good for them that are bursten, and troubled with cramps and convulsions.
F. Some also affirm, that the decoction thereof; and likewise the same beaten into powder and mixed with honey in manner of an ointment, doth cleanse and heal up old ulcers.
G. Galen saith, that herewith the parts are to be made red, which be vexed with long & cold griefs; as are divers passions of the huckle bones called the sciatica, and little and continual bunnies and looseness of certain joints, by reason of overmuch moisture.
H. The decoction of Enula drunken, provoketh urine, and is good for them that are grieved with inward burstings, or have any member out of joint.
I. The root taken with honey or sugar, made in an electuary, cleanseth the breast, ripeneth tough phlegm, and maketh it easy to be spat forth, and prevaileth mightily against the cough and shortness of breath, comforteth the stomach also, and helpeth digestion.
K. The roots condited after the manner of Eringos serveth for the purposes aforesaid.
L. The root of Enula boiled very soft and mixed in a mortar with fresh butter and the powder of ginger, maketh an excellent ointment against the itch, scabs, manginess, and such like.
M. The roots are to be gathered in the end of September and kept for sundry uses, but it is especially preserved by those that make succade and such like.
Apparently the ancient Druids associated Elecampane with Elves, by the time John K’eogh wrote The Botanalogia Universalis Hibernica or A General Irish Herbal in 1735, its uses were more practical and less fanciful:
It provokes urination and menstruation, cures consumptive coughs and shortness of breath, aids digestion, alleviates pains in the joints, and made into an ointment, cures itchy conditions. It is also very good for chest problems, and cures most disorders of the lungs, such as difficulty or suspension of breathing, hurried respiration and asthma.
Mrs. Grieves goes deepest into the history:
Elecampane was known to the ancient writers on agriculture and natural history, and even the Roman poets were acquainted with it, and mention Inula as affording a root used both as a medicine and a condiment. Horace, in the Eighth Satire, relates how Fundanius first taught the making of a delicate sauce by boiling in it the bitter Inula, and how the Romans, after dining too richly, pined for turnips and the appetizing Enulas acidas:
'Quum rapula plenus
Atque acidas mavult inulas.'
Inula, the Latin classical name for the plant, is considered to be a corruption of the Greek word Helenion which in its Latinized form, Helenium, is also now applied to the same species. There are many fables about the origin of this name. Gerard tells us: 'It took the name Helenium of Helena, wife of Menelaus, who had her hands full of it when Paris stole her away into Phrygia.' Another legend states that it sprang from her tears: another that Helen first used it against venomous bites; a fourth, that it took the name from the island Helena, where the best plants grew.
Vegetius Renatus about the beginning of the fifth century, calls it Inula campana, and St. Isidore, in the beginning of the seventh, names it Inula, adding 'quam Alam rustici vocant.' By the mediaeval writers it was often written Enula. Elecampane is a corruption of the ante-Linnaean name Enula campana, so called from its growing wild in Campania.
The herb is of ancient medicinal repute, having been described by Dioscorides and Pliny. An old Latin distich celebrates its virtues: Enula campana reddit praecordia sana (Elecampane will the spirits sustain). 'Julia Augustus,' said Pliny, 'let no day pass without eating some of the roots of Enula, considered to help digestion and cause mirth.' The monks equally esteemed it as a cordial. Pliny affirmed that the root 'being chewed fasting, doth fasten the teeth,' and Galen that 'It is good for passions of the hucklebone called sciatica.'
Dioscorides, in speaking of Castus root, related that it is often mixed with that of Elecampane, from Kommagene (N.W. Syria) (Castus, derived from Aplotaxis auriculata (D.C.), is remarkably similar to Elecampane, both in external appearance and structure. It is an important spice, incense and medicine in the East.)
Elecampane is frequently mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon writings on medicine current in England prior to the Norman Conquest; it is also the 'Marchalan' of the Welsh physicians of the thirteenth century, and was generally known during the Middle Ages.
It was formally cultivated in all private herb-gardens, as a culinary and medicinal plant, and it is still to be found in old cottage gardens. Not only was its root much employed as a medicine, but it was also candied and eaten as a sweetmeat. Dr. Fernie tells us, in Herbal Simples:
'Some fifty years ago, the candy was sold commonly in London as flat, round cakes being composed largely of sugar and coloured with cochineal. A piece was eaten each night and morning for asthmatical complaints, whilst it was customary when travelling by a river, to suck a bit of the root against poisonous exalations and bad air. The candy may still be had from our confectioners, but now containing no more of the plant Elecampane than there is of barley in Barley Sugar.'
In Denmark, Elecampane is sometimes called Elf-Doc. Here one sometimes comes across the name Elf-Dock locally, also Elfwort.
Medicinal Action and Uses---Diuretic, tonic, diaphoretic, expectorant, alterative, antiseptic, astringent and gently stimulant. It was employed by the ancients in certain diseases of women, also in phthisis, in dropsy and in skin affections. Its name 'Scabwort' arose from the fact that a decoction of it is said to cure sheep affected with the scab, and the name 'Horse-heal' was given it from its reputed virtues in curing the cutaneous diseases of horses.
In herbal medicine it is chiefly used for coughs, consumption and other pulmonary complaints, being a favourite domestic remedy for bronchitis. It has been employed for many years with good results in chest affections, for which it is a valuable medicine as it is in all chronic diseases of the lungs asthma and bronchitis. It gives relief to the respiratory difficulties and assists expectoration. Its principal employment as a separate remedy is in acute catarrhal affections, and in dyspepsia attended with relaxation and debility, given in small, warm and frequently repeated doses. It is, however, seldom given alone, but most frequently preferred in combination with other medicines of a similar nature. It is best given in the form of decoction, the dose being a small teaspoonful, three times a day.
The root used not only to be candied and eaten as a sweetmeat, but lozenges were made of it. It has been employed in whooping-cough. It is sometimes employed in the form of a confection for piles, 1 OZ. of powdered root being mixed with 2 OZ. of honey.
In the United States, it has also been highly recommended, both for external use and internal administration in diseases of the skin, an old use of the root that has maintained its reputation for efficacy.
Externally applied, it is somewhat rubefacient, and has been employed as an embrocation in the treatment of sciatica, facial and other neuralgia.
Of late years, modern scientific research has proved that the claims of Elecampane to be a valuable remedy in pulmonary diseases has a solid basis. One authority, Korab, showed in 1885 that the active, bitter principle, Helenin, is such a powerful antiseptic and bactericide, that a few drops of a solution of 1 part in 10,000 immediately kills the ordinary bacterial organisms, being peculiarly destructive to the Tubercle bacillus. He gave it successfully in tubercular and catarrhal diarrhoeas, and praised it also as an antiseptic in surgery. In Spain it has been made use of as a surgical dressing. Obiol, in 1886, stated it to be an efficient local remedy in the treatment of diphtheria, the false membrane being painted with a solution of Helenin in Oil of Almond.
Plants for A Future lists Elecampane's modern use as:
Elecampane has a long history of use as a medicinal herb. A gently warming and tonic herb, it is especially effective in treating coughs, consumption, bronchitis and many other complaints of the chest as well as disorders of the digestive system. A very safe herb to use, it is suitable for the old and the young and especially useful when the patient is debilitated. It cleanses toxins from the body, stimulating the immune and digestive systems and treating bacterial and fungal infections. The root is alterative, anthelmintic, antiseptic, astringent, bitter, cholagogue, demulcent, diaphoretic, diuretic, mildly expectorant, gently stimulant, stomachic, tonic. It is best harvested in the autumn from plants that are two years old, and it can be dried for later use. The roots should be at least 3 years old according to another report. This remedy should not be prescribed for pregnant women. An extract of the plant is a powerful antiseptic and bactericide, particularly effective against the organism that causes TB. The root contains alantolactone, which is strongly anthelmintic. In a 1:1000 dilution it kills the parasitic worm Ascaris in 16 hours. Alantolactone has an anti-inflammatory action, it also reduces mucous secretions and stimulates the immune system. The plant is sometimes recommended as an external wash for skin inflammations and varicose ulcers, but has been known to cause allergic reactions.
Once again, among the bitter herbs, we find a remarkably useful plant with a storied history. The knowledge of Elecampane's edible and medicinal use seems to have been transferred to Rome through the Greek herbalists, and then spread with the
footprint of the Roman empire, in central Europe and England. The knowledge of its medicinal use was expanded and refined by the monks and nuns in the Monastic Medicine tradition and the folk medicine that followed. Although Elecampane is often considered as a weed in America, it is an important an herb that should be better known and more commonly used.
Author: Judson Carroll. Judson Carroll is an Herbalist from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. His weekly articles may be read at
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Disclaimer
The information on this site is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing on this site has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I am not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and their is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm just a guy who studies herbs. I am not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write is accurate or true! I can tell you what herbs have "traditionally been used for." I can tell you my own
experience and if I believe an herb helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use any herb I, or anyone else, mentions you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, sensitivity or underlying condition that no one else shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to read my blog you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices and not to blame me for anything, ever.
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