White Deadnettle (Lamium Album)
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Family: Lamiaceae
Part used: aerial parts
Lamium album L. is a spreading perennial, common in Britain, found by roadsides and on rough ground in »ny and shady sites. The Flora of Turkey gives 27 Lamium species, including Lamium album and Lamium purpureum.
Erect, pubescent, square stems (to 25 cm) bear opposite, fresh-green, dentate, stalked leaves. White flowers occur in whorls. The tubed corolla (2 cm) has a curved upper lip, the lower lip has two to three teeth on each side and the calyx is five-toothed. The flowers are creamy-yellow in bud. It flowers for long periods from early spring.
Other species used
Culpeper lists white, yellow and red deadnettles. Yellow deadnettle Lamium galeobdolon, syn. Lamiastrum galeobdolon or Galeobdolon luteum is a perennial plant of woodlands. It has yellow flowers and taller stems than the white deadnettle. Culpeper describes red deadnettle as an annual with pale, reddish flowers. This is probably Lamium purpureum L, which is a common weed.
The Galeopsis genus is closely related and some descriptions could be of common hemp-nettle, Galeopsis tetrahit L, which is native to Europe and Western Asia and grows on disturbed sites or roadsides. It is a herbaceous annual with hairy Read more [...]
White Deadnettle: Elusive Identity
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The first difficulty is the usual one of which plant is Dioscorides' lamium and does it correspond to Pliny or anyone else. There is an amount of dispute. Beck identifies Dioscorides' 'leukas' (III 99) as deadnettle, but this is tentative, and comes with a question mark in the index against the Latin binomial. There is little description in Dioscorides' text beyond that the one growing in mountains has wider leaves than the cultivated, is more potent and its fruit is more pungent, bitter and less tasty. Its actions are only against venoms of animals, topically or drunk. Mattioli suggests this text is obviously corrupt and several things are missing. Pliny speaks of lamium' and, according to Dodoens of'anonium' or 'aononium', which with salt will heal contusions and blows, burns and swollen glands, swellings, gout and wounds; and the white it has in its leaves will heal the sacred fires (St Anthony's fire). The trouble is Dioscorides (IV 94) also has an entry called 'galeopsis', otherwise 'galepsis' or 'galeobdolon'. Even the origin of the word is disputed. Mattioli criticises Fuchs' suggestion that the name comes from galea, a helmet, saying that galea is a Latin word, not a Greek one, and the Greeks, 'having no want Read more [...]
White Deadnettle: Renaissance Debate And Use
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The question of identification becomes critical in the Renaissance texts, yet remains elusive. Fuchs distinguishes three types of deadnettle: white deadnettle, lamium proper; spotted deadnettle with purple flowers, Lamium maculatum; and yellow archangel, Lamium galeobdolon. Turner writes only of Lamium album, dede nettle urtica iners/mortua/alba, archangelica. Dodoens has a title archangel or deadnettle, of which there are two kinds: the first, which does not smell, of which there are three sorts, with white, yellow and reddish flowers; the second has a strong and stinking savour, of which there are two sorts which differ only in flower color, one being pale, the other of a brown red color, smaller than the flowers of the first deadnettle. This does sound rather like a figwort. Dale-champs distinguishes between lamium, which has white flowers growing by walls and footpaths or yellow flowers growing in shady wooded places, and galiopsis, the foetid deadnettle with purple flowers. He says of galiopsis 'the Ancients and those after them were familiar with the notable qualities of this deadnettle, which was easily distinguished from lamium and the like... yet the images of the species here do not differentiate to my untrained Read more [...]
White Deadnettle: Later Confusion
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Grieve is no less confusing. There is an entry for white deadnettle with no medicinal uses appended, followed by purple deadnettle with medicinal actions and uses ― decoction of herb and flowers for haemorrhage, leaves to staunch wounds, dried herb as tea with honey to promote perspiration and act on kidneys, useful in cases of chill. Then, under a subheading 'other species', henbit, spotted deadnettle and hempnettle are described. This is followed by a quote from Gerard on white archangel after which the next heading, 'parts used medicinally', begins 'the whole herb collected...', but which herb is meant here is far from clear. Then a further 'medicinal actions and uses' confuses the picture even more. Whichever plant (or plants) is meant, it is astringent in nature, Grieve tells us, and used for stopping haemorrhage, spitting of blood and dysentery. The decoction of the flowers is a blood purifier for rashes, eczema etc., but no source is cited. Reputations from the tradition then follow – healing green wounds, bruises and burns. Culpeper and others follow, on lifting spirits, against quartan agues, and bleeding of nose and mouth applied to nape of neck. She rehearses use in the past for hardness of spleen, the Read more [...]
White Deadnettle: Research Application
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White deadnettle has been used in two randomized controlled trials; but yet again the results do not help in formulating recommendations. In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in Israel, 49 patients with atopic dermatitis (age and sex not given) were treated for 2 weeks with a proprietary product containing Lamium album, Achillea millefolium and Eleutherococcus senticosus (dried herb, ethanolic extracts). Patients were monitored for 8 weeks and assessed using the SCORAD scale and 44 people completed the trial. Improvement was similar for the treatment and placebo groups and was maintained after the active treatment period. The trial is interesting because there was a significant response to both the treatment and the placebo. Details of the placebo were not reported. Two weeks is a very short treatment period in atopic dermatitis and this is not a formulation which would necessarily be widely chosen in Britain, although the formulation was based on the experience of herbalists.
In the second randomized controlled trial, white dead-nettle was used as the placebo in a trial of urtication in arthritis and proved not as inert as the designers had hoped, illustrating some of the problems of determining a placebo in Read more [...]
White Deadnettle: Modern Use
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Modern texts, if the herb appears in them at all, mainly limit themselves to white deadnettle, but vary quite widely in their range of applications. Chevallier cites Gerard on lifting the spirits but restricts his internal uses mainly to women's complaints. It is, he says, astringent and demulcent, used as a uterine tonic, to stop intermenstrual bleeding and menorrhagia; traditionally for vaginal discharge; sometimes taken to relieve painful periods. It can be taken against diarrhoea and externally used for varicose veins and haemorrhages. Wood cites Hill, Weiss and a 19th century UK herbalist who records the familiar traditional uses of helping the spleen, whites, flooding, nose bleeds, spitting blood, haemorrhages, green wounds, bruises and burns. The source of some of his specific indications ― cough, bronchitis, pleurisy, inflamed prostate, anaemia -is unclear, given his text. Menzies-Trull covers a broad range of uses, although there is no specific discussion of them. Bartram too gives a broad sweep, designating the flowering tops haemostatic, astringent, diuretic, expectorant, anti-inflammatory, vulnerary, antispasmodic and menstrual regulator, with uses including heavy and painful menstrual bleeding, cystitis, Read more [...]
Paeony (Paeonia Officinalis)
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Family: Paeoniaceae
Part used: root
Paeonia are long-lived, hardy, robust herbaceous perennials. The two main European species are Paeonia officinalis L. subsp. officinalis, 'female paeony', which is found from France across to the Balkans and Paeonia mascula (L.) Mill., 'male paeony', which is found around the Mediterranean and in Greece, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq and Iran. A remnant population of introduced Paeonia mascula persists on Steep Holm, an island in the Bristol Channel. Both species contain several subspecies, which are described and illustrated by Halda (2004) and Page (2005). The two species hybridize if grown together. Both species are considered to be close relatives to Paeonia lactiflora. The Flora of Turkey gives six Paeonia species, including Paeonia mascula but not including Paeonia officinalis.
Paeonia mascula has stiff stems (to 75 cm) which bear large compound leaves and the plant forms large clumps. Solitary, large, single, red terminal flowers with up to 10 petals and numerous yellow stamens occur in April. Three to five smooth, curved seed pods split to reveal bright pink unfertilized ovules and shiny, blue-black fertilized seeds.
Paeonia officinalis is similar with deeply cut divided Read more [...]
Which Paeony?
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Dioscorides (III 140) identified two forms of paeony used in medicine: the male, with leaves like those of walnut, the root the thickness of a finger, white and astringent to taste, and the female, with leaves split like those of Cretan Alexanders and a root with seven to eight tubers like acorns. These are good descriptions of Paeonia mascula and Paeonia officinalis, respectively. With the description of the pods on the top of the stems like almonds, containing red seeds like pomegranate and five or six black seeds tending to purple, we have a clear and unequivocal description of the medicinal plant. This description is also given by Ibn Sina.
The Renaissance authors give similar descriptions and generally agree that the female paeony Paeonia ojficinalis is commonly grown but the male paeony is unusual. Turner records seeing the female paeony in England, Germany and Antwerp. Fuchs distinguishes the two types and states that they are mainly found in gardens but also occur in the wild in the mountains in France, Switzerland and from the Tyrol in northern Italy to northern Albania, which interestingly is the same as the distribution given by Halda (2004) for Paeonia officinalis. Mattioli confirms that it is usually Read more [...]
Paeony: Seeds, Roots And Flowers
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The decoction of root in wine is recommended by Dioscorides for 'belly aches', the jaundiced, kidney disease and 'those smarting in the bladder'. Astringency is referred to in the taste and Dioscorides states that boiled down in wine it stops diarrhoea, advice which is given by Galen too. The recommendation of an extract in wine is repeated by later authors. A compound medicine of 76 ingredients, including paeony, Potio sancti Pauli, is given in The Trotula for disease of the head and was used for 'epileptics, analeptics, cataleptics' with wine in which mixed paeony had been boiled. Pliny refers to use of paeony root as a food. He gives this after referring to a decoction in wine for the trachea and stomach, and with an astringent action on the bowels. Macer makes a similar suggestion of a mixture in honey water with powdered coriander for the stomach, spleen and kidney gravel. Macer and the Salernitan herbal suggest external use of the powder placed on the anus with a cloth for tenesmus caused by cold. Hildegard says that the crushed root in wine will chase away the tertian and quartan fevers, while the root in flour with lard or poppyseed oil as a porridge will act as a preventative.
Dioscorides, Pliny and Ibn Read more [...]
Paeony: Convulsions And Nightmares
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Following its general 'cleansing' role and its specific use in menstruation, paeony has a more extraordinary application in the literature for nightmares and potential use in epilepsy. The name comes from a powerful god and suggests a deeper meaning to the herb. Paeon, an ancient god of healing, is famous for healing the wounds of the gods themselves when they foolishly become embroiled in the world of humans. When the gods took to the field in the Trojan war, he healed Ares, god of war, wounded fighting on the side of the Trojans. He gave Ares 'such sovereign medicines that as soon the pain was qualified ... as fast as rennet curdles milk' and the sides of the wound were reunited. Paeon used herbs to heal. In fact Macurdy (1912) argues that the word is associated with the Paioniae tribal group of northern Greece, who were designated herb-gatherers as they were from the north.
Both Dioscorides and Pliny refer to the familiar 15 black seeds. Dioscorides says simply for 'those who gasp from nightmares,' expressed by Turner as 'against the strangling of the nightmare'. Pliny, for the seeds taken in wine, has a more fanciful expression 'this plant also prevents the mocking delusions that the Fauns bring on us in our Read more [...]