Elecampane (Inula helenium, Scabwort) is a perennial member of the Asteraceae, growing to about 2m in moist soil in shady areas. A native of Asia Minor, it now grows throughout temperate regions. The plant is grown for its root, which, when fresh, smells of bananas. It displays large yellow flowers that can measure up to 10cm. across on slender stems which contain large pointed green leaves with grey velvety underside.
The plant’s name is believed to originate with Helen who was supposedly carrying the flower when she made off with Paris for Troy.
The Romans valued it as a food, which could be candied and as a cure for chest infections. Gypsies have used it for centuries to control horses and to improve the equine immune system, probably just prior to sale.
Culpepper claimed ‘It has no equal in curing whooping cough in children’.
Many Mediterranean countries use it to treat amenorrhea, which means it should not be taken when pregnant or breast feeding. The Russians preserve the root in vodka and apply it to the chest for bronchitis.
The main constituents are inulin, triterpenes, polyacetylenes, phytosterols and a volatile oil that contains alantolactone. The plant is alterative, anti-septic, anti-catarrhal, diaphoretic, anthelmintic and bactericidal. It has a long history in folk medicine for relieving advanced chest diseases such as silicosis, pneumoconiosis and emphysema by removing mucous from the chest cavity. Elecampane has also featured as a folk cure for tuberculosis so it was not surprising that in l999 a team of medical researchers in Germany discovered that alantolactone was effective against the tuberculosis mycobacterium.
Apart from being a treatment for chest ailments it is an appetite stimulent and effective against tonsillitis in children. It is also given to children to expel pin and threadworms. The oil which is distilled from the dried root is a powerful insecticide, which is how the plant is mainly used in Cyprus. We have a related species, Inula viscosa, known locally as ‘konysos’, which is now in flower. It has closely packed yellow flowers and the leaves and stems are extremely aromatic and sticky to touch, and can be found all over the island. Once thought to treat gonorrhoea, it is still used in the villages to repel mosquitos and other flying insects; the leaves and stems are rubbed on bed-heads, windows and doorframes.
Next week Eucalyptus
