Plant of the week: Herb Christopher

Name: Herb Christopher (Actaea spicata)

Otherwise known as: Baneberry, Bugbane, Toadroot

Habitat: A herbaceous, perennial member of the Ranunculaceae family growing up to 60cm in moist, shady, forest soil in Europe and west Asia. The plant has toothed, bi-pinnate, compound leaves, erect racemes of white compound flowers that transform into clusters of shiny black, multi-seeded berries that give off an offensive acrid smell. The fruits are extremely poisonous to humans and grazing mammals but harmless to birds.

What does it do: Herb Christopher contains powerful alkaloids that act as cardio-toxins and are capable of stopping the heart: in medieval times it featured prominently in the armoury of poisons employed by witches and physicians that were involved in selling potions to those wishing to remove a rival or enemy as its effect was to give the appearance of a cardiac arrest; apparently very popular in Italy.

Early herbalists used essences from the root, which is only mildly toxic, to treat nervous hysteria in young women and as a cure for catarrh. The plant is anti-rheumatic and anti-spasmodic, but is now only used in homeopathic medicine to treat such ailments as vertigo, rheumatic joints in the extremities, lassitude, goiter and asthma. In Europe and Asia it is a common remedy for snake-bite. An American species, White Cohosh (Actaea alba), is known as ‘Rattle-herb’, the berries being made into a poultice and wrapped around the bite wound; according to the ‘Eclectics’, a group of pioneering settler physicians that studied native American medicine, it was most effective.

The leaves of Herb Christopher were a popular strewing remedy for repelling fleas, lice and bed-bugs, it was also claimed that the smell of the plant could free a house of mice and rats. Interestingly, it has the opposite effect on toads that are sometimes found harbouring within its roots.

The berries yield a black dye and were used by country girls to make an early form of mascara.

Next dangerous plant         Bitter Apple

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