Favoured by the Celts
Figwort (Scrophularia nodosa, throatwort or rosenoble) is a perennial herb member of the Scrophulariaceae family, growing to about 1.5m in rich, moist, woodland areas of Europe and North America. It is a flimsy plant with a thick, swollen rhizome, pointed stem-leaves, green and purple summer flowers that turn to small, round seed capsules.
Its generic name is derived from the disease scrofula (tuberculosis of the lymph glands in the neck), otherwise known as The King’s Evil, so called because it was believed that the affliction could be cured by the ruling monarch laying his hands on the patient.
Figwort was a favoured herb of the Celtic people, used to treat skin eruptions and improve milk flow in nursing mothers. It was part of Celtic mythology that hanging the plant over the cattle bier would ensure a plentiful supply of milk (Gaelic poem; Folas an Torranain).
Culpeper states “…without peer, for the King’s Evil, or any knobs, kernels, bunches or wens, growing in the flesh, wheresoever; and for the piles”.
Early American settlers used the plant to treat topical and hepatic disorders, gangrene, dropsy and secondary stage syphilis. The native American Ohlone shamen of California, treated goitre and hypotension with extracts from the root.
The plant contains flavanoids, irridoids and phenolic acids, which render it alterative, diuretic, lymphatic, vulnerary, anti-inflammatory and a cardiac stimulant. It is now a herbal treatment for skin eruptions, scrofulous eczema, psoriasis, pemphigus (itching fluid filled blisters), swollen glands, piles, appendicitis, lumps in the breast, mastitis, topical ulcers, boils, burns and slow healing wounds.
A Chinese relative, Scrofularia buergeriana, is used by their herbalists to combat malaria and typhoid fever.
A recent research programme conducted by Professor Monique Simmonds of the Jodrell laboratory at Kew is investigating the ability of the plant to cure jungle ulcers. It was found that the irridoids in the plant stimulate the production of fibroblasts, the cells in connective tissue that synthesise collagen, essential for wound healing. Irridoids are the plant chemicals that protect against infection and insect activity.
Quite an interesting little plant.
There is a contra-indication for tachycardia (rapid heart beat).
Next week Blackcurrant
