Contents:
Common Names | Parts Usually Used | Plant(s) & Culture | Where Found | Medicinal Properties | Biochemical Information
Legends, Myths and Stories | Uses | Formulas or Dosages | How Sold | Bibliography
Scientific Names
- Rubia tinctorum L.
- Rubiaceae
- Madder family
Common Names
- Dyer’s madder
- European madder
Parts Usually Used
Rootstock
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture
Madder is a European herbaceous perennial plant; a cylindrical, reddish-brown, creeping rootstock up to 3 feet long produces several angular prostrate or climbing stem s, as long as 8 feet, which bear lanceolate leaves in whorls of 4-6. The flowers are small and yellow-green, in clusters on spikes which top the stalks.
Another variety: Used in Ayurvedic medicine, the Indian madder(R. cordifolia), in Sanskrit the name is Manjishta, Chinese name Ch’ien-ts’ao or Qian cao, has similar properties and uses as European madder (Rubia tinctorum).
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Where Found
Grows in the Mediterranean area, native to southern Europe and western Asia.
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Medicinal Properties
Alternative, astringent, deobstruent, diuretic, emmenagogue
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Biochemical Information
Purpurin, pseudopurpurin, manjistin, alizarin
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Legends, Myths and Stories
Madder is a plant known almost exclusively as a dye plant. The long fleshy root, when dried and milled, yields a variety of colors: red, pink, brown, orange, black, lilac, and purple, depending upon the mordant used. Madder has been raised commercially for its dye value.
The trousers of the French soldiers of the 19th century and the head coverings of the Turks, the fezzes, once were dyed red with madder. This striking coloring agent held its own until aniline dyes came along.
It is the roots that contain the red coloring–today we know that it is due to anthraquinone derivatives.
Madder is one of the oldest coloring agents known to us; it was used in pre-Christian times by the Egyptians, Persians, and Indians.
Like many other Mediterranean plants, madder was brought across the Alps by Benedictine monks, and Charlemagne, in his capitulary on the management of his landed estates, called for it to be grown within his domain.
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Uses
Madder is useful for all problems with the urinary tract, particularly where the urine becomes alkaline. It has been used for rickets, slow-healing broken bones, inflammations, lack of appetite, diarrhea, dropsy, jaundice, blood purifier, and fever. Externally, a decoction of madder can be used for skin problems, especially tubercular conditions of the skin and mucous tissue.
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Formulas or Dosages
The rootstock is collected when it is 3 to 6 years old.
Infusion: 1 tsp. fresh or dried root to 1 cup water. Take 1 to 1 1/2 cups per day.
Decoction: boil 1 1/2 to 2 oz. rootstock in 4 to 6 qt. water for use as a bath additive.
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How Sold
Capsules
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Bibliography
The Complete Medicinal Herbal
Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs
Chinese Medicinal Herbs
The Healing Plants
The Herb Book
Herbal Gardening, compiled by The Robison York State Herb Garden, Cornell Plantations, Matthaei Botanical Gardens of the University of Michigan, University of California Botanical Garden, Berkeley., Pantheon Books, Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994, first edition
Indian Uses of Native Plants
The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine
Planetary Herbology
The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine
Webster’s New World Dictionary
The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book)
