Elecampane

Parts Usually Used

Roots, leaves, flowers

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Elecampane is a perennial plant 4-8 feet tall; the fibrous, top-shaped rootstock is brown outside and white inside. The stout, round stem is coarse and woolly, 3-6 feet high, and bears large, alternate, ovate, serrate, olive-colored leaves with white veins; tacky to the touch. The large, bright yellow flower heads 4 inches across, daisy-like, are solitary or grow in paniculate clusters from July to September.

The fruit is a brown, quadrangular achene. The whole plant exudes a pungent odor similar to camphor; stalks have a bitter aromatic taste. This plant is similar in appearance to horseradish.

Where Found

Cultivated and also grows wild along roadsides and in fields, roadsides, and waste places, usually in sandy-moist soil, eastward from Minnesota and Missouri and northward from North Carolina. Elecampane is not a native of the United States, a European and Asian plant, but has been thoroughly naturalized, having come here with the earliest immigrants. Indigenous to North China, Mongolia, Manchuria, and Korea and various places in Japan.

Medicinal Properties

Anthelmintic, antispasmodic, analgesic, cholagogue, diuretic, diaphoretic, expectorant, stimulant, aromatic, astringent, tonic, carminative, antiseptic, alterative, deobstruent, laxative, antiemetic, stomachic, emmenagogue

Biochemical Information

Essential oil, bitter principles, resin, inulin, carbohydrate

Legends, Myths and Stories

Way back in Roman times, Pliny told of the fact that the use of elecampane would relieve indigestion. Elecampane was one of the most important herbs to the Greeks and Romans. It was regarded as almost a cure-all for dropsy, digestive upsets, menstrual disorders and sciatica. The Anglo-Saxons used the herb as a tonic, for skin diseases, and leprosy. By the 19th century, it was used to treat skin disease, neuralgia, liver problems, and coughs.

Today it is used almost exclusively for respiratory problems. In China, Inula japonica, also called elecampane, is used instead of I. helenium.

Uses

Historically, elecampane tea was used by herbalists to quiet coughs, stimulate digestion, and tone the stomach, as well as for dyspepsia, asthma, hay fever, urinary and respiratory tract inflammation, sciatica, and menstrual complaints. When combined with echinacea, it was traditionally recommended for respiratory conditions, flu, and general inflammation. External applications of the tea were utilized for wounds, sores, canker sores, acne, age spots, and freckles.

Herbal traditions also employed elecampane oil as an expectorant for coughs, respiratory conditions, upset stomach, intestinal catarrh, cystitis, and chronic diarrhea. A decoction or tincture of the root was historically administered for intestinal parasites, while external washes and fomentations were applied to rashes, scabies, and itchy skin conditions. Additionally, elecampane was used as an inhalation or nasal wash for catarrh, and the plant was incorporated into ointments intended for rheumatic aches and pains.

Historical references also noted an association between elecampane, due to its inulin content, and the modulation of blood-sugar levels.

How Sold

Health food stores, herbal shops Sometimes the whole plant can be purchased in Chinese herbal shops.

Bibliography

The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. , Loma Linda, CA 92354, Original copyright 1939, revised edition 1994 Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R. , Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973 The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs , by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814) Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A.

, Pantheon Books, Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994, first edition The Magic of Herbs , by David Conway, published by Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, London, England. (Out of print) Chinese Medicinal Herbs , compiled by Shih-Chen Li, Georgetown Press, San Francisco, California, 1973. , Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , West Nyack, NY, 1987. The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine , by Dr.

David Frawley & Dr. Vasant Lad, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, Second edition, 1988. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023 The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book) , edited by William H. Hylton, Rodale Press, Inc. , 1974