Field eryngium

Umbelliferae - Apiaceae (Umbelliferae). Common name: void thistle. Parts used: rhizome. Pharmacy name: eryngium root - Eryngii radix (formerly: Radix Eryngii).

Botanical description. This is a perennial herbaceous plant with a very branched, thick stem and short-petioled or sessile, hard and spiny leaves. Multi-flowered capitate inflorescences are surrounded by a wrapper of covering leaves with protruding spines at the ends. The covering leaves of individual whitish or grayish-green flowers are narrowed into awl-shaped spines. The brown lignified rhizome is thick and ridged.

The eryngium blooms from July to September. Its homeland is most likely the Baltic countries, southern Siberia and North Africa. Quite often found in Central Europe in poor meadows, wastelands, sandy slopes and slopes, and on roadsides.

Collection and preparation. Pharmaceutical raw materials - rhizomes - are dug up in spring and autumn. Air dry, after dividing in half.

Active ingredients: saponins, essential oil, a little tannin, traces of alkaloids, malic, citric, malonic, oxalic and glycolic acids.

Healing effect and Application. Due to the nature of the active ingredients, the raw material should be used for dry bronchitis. Its weak diuretic effect has also been established. Before classifying it as a cough suppressant or diuretic would be an exaggeration, the plant enriches mixed teas against cough and bronchitis, against urinary retention, teas for spring and autumn courses of treatment.

Use in folk medicine. There are few medicinal herbs as revered in the past as eryngium. According to legend, the ancient Greek poetess Safr used its rhizome as a means of enhancing sexual activity. This effect of this plant was highly believed in in ancient times. In addition, the rhizome was valued as a means to regulate the menstrual cycle and treat gastric diseases; in addition, they believed in its ability to protect against infectious diseases. In the Middle Ages, its scope of application expanded significantly (chest diseases, dropsy, periods of depression, urinary retention, scurvy and gum atrophy, jaundice, consumption, skin diseases). Modern traditional medicine has adopted all these indications, as often happens, without any criticism.

Side effects. There are no known side effects when using this plant.

Nowadays, scientists have also become interested in flat-leaved eryngium (Eryngium planum L.), the rhizome of which (Eryngii plani radix) has a good effect against whooping cough. It differs from the field variety in the steel-blue color of the stem and inflorescence. The homeland of the flat-leaved eryngium is Hungary, the Balkans, Russia. In eastern Germany it sometimes invades natural plant communities from gardens.