Angelica

Scientific Name: Angelica sinensis

Part Used: Root

In a Word: Girl tonic for any age

Uses: Generally improves gynecological health and is therefore used in infertility, painful periods, irregular periods, and menopause.

Angelica is a plant the ancients thought was so heavenly that they named it after the angels. More than 50 varieties grow all over the globe, and each and every angelica has been recognized by its neighbors as having special powers in promoting good health. What’s more, all the angelicas are used for the same purpose regardless of where they are found: staying well.

 Angelica belongs to one of the most magical families of plants on the planet, the umbelliferae family, named for the umbrella-shaped flower head of its members. These include carrots, parsnips, parsley, coriander, dill, chervil, celery, anise, cumin, and asafoetida, to mention a few. Although the umbelliferaes are noted worldwide for their medicinal touch, every family has its overachievers, and angelica soars above its relations in this department. There is a notion among herbalists past and present, one that I know to be true: for every disease nature makes, it also makes a plant that will cure it. Considering angelica’s track record, it would seem that Mother Nature was killing a few birds with a single stone when she dreamed up this one.

 Angelica looks like a carrot plant with one small exception. A carrot plant rarely reaches 12 inches in height; angelica can easily reach 10 feet. When you look at an angelica plant, you can actually see its power.

 Chinese medicine uses nine angelica species. Collectively, these are known as dang quei, and the angelica of choice is Angelica chinensis. Dating to 400 BC, angelica is one of the first recorded Chinese drugs, and it’s still in common use today.

 If ginseng is the main herb used in china as a male tonic, angelica is its female counterpart. Possessing a set of ovaries and a uterus is a risky business, and was much more so in days gone by. The Chinese observed that women who took angelica on a daily basis conceived easily, didn’t miscarry, delivered safely, and breezed through menopause with no problem (Although during pregnancy, angelica should only be used under the care of a qualified herbalist). Most importantly, women on angelica didn’t suffer from the monthly visitor as badly as those not on angelica.

Chemicals contained in angelica kill bacteria, fungus, and viruses

 The Chinese also believe that women who take angelica maintain their youth far beyond its usual term. Consequently, they include it in all their major beauty creams. This sounded like an old wives’ tale to me until one day when I was buying some props (for my television show "Urban Gardener") at the Chinese herbalist’s and an attractive woman walked in. We started talking about Chinese herbs and their efficacy, and she asked what I thought her age was. I said 35; she answered 72. She then pulled out pictures of her mother who could have passed for 55. The mother’s real age was 91. What was the woman buying that day? Angelica.

But traditional Chinese use of the plant goes far beyond this. They take angelica to beef up every major organ, including the skin. How does this stand up to the scientific research process we all believe in so absolutely?

Chinese medicine uses angelica to treat people with overwrought nervous systems. More simply put, that’s folks who edge on the neurotic, and science has proven that angelica is a mild sedative, just what the doctor ordered. Dong quai is also used to treat allergies and all their annoying symptoms. In the lab, allergic response suppression activity was observed with both oral and injected root extracts. Scientists have been linking allergies and arthritis in recent days, and angelica is also used for creaky joints. As the Chinese believe, it likewise has been proven to lower arterial pressure and prevent cancer.

One of the most important health claims from the Chinese countryside is that angelica, taken regularly, is plain good for you. In that it works on all major body parts, this claim seems quite reasonable. But more than that, chemicals contained in angelica kill bacteria, fungus, and viruses. As these little bad boys are the microbes that bring on colds and infections, knocking them out every day would indeed prevent illness. You really can’t lose with angelica.

The European angelica, Archangelica, first appears in medical literature in the Middle Ages, smack dab during the years when the black plague swept through Europe’s cities, leaving so few people alive to bury the dead that bodies were piled on the street corners. Legend holds that God saw what was happening on earth and sent the Archangel Michael to reveal the plant’s healing power. Angelica had grown alongside European gardens for centuries, and for whatever reason, people started noticing it just at the time it could do the most good.

Once the Europeans discovered the plant’s powers, they quickly started using it for all sorts of ills and weaknesses. In 1578, a herbalist by the name of Turner said of angelica, "It defends the heart against all poisons." The common thought in the 16^th century was that angelica was a "counterbane," or cure-all, capable of counteracting whatever was wrong with you.

Gerard, an herbal scientist living during the turn of the 17^th century, observed:

The root of garden angelica is a singular remedy against poison, and against the plague, and all infections taken by evil and corrupt air; if you do but take a piece of the root and hold it in your mouth, or chew the same between your teeth, it doth most certainly drive away the pestilential air, yeah, although that corrupt air have possessed the heart, yet it driveth it out again by urine and sweat.

Was Gerard all washed up? Absolutely not. Bacteria are, in fact, airborne, and like Chinese angelica, European angelica has been proven to kill bacteria and viruses.

Though the plant came to the fore during the plague years, it lingered on and found a number of uses in maintaining health. Like the Chinese, the Europeans used it for treating bronchial colds, circulation problems, muscle spasms, rheumatism, inflammation of the intestinal tract, indigestion, stomach cancer, water retention, tumors and sores that won’t heal, insomnia, lack of energy, and debility.

In the Americas, the purple angelica, Angelica purpoutrea, was used both by the Native Americans and by the colonists who came and booted out the natives. Native Americans used the root, leaves, and seeds of the purple angelica as a treatment par excellence for the stomach. They shared this information with the colonials, who certainly needed it, as the European intestinal tract wasn’t accustomed to the local bacteria and viruses. The natives also used it as a general tonic, particularly against chronic illnesses such as cancer or colds that wouldn’t go away. It seems to me that years ago when a person got a cold, it was gone in a week, not to resurface for another year. Today, we have these colds that can last for months, and this is exactly the situation Native Americans used angelica to clear up.

Around the globe, angelica is seen as what in modern lingo might be called an immunity plant. Though many of the health claims about it have been substantiated, many more have not yet been researched. However, all facts indicate that there is something special contained in this plant. That something may not ever be tacked down by science, but who cares? If it works, use it.

Angelica is actually a biennial, but you can trick it into being a perennial by not allowing it to go to seed. Once the plant produces seeds, angelica keels over and dies. However, if you cut the flower head off before it goes too far, the plant will spread instead, and what was once a single plant will become a clump and then a thicket of angelica. The root is harvested on an as-needed basis – it stays good in the ground forever, so you can gather this ingredient whenever you want to make your tonic. The root, along with the stems and leaves, can also be collected and dried for tonic purposes.

Practitioners’ Advice

The plant to be used is Angelica sinensis .Though it is good for both sexes, Chinese hold it as a must for women. It can be used in every phase of a women’s life as a tonic to improve gynecological and general health. The manner it is used varies. The root can be boiled and taken as a decoction. The root can be made into a tincture and taken in this concentrated form. Lastly, capsules are now available which makes it really easy to use. Regardless of how it is use, as is true for most tonic plants, it must be used regularly for an effect to be felt. For menstruating women it is probably best used for the three weeks that proceed menstruation. For women in menopause and those having gone through menopause, it can be taken every day.