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Elecampane |
Elecampane Scientific Name: Inula helenium Part Used: Root In a Word: Lung Tonic Uses: Any problem involving the respiratory tract and including asthma, sinusitis, bronchitis, chronic respiratory tract infections We all have our own particular weakness. When it comes time to get sick, some people get digestive disturbances and others get respiratory ones. If you find yourself suffering from one cold after another, you may want to think about using a respiratory tonic to keep your respiratory system in better working order. In fact, with the challenges our respiratory tracts face every day in the modern world, all of us would benefit from a respiratory tonic. The use of tonics is long out of fashion, and considering the beatings our bodies are taking, this is too bad. In days gone by, people took botanical tonics to generally strengthen their bodies so that they could fight off disease. There are two types of tonics, general and specific. General tonics, like ginseng and sarsaparilla, strengthen the entire body. Specific tonics tone specific parts of the body, and elecampane, our first plant for the respiratory shelf of the medicine cabinet, is tops for the breathing bits. When a tonic of elecampane is taken on a daily basis, the respiratory tract works better and is less likely to fall prey to an infection. Elecampane is a general respiratory tonic and is therefore generally good for anything that might be afflicting the respiratory tract, be it asthma, sinusitis, or bronchitis. If you think about your yearly schedule, you might notice that you tend to get infections at the same time or times every year. Perhaps a certain plant blooms in your area in May, and you react poorly to its pollen. Perhaps all the running around at Christmas time makes you so tired that your system cannot fight off a virus you come across at the office. Take a look at your calendar and try to establish when it is you fall ill with a respiratory complaint. That’s the time to start using elecampane. If you always get a summer cold, make it your business to drink elecampane tea all through the summer. If you get respiratory infections all year round, take elecampane tea all year long. If you can’t establish when you generally get a respiratory infection, you should at least be able to recognize when one is coming on. The symptoms vary from person to person: some feel a little achy, others find that their sinuses burn, still others suffer scratchy throats. Though the modern medical establishment doesn’t bother itself with preventative medicine, you should. If you start using a respiratory tonic at the first signs of a respiratory illness, you can avoid letting it turn into a full-blown case. At the first sign of trouble, haul out the elecampane. Elecampane is not a recent discovery. Like all of our medicine cabinet plants, this one has had lots of road tests. In the 16th century, Gerard wrote of elecampane: It is good for shortness of breath, and an old cough, and for such as cannot breath unlesse they hold their necks upright. It is of great vertue both given in a looch, which is a medicine to be licked on, and likewise preserved, as also otherwise given to purge and void out thick, tough, and clammie humors, which stick in the chest and lungs. The root taken with honie or sugar made into an electurary, clenseth the brest, ripeneth tough flegme, and maketh it easie to be spet forth, and prevaileth mightily against the cough and shortness of breath, comforteth the stomacke also, and helpeth digestion. Gerard echoed what all the ancient physicians felt about elecampane: when it came to strengthening a weak respiratory tract, there was no better plant in the field or forest. Traditionally, elecampane was used to treat asthma, bronchitic asthma, bronchial coughs and catarrh, chronic bronchitis, pulmonary infections and irritations, coughs, emphysema, pertussis, pneumonia, tracheal irritations, and tuberculosis, not to mention the common cold. That just about covers it as far as potential respiratory complaints go. In the written record, elecampane appears much earlier than Gerard’s famous herbal. Indeed, it first appears in books penned by Roman historians and physicians. Poets, botanists, and herbalists alike in the days of the Roman Empire wrote about its healing qualities. Horace, Pliny, and Dioscorides all had a few words to share. The Latin name for elecampane, Inula helenium, was originally derived from the Greek work helenion. This indicates that the plant was also in active use by the ancient Greeks. Several myths connect the name and the plant to Helena, wife of Menelaus. She allegedly had some elecampane in her hand when she was kidnapped by Paris. Other myths say that the plant sprang up from her tears and that she was the first to use it medicinally. Whether Helen of Troy knew the plant or not is for the historians to pull their hair over. Suffice it to say that the ancients were using it in medicine long before the first century A.D. References to its use appear in the fifth and seventh centuries. At that time, the plant was called enula campania, a name that eventually became elecampane. Elecampane achieved its greatest acclaim among the Eclectic physicians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Eclectics were just that, physicians who used just about anything they could to heal their patients. One of their basic tenets was that no medicine should harm in the process of healing. If it made people sick, it was bad medicine. This was heresy in a time when bleeding, purging, and the use of poisons were all the rage with the medical establishment. The Eclectics had a lot to say when it came to elecampane. Howard Horton, M.D., wrote in 1879: The root of the elecampane has long been celebrated as a valuable remedy for various complaints, particularly all diseases of the lungs, such as coughs, consumptions, and asthma. It likewise promotes urine and insensible perspiration, gently loosens the bowels, and possesses the general properties of a strengthening restorative medicine. It is also said to be good for worms. Not only did the Eclectics like elecampane, they liked it a lot. Their patients were concentrated in the urban centers of industrialized Ohio, where people were subject to the stresses of factory life and the resultant pollution. Much like ourselves, the patients of the Eclectics were prone to respiratory infections, and this plant, with its ability not only to tone the breathing apparatus but also to increase the body’s overall strength, was seen as the solution to a problematic situation. There isn’t much doubt as to how this plant got noticed by the first herbalist. It is truly a sight to see. The leaves are immense, some reaching three feet in length and easily a foot in width. Elecampane is indigenous to Europe and parts of Asia, though its vigorous growth habits have helped it to become naturalized in parts of North and South America. Yet another medicinal member of the daisy family, elecampane is grown for its huge tuberous roots. These are harvested in the fall, once the plant has spent an entire year packing its underground food-storage receptacles with provender to survive the winter. Along with lots of sugar and starch, the plant packs its roots with volatile oils, inulin, sterols, mucilage, and resins. These chemicals work together to strengthen the respiratory tract. Like your skin, the tissues of your respiratory tract can become irritated. The mucilage in elecampane acts as does skin cream on irritated skin, soothing it and protecting it from further irritation. One of the first signs of a respiratory infection is an increase in mucous production. You may notice that your nose is a little stuffed up or that your chest feels congested. This mucous production is a response to irritation or infection; it is your body’s way of healing itself. The volatile oils found in elecampane stimulate the little hairs or cilia lining the respiratory tract so that they can move more mucus out of the system. While the mucilage is soothing the tissue and the volatile oils are moving the mucus out, other ingredients in the plant are working to kill the bacteria that might be causing the problem in the first place. As if this isn’t enough, the bitter principles contained in the root stimulate both appetite and digestion. When you are fighting off a cold, you body’s cells, in active combat with whatever is on the warpath, need all the fuel they can get. As soon as you feel a respiratory problem coming on, start in with the elecampane. Increase your sleep and your intake of liquids and vitamin C. With elecampane’s ability to improve digestion, you can be sure that your cells are getting all the energy they need. Since one of the chemicals that makes elecampane effective is its volatile oil, you need to make certain that the root you purchase has some in it and that when you prepare your medicine, the volatile oil doesn’t escape. As the name implies, volatile oils tend to evaporate. For this reason buying elecampane from a store where it has been sitting around for six months is useless; purchase elecampane in tincture form as the alcohol traps the volatile oils, and the vial’s lid will prevent its escape. Alternatively, you can grow your own elecampane and use both the fresh and frozen root to ensure that you get the oils you want for improving your health. Practitioners Advice Inula has short term and long term effects. Within a few days respiration is better, people find it easier to breathe. For this reason it can be used in acute coughs and colds. In the long term, it slowly and gradually improves the health of the parts that make up the respiratory tract. The end result, stronger respiratory function with a reduced susceptibility to infections. How does that translate into reality? If you are an asthmatic that gets a cold in December and keeps it till spring, you are an Inula candidate! Inula is a general respiratory tonic and is therefore generally good for any thing that might be afflicting the respiratory tract. Be that asthma, sinusitis, or bronchitis. For people with weak respiratory function, Inula is one of the first stops! QUICK REVIEW History: European folk medicine for respiratory complaints Science: Essentials oils increase expectoration and disinfect mucus Practitioners opinion: Excellent recovery aid Directions: Tincture (2:5, 25% alcohol): 3ml 3 times daily |
