Herba Cana - Northeastern Illinois University

© 2004 by CRC Press
550 Florida Ethnobotany
compound quinine, an alkaloid first isolated in
1820 by French Pierre-Joseph Pelletier and
Joseph-Bienaime Caventou; the word ‘‘quinine’’
appeared in English by 1826, although it had
been used in Spanish as quina or quinaquina,
taken from Quechua, since at least the 1640s)
sinaptahaspí (sinapó, ash, tahaspí, light [weight],
Koasati)
skunk-bush [skunkbush] (the odor caused comparison
with the skunk, whose name was taken from
the indigenous Abenaki seganku or segongw, the
weasel relative Mephitis mephitis)
stinking-ash; wafer ash (‘‘wafer’’ refers to the flat,
rounded fruits, like the thin, crispy cake that
gave rise to the Old English wafre, and our word
‘‘waffle’’; the word ‘‘ash’’ compares it with
Fraxinus because of the leaves)
swamp dogwood (a misnomer or misidentification;
this is an upland plant)
[shrubby, tree] trefoil (called ‘‘trefoil’’ from Latin
trifolio, three leaves because of the compound,
trifoliolate leaves)
wahoo (from uhawhu, a Creek word for the elm;
however, the Dakota wahú, arrowwood, was
applied to Euonymus)
wing-seed
The first living hop-trees to arrive in Europe were
those sent to England by Reverend John Banister in
1704 (Millspaugh 1893). Those plants died, but Mark
Catesby reintroduced the shrubs about 1724. Subsequently,
hop-tree was cultivated in other places in
Europe.
Both Leonard Plukenet in 1696 and Johann Jakob
Dillenius in 1732 had studied specimens of these
plants and called them Frutex virginianus trifolius,
ulmi samaris (three-leaflet shrub from Virginia, with
samara fruits like the elm). When Linnaeus examined
the shrubs, he realized they were distinct from the elm,
which he called Ulmus (which see). Linnaeus began
calling the New World plants Ptelea in his Hortus
Cliffortianus of 1738 and continued using the name in
Species Plantarum ([1753] 1957).
Although Linnaeus knew Ptelea only from Virginia,
William Bartram ([1791] 1958) recorded the
shrubs in North and South Carolina, Alabama,
Georgia, and northern Florida between 1773 and
1777. André Michaux, during his visit to Florida in
1788, found the plants in Alachua, Levy, Orange, and
Putnam Counties (Taylor and Norman 2002). There
are now about 11 species recognized in this North
American endemic genus (Bailey 1962, Mabberley
1997). Numerous varieties of P. trifoliata have been
named, and these intergrade in a confusing manner.
Perhaps the first record of medicinal use of the
wafer-ash in the Americas was by the German
physician Johann David Schoepf (1752 /1800) who
visited during the Revolutionary War in 1783 /1784.
He and others of the period considered it aromatic,
bitter, stimulant, and an expectorant tonic useful
against malaria (Millspaugh 1893). They surely
learned about the plant directly or indirectly from
indigenous people, but that does not seem to have
been recorded.
Later, Rafinesque reported Ptelea in his Medical
Botany of 1830. As usual, he obtained much of his
information from indigenous people, but typically
declined recording who and where. Rafinesque considered
the plants vulnerary and vermifuge (Millspaugh
1893). Based on his report, the plants were
most likely used by tribes where he explored; however,
actual reports have been found for only two groups not
visited by Rafinesque. The Menominis considered the
root bark of P. trifoliata, a plant brought to Wisconsin
from Kansas, as a sacred medicine and panacea to
season and render other medicines potent (Vogel
1970). The Meskwakis used it similarly, and for lung
problems, often in tea with other barks (Vogel 1970).
Those reports are also the only ones found by Lewis
and Elvin-Lewis (1977) and Moerman (1998) regarding
indigenous people in the United States. However,
in Mexico the plants are still used in remedies for
dyspepsia, as a mild tonic, in a bath of an alcoholic
infusion of leaves against chills, and to treat rheumatism
(Martínez 1969).
Following Rafinesque, several American physicians
promoted wafer-ash as a medicine. Eclectic
physicians considered it second only to hydrastis
(Hydrastis canadensis) as a tonic, and they thought
a cold infusion of the plants especially good for
debilitating fevers (Culbreth 1910, Felter 1922).
Martínez (1969) reported that the bark of the root
contains the alkaloid berberine, but that has not been
confirmed in more recent chemical studies. It does
contain a variety of alkaloids, including dictamnine,
pteleine, ptelecultinium, pteleatinium chloride, and
several others. In addition to the alkaloids, the plants
produce coumarins (Bailey et al. 1971, Szendrei et al.
1973, Mitscher et al. 1975a,b, Petit-Paly et al. 1987,
1989). At least the pteleatinium chloride is antibacterial,
and some of the other compounds are antipyretic,
antifungal (antiyeast), and effective against the tuberculum
bacillus (Hocking 1997, Mabberley 1997).
Decoctions from roots have been used as a stomach
tonic and for oral and throat diseases (inflamed
uvula). The leaves and shoots still are considered
anthelmintic (Hocking 1997, Vásquez and Jácome
1997). Equal parts of fresh leaves and bark are used
by German homeopathics (Hocking 1997). According