Herba Cana - Northeastern Illinois University

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© 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
© 2004 by CRC Press The Ethnobotany 551 to Diggs et al. (1999) the plants contain a poisonous saponin that causes photodermatitis. Fruits have been substituted for hops in making beer since at least 1868 when Asa Gray recorded that use (Hedrick 1919, Vines 1977). Pteridium (J.A. Scopoli, an Austrian physician and professor of natural history in Pavia, named the fern with Greek pteridion, small fern, a diminutive of pteris) Pteridium aquilinum. Drawn by P.N. Honychurch. Pteridium aquilinum (of an eagle, from the wingshaped fronds or leaves) achshikímiinshi [achsh’kíwmiinshi] (ach, abundant, sh’kíw, urinate, miinshi, tree, Delaware) Adlerfarn (eagle fern, German); eagle fern; fougère d’aigle [fougère de aigles] (eagle fern, Quebec); helecho de aguilo (eagle fern, Colombia) [southern] bracken (perhaps from Scandinavia, akin to Old Swedish braekne, fern, USA, Bahamas) [hog, pasture]-brake (from Old German, brache, ‘‘wasted’’ [i.e., wild] land) faytí:yâ:bî [faitiyabi] (turkey leg replica, Mikasuki); pinilio:mâ (penwv, turkey, ele, leg, ome, resembling, Creek); fi:tiyyí (fi:tó, turkey, iyyí, foot, Koasati); tapitapí (an archaic name, Koasati) fiddleheads [fiddlenecks] (the young fronds resemble the head of a violin, in use by 1599) fourchette (table fork or breast bone, Haiti) grande fougère (big fern, Quebec); helecho (fern, Panama, Belize) poor man’s soap (Alabama) raineach-mhór [rainich móire] (Mary’s fern, Gaelic) Although Moerman (1998) and Balick et al. (2000) separate Pteridium aquilinum var. caudatum into Pteridium caudatum, Wunderlin (1998) retains both as a single species. Regardless, P. aquilinum is widespread and was used by people from Alaska to Mexico and Florida. Among the relatives of Florida people, the Koasati made a decoction of the roots for chest pain (Taylor 1940). The Seminoles used the plant for ‘‘Turkey Sickness’’ (permanently bent toes and fingers) (Sturtevant 1955). Murphee (1965) found people in the Panhandle making a tea from the plants to treat burns. Farther north, the steamed mature fronds are used to make medicinal teas and inhalants for lung disorders and headaches (Moerman 1998). The young buds (fiddleheads) are edible. Older parts are poisonous (Morton 1968b), and King (1984) warns against using it for food at any stage. Yellow and green dyes are extracted from the roots (King 1984, Tull 1999). Pterocaulon: Blackroot (From Greek pteron, wing, plus kaulos, stem) Within the United States, there are relatively few plants whose roots yield a black sap. The two in the southeast are called ‘‘blackroot.’’ Scientifically, the herbs belong to the genus Pterocaulon. The green leaves with their white undersides merging into the stem and extending downward toward the ground, like wings, are as characteristic as their black roots. The first information Europeans had of these plants was when Linnaeus called them Gnaphalium virgatum in 1759. However, it was Stephen Elliott, an American professor in Charleston, South Carolina, who gave them the Greek name fitting their morphology in 1823. For many years, it was believed that a single species grew in the United States, and it was called P. virgatum. Then, when the Frenchman André Michaux, who explored the Carolinas and Florida,
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Herba Cana - Northeastern Illinois University

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