elecampane

Elecampane is a rather rigid herb, the stem of which attains a height of about {{convert|90-150|cm|abbr=on}}. The leaves are large and toothed, the lower ones stalked, the rest embracing the stem; blades egg-shaped, elliptical, or lance-shaped, as big as {{convert|30|cm|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|12|cm|abbr=on}} wide. Leaves are green on the upper side with light, scattered hairs, but whitish on the underside because of a thick layer of wool. The flower heads up to 5 cm (2 inches) broad, each head containing 50-100 yellow ray flowers and 100-250 yellow disc flowers. The root is thick, branching and mucilaginous, and has a bitter taste and a camphoraceous odour with sweet floral (similar to violet) undertones.

The plant's specific name, helenium, derives from Helen of Troy; elecampane is said to have sprung up from where her tears fell. It was sacred to the ancient Celts, and once had the name "elfwort".{{cite book

|last=Howard

|first=Michael

|title=Traditional Folk Remedies

|publisher=Century

|year=1987

|page=135

|isbn=0-7126-1731-0}}

The plant traditionally was held to be associated with the elves and fairy folk.{{cite book |last1=Greer |first1=John Michael |title=The Encyclopedia of Natural Magic |date=2017 |publisher=Llewellyn |location=Woodbury, Minnesota |isbn=978-0-7387-0674-0 |page=101 |edition=First}}

Corrupted variations of the name Elecampane, such as alicompagne, hallecumb pain, and jollup and plain, have been used as miracle cures that can revive the dead in Mummers' play in Britain and Ireland. {{Cite web|url=http://www.mastermummers.org/scripts/85sn10bl.php|title=Master Mummers - Folk Play Script: Tenby Guisers' Play - 1857 - L.P.Barnaschone (1857)|first=Peter|last=Millington|date=November 12, 2020|website=www.mastermummers.org}} {{Cite web|url=http://www.mastermummers.org/scripts/90su81tr.php|title=Master Mummers - Folk Play Script: Tipteerers' Duologue from Cocking, Sussex - 1903-1906 - R.J.E.Tiddy (1923) pp.200-202|first=Peter|last=Millington|date=November 12, 2020|website=www.mastermummers.org}} {{Cite web|url=http://www.mastermummers.org/scripts/92se37kd.php|title=Master Mummers - Folk Play Script: Words of the Ripon Sword-Dance - 1920 - D.Kennedy (1930) pp.23-25|first=Peter|last=Millington|date=November 12, 2020|website=www.mastermummers.org}} Alford, Violet. Folklore, vol. 70, no. 4, 1959, pp. 563–65. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1258237. Accessed 3 Jan. 2023.

The 17th-century herbalist Nicholas Culpeper considered elecampane to be ruled by Mercury and used it to warm a cold and windy stomach, to resist poison, to strengthen sight, and to clear internal blockages.{{cite book |last1=Culpeper |first1=Nicholas |title=Culpeper's Complete Herbal |date=1814 |publisher=Richard Evans |location=No. 8, White's Row, Spitalfields |pages=70}}

The herb has been used since Ancient Greek times. Theophrastus recommended using the plant in oil and wine to treat the bites of vipers, spiders and pine caterpillars in his Historia Plantarum.{{cite book |last=Roques |first=Alain |title=Processionary moths and climate change : an update |publisher=Springer |publication-place=Dordrecht |year=2015 |isbn=978-94-017-9339-1 |oclc=893559920 |page=1}}

In Roman times, Apicius, a cookbook from the 1st century AD, describes it as a plant for testing whether honey is spoilt or not, the plant is immersed in the honey and then lit, if it burns brightly the honey is considered fine.{{Cite book|title=De Re Coquinaria of Apicius|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Apicius/1*.html#9note5|pages=Book I, 18}} The root was mentioned by Pliny in his Natural History both as a medicine and as a condiment.

In Medieval Europe, the roots were candied and eaten as confectionery.{{cite book |editor1-last=Prance |editor1-first=Ghillean |editor2-last=Nesbitt |editor2-first=Mark |last1=Sanderson |first1=Helen |last2=Renfrew |first2=Jane M. |date=2005 |title=The Cultural History of Plants |publisher=Routledge |page=102 |isbn=0415927463}}

In France and Switzerland it has been used in the manufacture of absinthe.{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Elecampane|volume=9|page=169}} In England it was formerly in great repute as an aromatic tonic and stimulant of the secretory organs. It is mentioned in an 1817 New-England almanack as a cure for hydrophobia when the root is bruised and used with a strong decoction of milk.{{Cite book | author = Daboll, N. | date = 1816 | title = The New-England almanack, for the year of our Lord Christ, 1817: Fitted to the meridian of N. London | location = New London | publisher = Samuel Green}} It is used in herbal medicine as an expectorant and for water retention.{{Cite book | author = Bartram, T. | date = 1998 | title = Bartram's Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine | location = London | publisher = Robinson Publishing Ltd | isbn = 978-1854875860}}

Besides the storage polysaccharide inulin (C₆H₁₂O₆[C₆H₁₀O₅]_n), a polymer of fructose, the root contains helenin (C₁₅H₂₀O₂), a phytochemical compound consisting of alantolactone and isoalantolactone. Helenin is a stearoptene, which may be prepared in white acicular crystals, insoluble in water, but freely soluble in alcohol. When freed from the accompanying inula-camphor by repeated crystallization from alcohol, helenin melts at 110 °C.

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons}}

• [http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Inula+helenium Elecampane at Plants for a Future]
• [http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/e/elecam07.html Elecampane from Maud Grieve, A Modern Herbal]
• [http://www.tropicos.org/ImageFullView.aspx?imageid=89430 photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Missouri in 1933]

{{Taxonbar|from=Q697416}}

Category:Inula

Category:Medicinal plants of Asia

Category:Medicinal plants of Europe

Category:Flora of temperate Asia

Category:Flora of Europe

Category:Helen of Troy