Family: Scrophulariaceae (Figwort family)
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Family: Scrophulariaceae (Figwort family)
Synonyms: Knotted Figwort, throatwort, Carpenter's Square, Kernelwort.
Description
Flowers: June - September.
A hairless perennial up to 60 cm high. The erect stem is square and the leaves are stalked and double-toothed. The flowers are greenish with a brown/purple upper lip. The flowers are pollinated by wasps: a brown-purple colouring is often found in wasp-pollinated flowers. The scientific affix 'nodoso' relates to the roots, because this plant has nodular tubers.
Common Figwort grows in damp woods, hedges and occasionally in ditches, near riverbanks and other damp habitats. It likes loamy, fertile soil. It is widespread throughout the British Isles, except for in North Scotland.
Figwort has always been an important medicinal plant and is used to this day by medical herbalists. The scientific name "Scrophularia' relates to "Scrofula", an old name for tuberculosis of the lymph glands.
"Scrofuloderma" are the lesions of the skin produced by the local action of the Myeobacterium tuberculosis by direct extension of some focus of infection beneath the skin, usually on the neck from draining lymp nodes, resulting in ulceration, draining sinuses and scar forming.
Figwort was at one time considered to be a specific (the medicine of choice) for this condition.The plant contains saponins, cardiaoactive glycosides, flavonoids, Resin, Sugar, Organic acids and hesperetin.
Its medicinal action are: Dermatological agent, Alterative, Cardiac stimulant (It should not be taken by people who have tachycardia) , Mild purgative, Lymphatic stimulant and there are also some anodyne qualities.
The whole herb is used and this is harvested when the plant is flowering.
In modern herbal medicine Common Figwort is used (often in the form of a tincture) in eruptive skin diseases, eczema, psoriasis, pruritus (itching skin), some forms of constipation (where the body is in need of detoxing).
Infusions and decoctions of the plant were used commonly as an external wash and the fresh leaves were also made into a ointment."Of the different kinds of Figwort used, this species is the most employed, principally as a fometation for sprains, swellings, inflammations, wounds and diseased parts, especially in scroulous sores and gangrene.
The leaves simply bruised are employed by the peasantry in some districts as an application to burns and swellings.
The Welsh so highly esteem the plant that they call it Deilen Ddu ('the good leaf'). In Ireland it is known as Rose Noble and as Kernelwort. Gerard tells us, referring to what he evidently considered an exaggerated estimate of its worth: 'Divers do rashly teach that if it be hanged about the necke, or else carried about one, it keepeth a man in health.'
The herb was said to be a curative of hydrophobia, by taking 'every morning while fasting a slice of bread and butter on which the powdered knots of the roots had been spread and eating it up with two tumblers of fresh spring water. Then let the patient be well clad in woollen garments and made to take a long, fast walk until in profuse perspiration, the treatment being continued for seven days.'
A decoction of the herb has been successfully used as a cure for the scab in swine. Cattle, as a rule, will refuse to eat the leaves, as they are bitter, acrid and nauseating, producing purging and vomiting if chewed."
"During the thirteen months' siege of Rochelle by the army of Richelieu in 1628, the tuberous roots of this Figwort yielded support to the garrison for a considerable period, from which circumstance the French still call it Herbe du siège. The taste and smell of the tubers are unpleasant, and they would never be resorted to for food except in times of famine."
(Mrs. Grieve)
