Sanicula europea (L) Sanicle
NOMENCLATURE
Sanicula: from Latin sanare/sano: to heal, or sanus/sonus: healthy. Or contraction
of Saint Nicholas, who was credited with extraordinary powers, & reportedly
revived two children who had been murdered & pickled.
europea : european.
OTHER NAMES : Herb se St. Laurent, (Normandy) after
St. Laurent, who was grilled to death on a gridiron.
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE : erect glabourous perennial with stock. Height 20-60cm. Hr.
TASTE : bitter astringent, then acrid. ROOTS : rhizomes short stout,
creeping, woody. Fibourous brown scales on top.
UMBELS : inflorescence of a number of simple umbels in an irregular cyme, giving the
appearance of a compound umbel. 5mm across, suhglobose with shortly
pedicellate male flowers with 3-6 sessile hermaphrodite flowers.
LEAVES : large, green, glossy. 2-6cm across. Deeply palmately lobed. 3-5 lobed, lobes cuneate,
coarsley and acutely serrate, the teeth ending in a bristle. Basal, long petiolate. Cauline few or
absent, shortly petiolate or sessile. Petiole 5-25 cm. Cotyledons contracted into a petiole.
BRACTS : 3-5 mm. 2-S simple or pinnatifid, bracteoles simple.
FLOWERS: tinged Pink/White, small, few. Calyx teeth > than inflexed petals. Outer firs male,
short, pedicellate. Inner hermaphrodite & sessile. Ovary with >or< flat disc at apex. No style
thickening. Pollination by flies, beetles, self. Fl. 5-8. 2n=16.
FRUIT : 3mm, flattened, oval nuttlet, circular in transverse, animal dispersed. Covered in
ridgid forward pointing hooked bristles, commisure broad, ridges Inconspicuous. Numerous
oil cavities. Styles filiforrn, 3mm. Stigma capitate.
HABITAT: patches of dense shade in woods, under Beech, Oak trees.
Clay, chalk soil, humus r ch, 1oamy.
DISTRIBUTION : native. Throughout British Is., except Orkney, Shetlands, Channel Is.
Most of wooded Europe, C. & E. Asia, N.Africa. Mountains of tropical Africa. S.Africa.
MEDICINAL USES
ACTIVE INGREDIENTS : tannin, bitter principle, saponin, traces of essential oil, mineral salts.
PARTS : dried flower, herb in autumn, on fine day, after dew.
APPLICATION : flatulance, infections of bronchial tract, coughs, mouth wash for gingivitis,
bathing cuts, grazes, scald head and rash infusion 2 tspns per cup water, 3-4 times day.
Or decoction with honey. Stomach disorders infusion of rootstock.
HISTORICAL MEDICINAL USES
Culpepper: “For diseases of throat & lungs. Scald head, rashes in children : decoction or infusion.”
Blood disorders, lung complaints, chronic coughs, catorrhal inflammation of bronchil, spitting
blood, leucorrhoea, dysentry, diarhoea: in combination with other herbs. Throat haemorrhaging
& malign ant ulcers in mouth decoction of powder of leaves & roots. Used in France & Germany
for profuse bleeding from lungs, bowel, dystentry.
Middle Ages, Anon. : “Celeuy qui Sanicle a Oc mire affire il n’a.” :
He who keeps sanicle, has no business with a doctor.
15th C Wound Drink : “This is the vertu of this drynke: Bugle holdith the wound open,
Mylfoyle clensith the wound, Sanycle helith it.”
1562 Bullein ‘Book 0f Simp1pes’
“Juice valuable for wounded bruised oxen, milche kyene and horses.”
Click Link Below for Colour Image of Sanicle europea
http://www.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/thome/band3/tafel_040_small.jpg