Peucedanum officinale (L) Sulphur Weed
NOMENCLATURE
Peucedanum: see P. ostrithium.
officionale: kept at the druggist shop i.e. used medicinally.
OTHER NAMES: hog’s fennel, sow fennel, sulphur wort, chuklusa hoar strange, hoar
strong, brimestonewort, milk parsley, marsh parsley, marsh smallage. Persil des marais,
(France). Sumpfsilge, (Germany).,
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE: erect glabrous perennial H. HEIGHT: 6O-2OOcm. TASTE acrid, pungent.
AROMA: sulphur, when wounded in spring
ROOTS: stout & woody. contains yellow green juice, which dries to a gummy resin.
STEMS: solid, striate, weakly led persistent fiborous remains of petioles at base.
Abundant milky juice, which dries to brown resin.
UMBELS: compound 5-15cm diameter, flays 15-45, 1.5-8cm, smooth, unequal..
Peduncle > than rays, glabrous. Hermaphrodite.
LEAVES: lower 3-6 ternate the primary divisions long stalked, the segments 4-15cm;
sessile, linear, attenuate at both ends, narrow cartilaginous margin, serrulate near the apex
quite entire, spreading in all directions. Petiole. long. Upper, leaves less divided, smaller,
with an oblong, sheathing petiole. Cotyledons contracted into a petiole.
BRACTS: 0-3, linear., cadaucous. Bracteoles 2-5, linear, shorter: or ,> than the filiform pedicels.
FLOWERS: yellow Calyx teeth 0 or small, acute. Petals with a long inflexed point.
Styles form a stylopodium. Fl. 7-9
FRUIT: 7mm, elliptical, to ovoid, globose, dorsally compressed. The commisure very broad.
Carpels with marginal ridges forming a narrow or broad wing, dorsal ones filiform, all
equidistant. Carpophore present. Vittae 1-3 in each furrow, as long as the fruit. Pedicles >
than the fruit. Styles = stylpodiurn. stout. recurved. Stigma spathulate. 2n=66.
HABITAT: clayey banks, cliffs, near sea, salt marshes.
DISTRIBUTION: native. Rare, focal. Essex, E. Kent, York, Lincoln C.& S;’
Europe. Naturalised ‘in N. America. S. &C.Europe.
MEDICINAL USES
ACTIVE INGREDIENTS: peucedanin, (coumarin derivative), active crystallinie principle, essential
oil, bitter principle, gum, starch. Dried resin has volatile oil, fixed oil and selinic acid.
APPLICATION: bronchial cough, intermitent fever, stimulate menstrual discharge .ïñ
homoeopathy same ailments at home infusion 2 tspn per cup water, stand 5-~8 min 2-3 x day
EDIBLE USES
Vinegar substitute in Russia.
HISTORICAL MEDICINAL USES
Culpepper "The juice with vinegar & rose water or with a little Euphorbium, put to the’ nose
for lethargy, frenzy & gidiness, falling sickness, inveterate headaches the palsy, sciatica &
cramp Disease of sinews: with oil and vinegar juice ‘dissolved in wine & put into an egg, for
cough or shorthess of breath flatulence, purgeth gently arid softens hardness of the spleen. A little
of the juice dissolved in wine and dropped in the ears or a hollow tooth easeth pains thereof.
Powder of the root cleanseth foul ulcers & taketh out splinters of broken bones, green
wounds & prevents gangrene."
Epilepsy remedy, 20-30 grains 4 x a day 194
