Tussilago Explained

Tussilago farfara, commonly known as coltsfoot,[1] is a plant in the tribe Senecioneae in the family Asteraceae, native to Europe and parts of western and central Asia. The name "tussilago" is derived from the Latin tussis, meaning cough, and ago, meaning to cast or to act on.[2] [3] It has had uses in traditional medicine, but the discovery of toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the plant has resulted in liver health concerns.

Tussilago farfara is the only accepted species in the genus Tussilago, although more than two dozen other species have at one time or another been considered part of this group. Most of them are now regarded as members of other genera (Chaptalia, Chevreulia, Farfugium, Homogyne, Leibnitzia, Petasites, Senecio).[4]

Description

Coltsfoot is a perennial herbaceous plant that spreads by seeds and rhizomes. Tussilago is often found in colonies of dozens of plants. The flowers, which superficially resemble dandelions, bear scale-leaves on the long stems in early spring. The leaves of coltsfoot, which appear after the flowers have set seed, wither and die in the early summer. The flower heads are of yellow florets with an outer row of bracts. The plant is typically NaNcm (-2,147,483,648inches) in height. The leaves have angular teeth on their margins.[5] [6]

Distribution

Coltsfoot is widespread across Europe, Asia, and North Africa, from Svalbard to Morocco to China and the Russian Far East. It is also a common plant in North and South America where it has been introduced, most likely by settlers as a medicinal item, or to provide early blooms for honeybees. The plant is often found in waste and disturbed places and along roadsides and paths. In some areas it is considered an invasive species.[4] [7] [8]

Name

The common name comes from the leaf's supposed resemblance in shape to a colt's foot.[9] It is a 16th-century translation of the medieval Latin name pes pulli, meaning "foal's foot".[10] Other common names include tash plant, ass's foot, bull's foot, coughwort (Old English),[11] farfara, foal's foot, foalswort, and horse foot. Sometimes it is confused with Petasites frigidus, or western coltsfoot.

It has been called bechion,[12] bechichie, or bechie, from the Ancient Greek word for "cough".[13] Also ungula caballina ("horse hoof"),[12] and chamæleuce.[14]

Uses

Coltsfoot has been used in herbal medicine[12] and has been consumed as a food product with some confectionery products, such as Coltsfoot Rock. Tussilago farfara leaves have been used in traditional Austrian medicine internally (as tea or syrup) or externally (directly applied) for treatment of disorders of the respiratory tract, skin, locomotor system, viral infections, flu, colds, fever, rheumatism and gout.[15] An extract of the fresh leaves has also been used to make cough drops and hard candy.[9]

Coltsfoot is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the Gothic and small angle shades. It is also visited by honeybees, providing pollen and nectar.

Toxicity

Tussilago farfara contains tumorigenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids.[16] Senecionine and senkirkine, present in coltsfoot, have the highest mutagenetic activity of any pyrrolozidine alkaloid, tested using Drosophila melanogaster to produce a comparative genotoxicity test.[17] [18]

Two cases of supposed liver damage (and death) due to coltsfoot tea have been shown to actually be the result of mistaken identity. In one, coltsfoot tea causing severe liver problems in an infant was actually the result of Adenostyles alliariae (alpendost).[19] In another case, an infant developed liver disease and died because the mother drank tea originally believed to contain coltsfoot during her pregnancy, but which was later shown to be Petasites hybridus (butterbur) or a similar species.[20] [21] In one 27-year-old male, ingesting a multicomponent herbal supplement that included coltsfoot may have caused him to develop non-lethal deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.[22]

In response, the German government banned the sale of coltsfoot. Clonal plants of coltsfoot free of pyrrolizidine alkaloids were then developed in Austria and Germany.[23] This has resulted in the development of the registered variety Tussilago farfara 'Wien', which has no detectable levels of these alkaloids.[24]

See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Stace, C. A. . Stace, C. A. . 2010 . New Flora of the British Isles . Third . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge, U.K. . 9780521707725.
  2. Book: https://books.google.com/books?id=qn5zb3_rqZIC&pg=PA428 . Capasso . Francesco . Capitolo M12: Droghe obsolete e/o poco studiate . Farmacognosia: Botanica, chimica e farmacologia delle piante medicinali . 2011 . 428 . 10.1007/978-88-470-1652-1_30 . Springer Milan . Tussilago, dal latino tussis = tosse e ago = scaccio. . it . 978-88-470-1652-1 . Seconda edizione.
  3. Book: Booth, David . An analytical dictionary of the English language . James Cochrane and Co. . 1835 . 312 . Tussilago, from the Latin tussis, a cough, and ago, to act upon, to cure; from its reputed virtues..
  4. http://dixon.iplantcollaborative.org/CompositaeWeb/Default.aspx?Page=AdvNameSearch Flann, C (ed) 2009+ Global Compositae Checklist
  5. Book: Theodore M. Barkley . 2006 . Tussilago Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 865. 1753; Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 372. 1754 . . 20 . Magnoliophyta: Asteridae, Part 7: Asteraceae, Part 2 . . 9780195305647 . 635 . http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=134025.
  6. Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012 Webb's An Irish Flora. Cork University Press.
  7. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200024610 Flora of China, Vol. 20-21, p. 461 款冬 kuan dong Tussilago farfara Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 865. 1753.
  8. http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/floraspecie.php?genere=Tussilago Altervista Flora Italiana, genere Tussilago
  9. Book: Niering . William A. . William Niering. Olmstead . Nancy C. . The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Eastern Region . 1985 . 1979. Knopf . 0-394-50432-1 . 410.
  10. Grigson G. 1974. A Dictionary of English Plant Names. Allen Lane. .
  11. Book: Coulombe Jr., Roger A. . Taylor . Steve L. . Advances in Food and Nutrition Research . https://books.google.com/books?id=Bl5zpVG2mKgC&pg=PA76 . 45 . 2003 . Academic Press . 0-12-016445-0 . 76 . Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids in Foods.
  12. http://blog.metmuseum.org/cloistersgardens/2013/04/05/first-foot/#more-10310 First Foot: The Medieval Garden Enclosed
  13. Joannes de Vigo. Works of Chirurgery, 1543.
  14. Thomas Cooper, Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae (1584).
  15. Sylvia Vogl, Paolo Picker, Judit Mihaly-Bison, Nanang Fakhrudin, Atanas G. Atanasov, Elke H. Heiss, Christoph Wawrosch, Gottfried Reznicek, Verena M. Dirsch, Johannes Saukel & Brigitte Koppa . 2013 . Ethnopharmacological in vitro studies on Austria's folk medicine – an unexplored lore in vitro anti-inflammatory activities of 71 Austrian traditional herbal drugs . . 149 . 3 . 750–771 . 10.1016/j.jep.2013.06.007 . 23770053 . 3791396.
  16. Fu, P.P., Yang, Y.C., Xia, Q., Chou, M.C., Cui, Y.Y., Lin G., "Pyrrolizidine alkaloids-tumorigenic components in Chinese herbal medicines and dietary supplements", Journal of Food and Drug Analysis, Vol. 10, No. 4, 2002, pp. 198-211 http://www.nlfd.gov.tw/en/ch/MultiMedia_FileDownload.ashx?guid=304d1580-c6aa-4502-900e-cab744c31985.
  17. Röder, E., "Medicinal plants in Europe containing pyrrolizidine alkaloids", Pharmazie, 1995, pp. 83-98. Reprinted on Henriette's Herbal website.http://www.henriettesherbal.com/PAs/PAs-toxicity.html.
  18. Frei, H.J., Luethy, J., Brauchli, L., Zweifel, U., Wuergler, F.E., & Schlatter, C., Chem. Biol. Interact., 83: 1, 1992.
  19. Sperl, W., Stuppner, H., Gassner, I.; "Reversible hepatic veno-occlusive disease in an infant after consumption of pyrrolizidine-containing herbal tea." Eur. J. Pediatr. 1995;154:112–6.
  20. Roulet, M., Laurini, R., Rivier, L., Calame, A.; "Hepatic veno-occlusive disease in newborn infant of a woman drinking herbal tea." J Pediatrics. 1988;112:433–6.
  21. Frohne D, Pfänder HJ. Poisonous Plants: A Handbook for Doctors, Pharmacists, Toxicologists, Biologists and Veterinarians. Timber Press, 2005.
  22. Freshour JE, Odle B, Rikhye S, Stewart DW. Coltsfoot as a potential cause of deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in a patient also consuming kava and blue vervain. J Diet Suppl. 2012;9(3):149-54. doi: 10.3109/19390211.2012.708391.
  23. Wawrosch, Ch.; Kopp, B.; Wiederfield, H.; "Permanent monitoring of pyrrolizidine alkaloid content in micropropagated Tussilago farfara L. : A tool to fulfil statutory demands for the quality of coltsfoot in Austria and Germany", Acta horticulturae, 2000, no. 530, pp. 469-472 http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=781867.
  24. Wawrosh C.,"In Vitro Cultivation of Medicinal Plants" cited in Yaniv Z. and Bachrach U., Eds "Handbook of Medicinal Plants", The Hawthorne Medical Press NY Lond. 2005.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tussilago".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.