Native Healers. Anita Ralph
The mass of numerous small flowers held closely together in broad, flat or rounded heads is ideal for insects to land on, thus promoting pollination.
The leaves of members of this family are alternate. Alternate leaves occur when leaves are arranged singly, in an ascending spiral arrangement along a branch or stem.
Leaves are large and generally pinnately divided (feather like), often with inflated and sheathing leaf bases.
Flowers of the Apiaceae are generally made up of five sepals and five petals separate, usually notched with an incurve.3
This family can be difficult to correctly identify out in the field. Be very careful to avoid picking (due to skin reactions), or ingesting (due to poisonous compounds) certain members of this family such as giant hogweed Heracleum mantegazzianum Sommier & Levier., hemlock water dropwort Oenanthe crocata L. or fool's parsley Aethusa cynapium L.
Definition—Pinnate: feather-like. Pinnate leaves of yarrow or elder show different types of pinnate leaf forms.
Despite these more poisonous family members, this family also contains some of the most fantastic, useful and important medicinal plants for herbalists including:
•Celery, Apium graveolens L.
•Chervil, Anthriscus cerefolium Hoffm.
•Sweet cicely, Myrrhis odorata (L.) Scop
•Alexanders, Smyrnium olusatrum L.
•Aniseed, Pimpinella anisum L.
•Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare Mill.
•Dill, Anethum graveolens L.
•Garden parsley, Petroselinium crispum (Mill.) Nyman.
•Caraway, Carum carvi L.
•Coriander, Coriandrum sativum L.
•Lovage, Ligusticum levisticum L.
•Garden angelica, Angelica archangelica L.
•Wild angelica, Angelica sylvestris L.
Plant compounds of this family, other than aromatic volatile oils and resins, include coumarins (e.g., umbelliferone), furo-coumarins, chromono-coumarins, terpenes and sesquiterpenes, triterpenoid saponins and acetylenic compounds. Alkaloids occur rarely in Apiaceae plants, although hemlock Conium maculatum L. contains the alkaloid coniine.4
We examine the important plant constituents called saponins, later in this chapter.
Mint family (Lamiaceae)
(Known as the mint or deadnettle family).
White deadnettle (Lamium album L.)
Catnip (Nepeta cataria L.)
This family is made up of herbs or shrubs, generally with square stems, often with glandular and aromatic trichomes (hair-like projections) on their surfaces. It includes plants such as mints, thymes and woundworts, all of which have a recognisable scent.5
Leaves are opposite, and usually simple. Opposite leaves occur when two leaves grow at the same position on the stem on opposite sides. Often the next pair of leaves will grow higher up the stem at right angles to the pair below, and so on up the stem towards the flower clusters.
The flowers of plants in this family are referred to as irregular or zygomorphic and are found on the stem in distinct lateral clusters or verticillasters. These often whorl around the stem, making a leafy spike known as a panicle.
If you look at white dead nettle, Lamium album L. flowers or catnip, Nepeta cataria L. you will recognise the distinct shape of the flowers of this family.
Definition—Zygomorphic: Botanical adjective (of a flower) having only one plane of symmetry, as in a pea or snapdragon. Bilaterally symmetrical.
In botanical classification, flowers of the Lamiaceae family are described thus:
The calyx has five teeth, sometimes two-lipped. The corolla is two-lipped with a couple of exceptions, and the lower lip is three-lobed, the upper lip is two-lobed.3
This botanical ‘shorthand’ conveys a lot of information and can be difficult to follow at first. We can use books on wildflowers to help us identify plants, both by using the pictures and this botanical shorthand. It gets easier with practice.
There are over 3000 species of Lamiaceae worldwide, including many familiar aromatic medicinal herbs such as:
•Lemon balm, Melissa officinalis L.
•Basil, Ocimum basilicum L.
•Thyme, Thymus vulgaris L.
•Rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis L.
•Lavender, Lavandula officinalis L.
•Motherwort, Leonurus cardiaca L.
•Sage, Salvia officinalis L.
•White horehound, Marrubium vulgare L.
•Catnip, Nepeta cataria L.
Many of the species of the Lamiaceae are used as ornamentals, garden and culinary herbs as well as medicinal or aromatic herbs in cosmetics, foods, hygiene products and perfumery. The secondary metabolites made by this family include terpenoids and flavonoids, although alkaloids, iridoids and ursolic acid have been found. Many of the medicinal uses are assumed to be connected to the terpenic constituents of the essential oils of these plants, which are fungicidal, antispasmodic and prebiotic.6
Definition—Secondary metabolites: Secondary metabolites are specialised organic compounds produced by plants that are not required for normal growth, photosynthesis, development or reproduction. They are made and broken down in response to environmental factors, and may be essential for protection from insect or microbial attack for example.
It is these secondary compounds that are of particular use to the herbal medicine user over and above the proteins and carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals made by plants that we might use for food.
A discussion of the properties of essential oils will be made later in this chapter.
Daisy family (Asteraceae)
(Known as the daisy or sunflower family).
The daisy, like the sunflower, is easily recognisable; but what appears to be the flower of the daisy is in fact an inflorescence—a head of many, many tiny flowers or tubular florets, grouped together in a head or capitulum, often with lingulate (strap-shaped) ray florets looking like petals around the outer edge.
In the case of common daisy, Bellis perennis L., this arrangement gives the appearance of white petals around a yellow centre, but what we are actually seeing is white strap-like ray florets a), arranged around like rays of the sun, around a capitulum or head, of many tiny individual yellow flowers, b).
This head, known as a disc floret, may be flattened or domed. The disc florets of the sunflower, Helianthus annuus L.