Celandine

Parts Usually Used

The whole herb, the fresh reddish-brown root is the part most used

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Greater celandine: This evergreen perennial herb produces a small, bright yellow flower; its stems, when broken, emit a milky sap that stains and burns the skin. Has hairy leaves shaped like oak-leaves, yellowish in color. This member of the poppy family has no connection with its better known namesake, the lesser celandine, a cousin of the buttercup. They are different medicinally and botanically.

Celandine is anchored in the soil with a strong root. Depending on the habitat, it grows 12 inches (30 cm) to over 39 inches (1 m) tall. All its parts contain a bitter, yellowish milky juice with which people try to get rid of warts and pimples. The orange-yellow juice turns red when exposed to air. Celandine stems are branching, slightly hairy, and covered with hairy alternate leaves.

The hollow stem is round, smooth and swollen at the joints. The leaves are bluish-green, pinnatifid at the top and pinnate at the bottom with ovate, mildly and irregularly lobed leaflets. The bright yellow flowers have 4 petals, 1/4 to 1/2 inch across, and numerous stamens and grow in a sparse umbel. The fruit, which burst open by means of 2 valves, contains black seeds with a white appendage.

The finger-thick cylindrical rootstock is red-brown on the outside, orange-yellow inside, contains the bitter, milky juice. Celandine blooms from March to the end of November: the primary blooming season is during the months of May and June. Lesser celandine: This is the better known herb by the name of celandine. The bright yellow flowers grace the hedgerow every spring. Its leaves are heart-shaped and often speckled with blobs of black or purple.

Of more interest is the root, which sprouts a number of cylindrical tubers; these pile-like nodules were taken to suggest that the plant might cure hemorrhoids, hence its other name, the pilewort. Flowers March to April.

Where Found

Greater celandine: Found in hedgerows and wastes. Introduced into this country from Europe, it now grows principally along walls, paths, and fences and in landfills. Celandine seeds have an appendage that ants find delicious, so they carry the seeds and plants can be found anywhere as a result. Celandine is not highly recommended for growing in the backyard garden. If it finds its own way in and turns up along fences or old garden walls, count on its appearance every year, since it is a perennial.

Lesser celandine: Found in moist corners of fields and places that are near water, yet will grow in drier ground if it is slightly sandy.

Medicinal Properties

Alterative, antispasmodic, cathartic, caustic, diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, purgative, vulnerary

Legends, Myths and Stories

Chelidonium majus has been used in medicine for an extremely long time. In the writings of the Greek philosopher Theophrastus (372-287 BC), he tells that celandine is useful in treating jaundice, liver disease, constipation, and gallstones. These findings also entered into the medieval herbals, from which folk medicine draws its knowledge.

Uses

In folk traditions, greater celandine was historically utilized for abdominal distress, and the plant's raw yellow sap was applied externally with the intention of removing warts and corns, sometimes blended with vinegar. Herbalists also incorporated greater celandine into composite teas aimed at addressing conditions of the stomach, intestinal tract, and liver, as well as constipation, diarrhea, gallstones, jaundice, coughs, rheumatism, and nosebleeds.

Additionally, preparations of the plant were made into topical ointments intended for skin complaints such as ringworm, eczema, and tetters. Lesser celandine, historically referred to as pilewort, was traditional employed in ointments derived from the crushed root to address hemorrhoids. Folk practitioners occasionally combined the root with stonecrop or toadflax, and the resulting preparations were also applied historically to sores, ulcers, and wounds.

Bibliography

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, Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973 Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine , by Dr. A. , 27 Pine Street (Box 876) New Canaan, CT. 06840-0876. Copyright Verlag A. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023 An Instant Guide to Medicinal Plants , by Pamela Forey and Ruth Lindsay, Crescent Books (January 27, 1992).

The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book) , edited by William H. Hylton, Rodale Press, Inc. , 1974 The Healing Plants , by Mannfried Pahlow, Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. , Hauppauge, NY 11788, 1992