Madder
Parts Usually Used
Rootstock
Description of Plant(s) and Culture
Madder is a European herbaceous perennial plant; a cylindrical, reddish-brown, creeping rootstock up to 3 feet long produces several angular prostrate or climbing stem s, as long as 8 feet, which bear lanceolate leaves in whorls of 4-6. The flowers are small and yellow-green, in clusters on spikes which top the stalks. Another variety: Used in Ayurvedic medicine, the Indian madder(R.
cordifolia), in Sanskrit the name is Manjishta, Chinese name Ch’ien-ts’ao or Qian cao, has similar properties and uses as European madder (Rubia tinctorum).
Where Found
Grows in the Mediterranean area, native to southern Europe and western Asia.
Medicinal Properties
Alternative, astringent, deobstruent, diuretic, emmenagogue
Biochemical Information
Purpurin, pseudopurpurin, manjistin, alizarin
Legends, Myths and Stories
Madder is a plant known almost exclusively as a dye plant. The long fleshy root, when dried and milled, yields a variety of colors: red, pink, brown, orange, black, lilac, and purple, depending upon the mordant used. Madder has been raised commercially for its dye value. The trousers of the French soldiers of the 19th century and the head coverings of the Turks, the fezzes, once were dyed red with madder.
This striking coloring agent held its own until aniline dyes came along. It is the roots that contain the red coloring–today we know that it is due to anthraquinone derivatives. Madder is one of the oldest coloring agents known to us; it was used in pre-Christian times by the Egyptians, Persians, and Indians. Like many other Mediterranean plants, madder was brought across the Alps by Benedictine monks, and Charlemagne, in his capitulary on the management of his landed estates, called for it to be grown within his domain.
Uses
Historically, herbalists utilized madder for urinary tract complaints, particularly in cases involving alkaline urine. Traditional practitioners also administered it for rickets, slow-healing bone fractures, inflammation, poor appetite, diarrhea, dropsy, jaundice, and fever, as well as valuing it as a general blood purifier. Externally, decoctions of the plant were applied to various skin conditions.
How Sold
Capsules
Bibliography
The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs , by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814) Chinese Medicinal Herbs , compiled by Shih-Chen Li, Georgetown Press, San Francisco, California, 1973.
The Healing Plants , by Mannfried Pahlow, Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. , Hauppauge, NY 11788, 1992 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. , Pantheon Books, Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994, first edition Indian Uses of Native Plants , by Edith Van Allen Murphey, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1958, print 1990 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. , Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , Copyright 1988, published 1992 The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine , by Dr. David Frawley & Dr. Vasant Lad, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, Second edition, 1988. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023 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