Witnessed by: TCM · Western · Unani
Elecampane (Inula helenium), of the Asteraceae (Compositae) family. Tall, downy perennial with great basal leaves and large ragged yellow daisy-flowers; native range: Europe and temperate Asia; widely naturalised and long cultivated in physic gardens. Globally recognized as tu mu xiang (土木香) in Chinese, rasan (راسن) in Arabic, and horse-heal, elf dock, scabwort, wild sunflower in English. The part used is root and rhizome. A stout, fleshy root, camphoraceous and warmly bitter with a faint scent of violets and ripe banana; laid down with inulin, it turns horny and aromatic on drying.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
ELECAMPANE
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- Elecampane
- Scientific name
- Inula helenium L.
- Family
- Asteraceae (Compositae)
Form
- Part used
- root and rhizome
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- TCM
- pungent · bitter
- Western
- bitter · pungent · aromatic
- Unani
- pungent · bitter (aromatic)
Temperature
TCM: warm
Western: warm
Unani: hot (hot & dry, 3rd degree)
convergence: all {witness_count} witnesses agree on a warming, drying root — a warmth felt from the Chinese clinic to the Galenic dispensary
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- TCM
- Spleen · Stomach · Liver
- Western
- lungs · stomach · digestion
- Unani
- lungs · stomach
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- TCM
- regulates qi and relieves pain, strengthens the spleen and dispels food stagnation, soothes the liver-stomach; a warm aromatic often used in place of mu xiang where the true Aucklandia is wanting
- Western
- expectorant, diaphoretic and a stimulating warming tonic; antitussive, antiseptic, gently bitter and anthelmintic
- Unani
- munaffis-e-balgham (expectorant), muharrik (stimulant), kaasir-e-riyah (carminative) and mudir-e-baul (diuretic); a warming drug for cold catarrhs and the nerves
Cautions
Contraindications: yin-deficient dry cough and heat signs (TCM); large doses in pregnancy
Toxicity: large amounts irritate the gut, provoking vomiting and cramping diarrhoea; the sesquiterpene lactones (alantolactone) can raise an allergic contact dermatitis in the sensitive
Interactions
- Western
- antidiabetic agents: possible additive glucose-lowering with the inulin-rich root
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