Angelica

A large member of the parsley family, angelica was traditionally viewed as a warming and tonifying agent. It was seen principally as a protection against contagion, with an almost supernatural ability to protect against an often cold and diseased environment. This mystical reputation explains its common and generic name. Legend has it that a monk dreamed that he met an angel who showed him a herb that could cure the scourge of the bacterial disease bubonic plague in Europe in 1665. The herb was angelica and the monk named it in honour of the angel in his dream. Angelica water was incorporated into the official English plague remedy developed by the Royal College of Physicians in London and called the King’s Excellent Plague Recipe.

Angelica’s warming benefit works in the digestive tract and lungs. It is a warming aromatic bitter useful for stimulating the appetite and digestion. Its carminative action soothes intestinal overactivity, flatulence and colic, and the antispasmodic action reduces pain and spasms in intestinal infections. The combination of these activities in practice makes it useful in convalescence, debility, fatigue, poor nutritional uptake such as iron depletion, food allergies and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) accompanied by bloating. In The Essential Book of Herbal Medicine, author Simon Mills says “there is probably no better convalescence remedy in the Western materia medica.” The warming effect also makes angelica useful in a fever as it produces diaphoresis. As a relaxing expectorant, and antispasmodic, it can be used in lung infections. It was also used a diuretic and to encourage normal menstruation. In current medical culture the plant’s anticarcinogenic and cerebral enhancement properties are being studied and, so far, appear promising.

Angelica is one of the Herbal Extract Company’s exclusive herbs and Mills sums up its lack of popularity perfectly: “It is difficult to quantify adequately the potential of angelica today. It has indeed been neglected in some quarters, probably due to the passing of the debilitating infectious disease in modern times [written prior to the COVID-19 pandemic]. Yet it is clear that it still has great value. It can certainly be relied upon whenever there is infection, particularly when febrile or subfebrile and involving the digestive system and lungs…Whether angelica belongs to a former age when confrontations with toxins were more vigorous, when it could be relied upon to support and strengthen an embattled body, or whether it still has application in the greyer areas of today’s conflicts with pathogenic forces is a very valid question. However, there is no doubt that it still has an important application in its other major role, as a warming restorative in debilitating diseases and through convalescence.”

References

Castleman M. The New Healing Herbs. Hinkler Books: Victoria. 2011. p. 68-9

Mills S. The Essential Book of Herbal Medicine. Penguin:London. 1991. p.411-2

Quave, C.L. Quave Research Group Website. Version 11.0, April 2015. Angelica archangelica L., Apiaceae by Jessica Elinburg [Internet]; 2015 [accessed Sep 22 2022]. Available from https://etnobotanica.us/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Plant-Monograph-Book-4.2013.pdf

Mills S. The Essential Book of Herbal Medicine. Penguin:London. 1991. p.412