Botanical atlas

European Wild Ginger

Asarum europaeum

In old European herbals, the pungent, ginger-scented root of Asarum europaeum was dried and ground into a coarse snuff, taken to provoke sneezing that was thought to clear the head of catarrh and stubborn headache. Physicians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries also reached for it as a strong emetic and purgative, and country healers rubbed the crushed leaves into veterinary drenches for ailing cattle. Its warm, ginger-like fragrance even led some cooks to use it as a poor man's substitute for true ginger, despite the two plants being unrelated. Modern research has since shown the plant contains aristolochic acids, and those old folk uses have been quietly retired by responsible herbalists, leaving Asarum europaeum as a plant more suited to the shade garden than the medicine cabinet.

In tradition.

In old European herbals, the pungent, ginger-scented root of Asarum europaeum was dried and ground into a coarse snuff, taken to provoke sneezing that was thought to clear the head of catarrh and stubborn headache. Physicians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries also reached for it as a strong emetic and purgative, and country healers rubbed the crushed leaves into veterinary drenches for ailing cattle. Its warm, ginger-like fragrance even led some cooks to use it as a poor man's substitute for true ginger, despite the two plants being unrelated. Modern research has since shown the plant contains aristolochic acids, and those old folk uses have been quietly retired by responsible herbalists, leaving Asarum europaeum as a plant more suited to the shade garden than the medicine cabinet.

Safety.

European wild ginger contains aristolochic acids, confirmed human carcinogens and kidney toxins linked to irreversible kidney damage and urinary tract cancer at any dose. No part of this plant should ever be taken internally or used medicinally; treat it strictly as an ornamental garden plant.