Doronicum pardalianches Roxb. (Asteraceae/Compositae)

Abstract

An herbaceous perennial with rhizomes, that grows in Europe, Syria, and Turkey. Some authors identified it as Doronicum hookeri, Roxb. The plant grows in Andalusia and the mountainous parts of Syria, especially about Mount Yabrúrat, where it goes by the name of Aqrabi (scorpion in Arabic). Dioscorides described the root as like the tail of a scorpion and white as alabaster (gypsum); it was also known to Theophrastus and Pliny. It is a resolvent of phlegm, adust bile, cardiacal and tonic, useful in nervous depression, melancholy, and impaired digestion, also in pain of the womb and flatulent dyspepsia. It is also a nerve tonic, strong antidote, especially for scorpion bites, and carminative, and is used in the treatment of nervous weakness, paralysis, melancholy, and to maintain pregnancy. One gram powder is used with apple syrup or apple sauce. In palpitation patients with hot temperament, it should be used with camphor ; the powder is used with milk in seminal debility.