Archangelica

Archangelica officinalis – Garden angelica, wild celery
Apiaceae – Celery family

Garden angelica provides the following: Radix Angelicae – angelica root, harvested in the autumn or spring in the first year of vegetation; Fructus Angelicae – angelica fruit; Folium Angelicae – angelica leaf, used only in folk medicine. The wild angelica Angelica silvestris L., common in Poland, has the same uses as garden angelica but is much less effective.

Garden angelica – appearance and origin:

Angelica is a biennial, reaching 150 cm in height. The stem is furrowed, strong, hollow, the leaves are bi- or tripinnate, with cordate-ovate leaflets. The flowers are clustered into whiteish-green or yellowish-green corymbs. The fruit is a small cremocarp that falls apart into 2 mericarps. The plant has a pleasant smell overall. The lower leaves are very large. It grows nearby water, in moist or waterlogged soil, mainly in foothills and mountains, often cultivated. It blooms from June to August.

Garden angelica – effects and use:

The angelica root is an aromatic oil source, containing up to 1.5% essential oil, the main ingredients of which are β-phellandrene, α-pinene, p-cymene, hydroxypentadecanoic acid and butyric acid. The distinct smell comes from macrocyclic lactone – pentadecanolide and tridecanolide. Other pharmacological ingredients are coumarins: angelicin, osthol, osthenol, imperatorin, xanthotoxin, bergapten, umbelliferone and umbelliprenin. Moreover, it contains small amounts of tannins and flavonoids, i.a. naringenin derivatives – archangelin and 7.4-diprenylnaringenin, and β-sitosterol esthers with palmitic acid and arachidic acid. The fruit contain fatty oil, essential oil around 1.5% and other abovementioned substances.

Angelica products are considered stomachicum, carminativum and tonicum nervinum. They are used especially for gastric achylia (achylia gastrica), ulcerative colitis (colitis), diarrhea (diarrhoea), nerve-related lack of appetite (anorexia hysterica), indigestion (dyspepsja), inflammation of the small intestine (enteritis), inflammation of the stomach (gastritis) or liver failure (in-sufficientia hepatis). Angelica reduces nervous hyperactivity caused by the abovementioned diseases and also consequential cardiac symptoms. It can be used symptomatically for hearburn, belching, flatulence and stomachaches. Externally, the oil and other angelica preparations are used for rubbing (they relieve gout pains and neuralgia).

The coumarins inside angelica, mainly angelicin, influence the central nervous system (sedative effect) and have spasmolytic activity, comparable to papaverin, and hypotensive properties. Fruit extracts of Archangelica officinalis Hoffm. inhibit the growth of dermatophytes from the genera Trichophyton and Microsporum and have an antibacterial effect.