PURIFICATION WITH FUMARIA OFFICINALIS
SMOKE
Spring is recognized as the moment of "rebirth" of the body after the long winter season and it is popular to use herbs to detoxify the body. Tradition includes numerous medicinal plants used for this purpose, such as Artichoke, Milk Thistle, Dandelion, Desmodium, Centaurea minor to name the most well-known.
Today, however, we want to talk about a small plant belonging to the Papaveraceae family called Fumaria officinalis. Fumitory is an annual herbaceous plant with a branched stem quite widespread in the Mediterranean basin which is harvested during flowering. The inflorescences are raceme and can contain 20-30 small flowers with a color ranging from light pink in the calyx to dark red towards the mouth. However, the identification of the F.officinalis species is not simple as there are around 60 species of the Fumaria genus ( F.parviflora, F.indica, F.capreolata , etc...)
Ethnobotany
The name Fumaria derives from the Latin fumus and is due to the smell of smoke obtained by rubbing the leaves of the plant. Plants of the Fumaria species have also been called "earth smoke" because, according to an ancient European legend, the fumaria was created by vapors coming from the earth.
Phytochemical studies on Fumaria species have revealed the presence of numerous alkaloids (isoquinoline and protopine), polyphenols, flavonoids, saponins and terpenoids.
Property
In folk medicine, plants of the Fumaria genus have been used for various purposes such as antihypertensive, digestive, diuretic, laxative, hepatoprotective, purifying and tonic. In Ayurvedic medicine, Fumaria indica is commonly known as "Pitpara" (or Parpatra in Sanskrit) and is a plant that has found widespread use since ancient times. In this tradition it was also used to treat fevers, vomiting, skin allergies, hemorrhoids (to name some less common uses).
Modern uses
Modern phytotherapeutic research has demonstrated the spasmolytic activity of fumaria thanks to the effect of the fumarine alkaloid. The action of fumaria on the biliary tract has been defined by various authors as amphocholeretic, that is, capable of regulating bile secretion, increasing it when the flow is reduced or reducing it in the presence of an overactive gallbladder.
The use of fumaria can therefore be recommended in situations of liver failure, asthenia, as a purifier in forms of dermatitis or during the change of season.
Bibliography
Minelli E, Sangiorgi E, Crescini G, Garzanti S. Phytotherapy, Principles of clinical, traditional, energetic and modern phytotherapy. Ambrosiana publishing house, 2007
Escop Monographs, Fumitory, 2018
Ruifei Zhanga et al. 2020 Phytotherapy (146) “Diverse alkaloids and biological activities of Fumaria (Papaveraceae): An ethnomedicinal group”
Weiss R., Treatise on phytotherapy 1991