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Dictamnus

 
Dictamnus

 
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Dictamnus
 
 
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Dictamnus is a genus of flowering plant
Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
 in the family Rutaceae
Rutaceae

Rutaceae, commonly known as the Rue or Citrus family, is a family of plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.Species of the family generally have flowers that divide into four or five parts, usually with strong scents....
, with a single species, Dictamnus albus. It is known variously as Burning-bush, False Dittany, White Dittany, and Gas-plant. It is a perennial
Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
 herb
Herb

A herb is a plant that is valued for qualities such as medicinal properties, flavor, scent, or the like....
, native to southern Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, north Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
 and southern and central Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
.

plant grows about 60 cm high. Its flower
Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s form a loose pyramidal spike and vary in colour from pale purple to white.






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Encyclopedia


Dictamnus is a genus of flowering plant
Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
 in the family Rutaceae
Rutaceae

Rutaceae, commonly known as the Rue or Citrus family, is a family of plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.Species of the family generally have flowers that divide into four or five parts, usually with strong scents....
, with a single species, Dictamnus albus. It is known variously as Burning-bush, False Dittany, White Dittany, and Gas-plant. It is a perennial
Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
 herb
Herb

A herb is a plant that is valued for qualities such as medicinal properties, flavor, scent, or the like....
, native to southern Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, north Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
 and southern and central Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
.

Description

This plant grows about 60 cm high. Its flower
Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s form a loose pyramidal spike and vary in colour from pale purple to white. It normally grows in woods in warm places. It is a popular garden plant both for its flowers and for its fragrance. It bears large elegant flowers of various colours: red, white, striped or blue. Its leaves resemble those of an Ash tree. Outside its natural range it is planted in gardens and grows well in warm places. It can also be found in sheltered places in woodlands.

In the summer months, the whole plant is covered with a kind of flammable substance, which is gluey to the touch, and has a very fragrant smell; but if it takes fire, it goes off with a flash all over the plant.

The name "Burning-bush" derives from the volatile oils produced by the plant, which can catch fire readily in hot weather, leading to comparisons with the burning bush
Burning bush

The Hebrew word used in the narrative, that is translated into English as bush, is seneh , which refers in particular to brambles; seneh is a biblical hapax legomenon, only appearing in two places, both of which describe the burning bush....
 of the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
, including the suggestion that this is the plant involved there.

Historical medical uses

Some use has been made of the plant (chiefly the powdered root) in herbalism
Herbalism

Herbalism is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. Herbalism is also known as botanical medicine, medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, and phytotherapy....
. However, as the alternative name "False dittany" implies, it is unrelated to the Dittany
Dittany

Dittany can refer to three different plants, the first two with similar medical properties:*Dictamnus albus, White Dittany, also known as Fraxinella...
 found in Crete
Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
, which has a much more significant history of medicinal use. Like Dittany of Crete they were believed to be useful for cordial and cephalic ailments, to help resist poison and combat putrefaction, and to be useful in malignant and pestilential fevers. They were also used for cases of hysteria. While the volatile oil does have anti-inflammatory properties, it isn't used for such ailments today.

An infusion of the tops of the plant was also used as a pleasant and efficacious medicine in the gravel. It was believed to work powerfully by provoking urine and easing colicky pains which frequently accompany that disorder. The root was considered a sure remedy for epilepsies, and other diseases of the head, opening obstructions of the womb and procuring the discharges of the uterus. The plant is known to have emmenagogic properties, but the use of such plants to procure onset of menses is generally considered obsolete today.

Modern medical uses

Today the plant is not used much, but is classified as a stomach tonic. A simple infusion of the leaves may be used as a substitute for tea and as a remedy for nervous complaints. The powdered root combined in equal parts with Peppermint has been administered in doses of 2 dram
Dram

Dram or DRAM may refer to:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dynamic random access memory* Database of Recorded American Music...
s (4 g) for epilepsy.

Trivia

  • The plant is inedible: the leaves have a bitter
    Bitter

    Bitter can refer to:* Taste#Bitterness, one of the five basic tastes* Bitter , a kind of ale particularly popular in Britain* Bitters, an herbal preparation now used mostly in cocktails...
     and unpalatable taste. Despite the lemon-like smell, the plant is acrid when eaten.
  • The plant is more commonly known today as the Burning Bush. It is the essential oil
    Essential oil

    An essential oil is a concentrated, hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. They are also known as volatile or ethereal oils, or simply as the "oil of" the plant material from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove....
    , which has a lemon-like smell, that is flammable. The daughter of Swedish
    Sweden

    Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
     botanist Carl Linnaeus is said to once ignite the air, at the end of a particularly hot, windless summer day, above Dictamnus plants, using a simple matchstick.