* Please Note: This information is based partly on Traditional Medicine which uses natural materials to support health. This information has not been evaluated or approved by the FDA. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These products are intended to support general well being and are not intended to treat, diagnose, mitigate, prevent, or cure any condition or disease. If conditions persist, please seek advice from your medical doctor.
Description
Medicinal Usage
Calamus has many uses. The root has long been esteemed as an aromatic bitter to tone and settle the stomach and relieve indigestion, gas, and heartburn. Small bits of dried or candied calamus root are chewed for these purposes. The root is considered a stimulant, carminative, tonic, bitter, and aromatic.
Tribes of the Great Plains used a decoction of the root for fever and chewed the root for coughs, colds, and toothache. Teton Dakota warriors chewed the root and applied the resulting paste to their foreheads and temples to help them be fearless in the face of enemies.
During the Depression, calamus was chewed as a tobacco substitute, and some people claim chewing the root will deter the desire to smoke. At least it's a good oral fixation!
In American Indian, European, and East Indian traditions, the root is considered useful for clearing the throat of phlegm. In India, calamus root is used as an insecticide, worm expellant, and for diarrhea, dysentery, and bronchial trouble. Aphrodisiac properties are also attributed to the root.
Hoffer and Osmond in The Hallucinogens report numerous uses of flag root, rat root, or sweet calomel by the Crees of Northern Alberta. One Indian informant stated that calamus dispelled fatigue on long walks and made him feel as though he were walking one foot off the ground. Hoffer and Osmond also report that large doses of calamus root in controlled experiments created an experience like that of LSD. Several tribes ascribed mystic powers to the plant, and Pawnee mystery ceremonies included songs about calamus. Whether the plant was used hallucinogenically by North American Indians and whether, in fact, the plant is hallucinogenic remains a mystery to modern science.
The chief chemical constituent of the oil, asarone, resembles mescaline in structure though it has an opposite effect. Calamus oil also contains beta-asarone, eugenol, azulene, pinene, cineole, camphor, and other components. In rats and cats the oil and extracts of calamus have exhibited hypotensive, anticonvulsant, and central nervous system-depressant activities.
Experiments with rats have shown the Jammu variety from India to be carcinogenic. Because of this potential carcinogenicity, in 1968 the FDA forbade the use of calamus root, oil, and extracts in human foods. However, this blanket action covering all calamus products must be questioned as only the Indian variety was used in the testings. American, European, and East Indian calamus oils vary considerably in composition.
General Herb Information
Most people glancing at boggy areas harboring calamus might pass it by as a grass, sedge, or cattail. Trudging through the bog, though, you will notice a sweet musky fragrance and will soon discover this arum with grasslike leaves. Calamus is a perennial inhabitant of marshy places in Europe, Asia, and North America.
The smooth slender leaves, 1 1/2 to 6 feet high arise from horizontal rhizomes creeping in all directions just below the soil's surface. The sword-shaped leaves are a light green color and have a prominent mid-rib. The minute flowers are borne on a fingerlike green spadix, protruding one-third to one-half way up the leaf stalk at a 450 angle. The tiny yellowish-green flowers are arranged on the spadix in diamond patterns.
Calamus inhabits the edges of slow-moving creeks, ponds, and marshes. Because its roots spread, it grows in thick mats. The branching rhizomes are about as big around as a finger. The undersides of the rhizomes are anchored by numerous stringy rootlets. The fresh rhizome has a spongy texture. A seldom-seen cultivar 'Variegatus' has yellow-striped leaves.
Despite its propensity to grow in water in wild habitats, it may be grown in a fairly rich, moist garden loam with a pH from 5 to 7.5. Calamus enjoys full sun, but will do well under partial shade. Plants are easily propagated by root divisions. Plant crowns with an inch or two of attached rhizome.
Commercial plantings of calamus have been made on upland soils which produce crops of corn or potatoes, yielding 2,000 pounds of dried root per acre.
Harvesting is easy with a sharp garden spade. Roots should be dried between 85° and 90°F. The root shrinks considerably when dried, losing 70 to 75 percent of its fresh weight.
Material from sweet flag used as a medicinal agent or food additive is usually referred to as "calamus," which is also one of the common names of the plant. The "flag" in the name is a reference to the iris-like leaves (i.e., like those of yellow flag, Iris pseudacorus L., or blue flag, I. versicolor L.), while the "sweet" refers to the pleasantly aromatic odor and (bittersweet) taste of most parts of the plant, especially the rhizome. The native North American variety may be called "American sweet flag" whereas the variety introduced from Europe may be called "European sweet flag." The name rat root for sweet flag reflects the fact that the rodent consumes copious quantities of the root. Calomel is mercurous chloride, which was used medicinally in early times, and gave its name to plants used for the same purpose.
French Common Names
Belle angélique (belle-angdlique), acorus roseau, acore odorant.
Morphology
Sweet flag is a perennial herb. The erect, sword-shaped leaves up to 2 m long emerge from a tortuous, branched, underground rhizome with V-shaped leaf scales. The rhizome is whitish-pink internally, cylindrical, 1-2 cm thick and up to a metre long. The numerous yellow and green flowers are on a spike-like spadix, which is subtended by a leaf-like spathe.
Classification and Geography
Although traditionally placed in the Araceae (Arum family), recent studies have suggested that Acorus deserves to be separated into its own monotypic family, the Acoraceae. It has been contended that A. calamus may represent the oldest extant lineage of monocotyledons (one of the two great groups of flowering plants). Most authors consider Acorus to have just one species, but recent studies suggest that two taxa exist in North America and at least three worldwide.
Sweet flag is found in temperate to subtemperate regions of Eurasia and the Americas. The diploid (with 24 chromosomes) A. calamus var. americanus (Raf.) Wullf [sometimes treated as a species, A. americanus (Raf.) Raf.] occurs from North America to Siberia; the tetraploid (with 48 chromosomes) A. c. var. angustatus Bess. occupies eastern and tropical southern Asia; and a sterile triploid (with 36 chromosomes), A. c. var. calamus, is in Europe, temperate India, the Himalayan region, and eastern North America. Variety calamus is differentiated from var. americanus by its lack of fruit and aborted pollen that fails to stain in standard viability tests. This triploid is believed to have been introduced from Asia to Europe and North America. A hexaploid form (with 72 chromosomes) has been reported from the Kashmir area. American sweet flag, the fertile diploid, occurs in every province of Canada, with a possibly introduced collection recorded from the District of Mackenzie. European sweet flag, the sterile triploid, is relatively uncommon in Canada, but has been recorded in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. In the US, sweet flag occurs as far south as Florida, Texas and Colorado. Sweet flag may have been widely dispersed around the United States by Native Americans who planted it along their migratory paths to be harvested as needed. The species can often be found growing close to the sites of Indian villages, camping areas or trails.
Ecology
Sweet flag is semi-aquatic, occurring in swamps and the edges of streams, marshes, ponds and lakes.
Medicinal Uses
The rhizome of sweet flag has been employed primarily as medicine, almost everywhere the species occurs. Such usage often evolved independently. Ancient Egyptians and classical Chinese, Indian, Greek, and Roman civilizations all appear to have used sweet flag, mostly medicinally. North American Indians also used it extensively for medicinal purposes for a wide variety of illnesses, and often as a panacea. Early Europeans, Chinese, Arabs, and Indians considered sweet flag to be a strong aphrodisiac, and incorporated it into love potions. In North America and New Guinea, sweet flag has been occasionally used to induce abortion.
The oil of sweet flag has been established to have antibacterial, antifungal, and antiamebic properties. Not surprisingly then, sweet flag has been used frequently for antibiotic purposes: as a vermifuge, antiseptic, antiprotozoal agent, and to treat diverse diseases caused by microorganisms.
At least until the middle part of this century, calamus was accepted as a legitimate pharmacological agent in Western medicine, employed primarily to treat digestive upsets and fevers. Calamus is still used to a minor extent by modem doctors, mostly in Eurasia, and is encountered in several multi-ingredient commercial drug preparations marketed in Canada. The antispasm property of calamus may be the basis of relieving digestive disorders and coughs, as traditionally prescribed. Many experimental studies have established that one of the medical virtues of calamus is its ability to reduce spasms. The North American variety appears to have a greater antispasmodic effect than the other varieties.
Chemistry
Sweet flag oil has been found to have hundreds of compounds, particularly phenylpropanes, monoterpenes, and sesquiterpenoids. Oil of the tetraploid is very high in the carcinogenic 13-asarone (often over 90%), while the triploids have less than 5% and the diploids have none.
Non-medicinal Uses
The fragrant oil of sweet flag has been used for many centuries in perfumes. Indeed, the value of calamus used by the North American fragrance industry has exceeded $30,000,000,000 in some recent years. Occasionally, sweet flag has been used as an edible plant. Some North American Indians roasted the rhizome as a vegetable. The rhizome was candied as a confection by Europeans and early American colonists. Wild food collectors sometimes use the young leaves in salads. Up until the Second World War, sweet flag was employed in North America to flavor food products, tonics, and tooth powders. Calamus oil is still used in Europe as a flavoring in alcoholic beverages. The fragrant leaves were once employed to remove disagreeable odors and deter insects. The oil of sweet flag has insecticidal properties, and has been used as a flea repellent, moth repellent, and ant repellent, and has some potential for protecting stored food products against insect pests. Sweet flag leaves were also used to weave mats and reinforce the rims of bark containers.
Agricultural and Commercial Aspects
Sweet flag has commercial promise as a natural pesticide, antifungal and antibacterial agent, flavoring ingredient, perfume component, and medicine. It has been commercially cultivated for its products in various parts of Europe and Asia, and is currently cultivated as an ornamental. As a cultivated crop, the plant has the advantage of rapid propagation by rhizomes, which can be harvested within 2 years of planting. The recent finding that native Canadian plants appear free of carcinogenic 13-asarone suggests that the food and medicinal uses that have been thought unwise require reconsideration. However, additional phytochemical and pharmacological study is needed. From an agricultural viewpoint, a semi-aquatic crop would not be easy to manage, but offers the possibility of creating multi-use wetlands.
Myths, Legends, Tales, Folklore, and Interesting Facts
Moses related how God instructed him to prepare a sacred oil with "calamus" and other sweet-smelling herbs to anoint important ritual items:
"Take thou also unto thee the chief spice, of flowing myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty, and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a kin. And thou shall make it a holy anointing oil, an essence compounded after the art of the perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil." (Exodus 30:22-25)
Whether or not the calamus of the bible is sweet flag or some other herb has been debated.
Cardinal Wolsey of London, England was notorious for extravagant expenditures to obtain pleasant-smelling calamus from distant locations to strew on the floors of cathedrals during festivals. Up until the 20th century, "strewing herbs" were widely used in households and public buildings for sanitary and deodorant purposes.
The omnivorous Brer Rabbit of Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus fables exclaimed that "I done got so now dat I can't eat no chicken `ceppin she's seasoned up wid calamus root."
In India sweet flag was employed to narcotize cobras.
North American colonists covered their floors with lemony-smelling sweet flag leaves in order to mask the poor sanitation of the times.
A powder made from sweet flag rhizomes used to be smoked or chewed as a cure (because of its mild sedative effect) for tobacco addiction.
In medieval Europe, it came to be appreciated that sweet flag is psychotomimetic (mood-altering), and indeed it was believed to be one of the ingredients in the hallucinogenic "flying ointments" used by witches. The use of sweet flag in North America is analogous to the use of coca leaves (Erythroxylon coca Lam.) in South America, to combat fatigue, ward off hunger, and increase stamina. The Cree Indians of Alberta used to say that they could consume sweet flag and "travel great distances without touching the ground?" Canadian trappers working for the Hudson Bay Company, also used sweet flag as a stimulant, chewing a small piece when tired. It is the asarones in the oil that are psychoactive, whereas other components in the oil relax smooth muscle tissue. The narcotic capacity is much too subtle to have attracted use as a recreational inebriant.
Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" contains 45 ballads under the title "Calamus." He referred repeatedly to sweet flag and is said to have hidden descriptions of the mental effects in the poetry.
"Orders for very large quantities of calamus root or extract might arouse suspicion as it is fairly easily converted by amination to TMA-2, which is scheduled" (http:I/www.Lycaeum.org/~iamlklaus/acorus.htm). (TMA-2, a controlled drug in the US, is a hallucinogen with at least 10 times the potency of mescaline. - Asarone is naturally converted to TMA-2 in the body by amination shortly after ingestion.)
"Calamus is also an aphrodisiac, especially when used as an additive in your bathing-water" (http://nepenthes.lycaeum.org/Plants/Acorus/calamus.html).
"AAAGHHHH! The taste is horrible!" (http:// www.hyperral.org/drugs/naturallcalamus.info).
User Group Forum
Share your questions and information with the ZooScape community!
Be the first to post!
Directions
Take 1 capsule, 3 times daily, with meals.
Cautions
Not recommended if you are pregnant or lactating.
Toxicity
There has been concern over the safety of sweet flag, which is currently banned in food products in North America. This prohibition was based on cancerous tumors developed in laboratory animals treated with sweet flag high in content of carcinogenic 13-asarone. Carcinogenic 13-asarone is present in large amounts in Asian plants, and in limited amounts in European plants. The apparent absence of this and other toxic phenylpropane derivatives in the plants of North America may represent a means of using sweet flag relatively safely. However, it is important to realize that even if North American sweet flag lacks the carcinogenic substances found in the plants of the Old World, under certain conditions it is still reputed to be poisonous, producing disturbed digestion, gastroenteritis, constipation, and bloody diarrhea. The volatile oil causes dermatitis on contact with the skin in some individuals. It should be emphasized in view of the toxic potential of the plant, that any kind of personal use without the supervision of an informed physician is hazardous.
Anyone contemplating using sweet flag as food should also be cautioned that aquatic plants growing in contaminated water may harbor harmful chemicals and organisms acquired from the water. The possibility also exists for those collecting rhizomes in aquatic habitats that the seriously poisonous water hemlock (Cicuta maculata L.) could be mistakenly collected.
Additional Information
The TerraVita Premium Collection uses only the finest, purest and most potent plant extracts from around the world.
The TerraVita Premium Collection is hallmarked by the highest possible standards of purity, potency, stability and freshness. Our highest possible standards are certified by independent laboratories and backed by our personal guarantee.
The TerraVita Premium Collection is packed in child-proof, tamper-proof pharmaceutical-grade recyclable containers.
ZooScape is proud to be the exclusive distributor of TerraVita teas, herbs and supplements in the United States, Canada and around the world. Please direct all wholesale and bulk inquiries to Simona Heather at 905-494-1785.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Products are intended to support general well being and are not intended to treat, diagnose, mitigate, prevent, or cure any condition or disease. If conditions persist, please seek advice from your medical doctor. The essence of the current American rule on Traditional Uses is, as stated by FTC, "Claims based on historical or traditional use should be substantiated by confirming scientific evidence, or should be presented in such a way that consumers understand that the sole basis for the claim is a history of use of the product for a particular purpose."
