Butcher's Broom is so named because the mature branches were bundled and used as brooms by butchers to clean their cutting blocks.

Contents

• Butcher's broom,Ruscus aculeatus: Botanical Info.
• Ruscus aculeatus Overview and Plant Description.
• Phytochemical and Constituents:Butcher's broom.
• History and Lore:Butcher's broom.
• Ruscus aculeatus Part Used Medicinally.
• Medicinal Action and Uses of Butcher's broom.
• Ruscus aculeatus and Circulatory System.
• Butcher's broom current conditions.
• Administrations and Suggestions:Ruscus aculeatus.
• Research Update:Butcher's Broom or Ruscus aculeatus.

Butcher's broom current conditions.:

Diuretic and mildly laxative: Butcher's broom is not used much today, but, in view of its positive effect on varicose veins and hemorrhoids, it could be due for a revival. In the European tradition, both the aerial parts and the rhizome are considered to be diuretic and mildly laxative.

 Other medical uses - Chronic venous insufficiency, Lymphedema, Swollen Ankles.

 Broom is one of those indefinite common names that tends to make the field of herbal nomenclature such a difficult one. The name was originally applied to several plants whose tough stems and rigid leaves made them useful for sweeping up debris. Used without a qualifying adjective, broom refers to the previously discussed Cytisus scoparius L., a common roadside plant in the Pacific Northwest, distinguishable by its showy yellow flowers. Spanish broom or gorse (Spartium junceum L.) is another yellow-flowered leguminous shrub that flourishes in parts of California. Although both plants have been used in folk medicine, neither is the so-called butcher's-broom that is, so to speak, "sweeping the country" at the present time.

 Butcher's-broom, also known as box holly or knee holly, is a fairly common, short evergreen shrub (Ruscus aculeatus L.) of the family Liliaceae, native throughout the Mediterranean region from the Azores to Iran. Butcher's-broom, too, has a long history of use in herbal medicine. As early as the first century, Dioscorides recommended butcher's-broom as a laxative and diuretic. The seventeenth-century apothecary-astrologer Nicholas Culpeper suggested that a decoction of the root be drunk and a poultice of the berries and leaves applied to facilitate the knitting of broken bones. However, the medication never became popular in either Europe or the United States and was seldom mentioned in standard references on medications.


 Venous circulation and vasoconstriction effects:

 Then, during the 1950s, French investigators showed that an alcoholic extract of butcher's-broom rhizomes (underground stems) produced vasoconstriction (blood vessel narrowing) in test animals. Further studies identified the active principles as a mixture of steroidal saponins, the two main ones being identified as ruscogenin and neoruscogenin. They apparently produce their vasoconstrictive effects by direct activation of a-adrenergic receptors.Chinese researchers have isolated twelve steroidal saponins, including seven new ones, two of which have cytostatic activity on leukemia HL-60 cells.

 Limited clinical trials in humans have, in general, provided support for the effectiveness of the medication in venous disorders. In addition to its vasoconstrictive effects, the extract was demonstrated to have anti-inflammatory properties.

 Such studies convinced certain European medication manufacturers that butcher's-broom extract is superior to some of the conventional plant remedies, such as extracts of horse chestnut and witch hazel, which are marketed for their supposed beneficial effects on venous circulation. Consequently, they have made extracts of butcher's broom commercially available in capsule form to treat circulatory problems of the legs and as an ointment or suppository to relieve the symptoms of hemorrhoids.

 Capsules containing 75 mg of butcher's-broom and 2 mg of rosemary oil are now being sold in the United States, mainly through health food stores. One such product is being advertised as "a proven European herbal formula-said to improve circulation in the legs," while another is being promoted with the claim that "millions of Europeans report it works wonders-particularly for women who often complain about a 'heavy feeling' in the legs." The ads also state that butcher's-broom is "rare" or "hard-to-find" which is not true.

 Although there may be some basis for cautious optimism concerning butcher's-broom as a potentially useful medication, would-be consumers should recognize that manufacturers of butcher's-broom products have never presented proof of safety and efficacy to the Food and Drug Administration and that therapeutic claims for these products are therefore illegal. Moreover, self-diagnosis and self-treatment of circulatory disorders, or any other potentially serious health problem, are certainly inadvisable.

Reference:

• 1.Butcher's Broom is so named because the mature branches were bundled and used as brooms by butchers to clean their cutting blocks.

This article written and edited via herbalist of MDidea Extracts Professional. They run a range of online descriptions about this herb,including general information related and summarized updating discoveries from findings of professional scientisits this field related.Describe style aimed to form a useful detecting literature space where the intertwined threshold and related questions raise out and visualize themselves.

♣ last edit date:27th,Oct.2010.