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Catalog of Herbs
Published in James A. Duke, Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, 2018
Supposed by the ancients to impart immortality, the herb was used for embalming. As a strewing herb, tansy was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Mixed with elderberry leaves, tansy is supposed to repel flies. Russians use powdered tansy as an insecticide. Tansy extracted in distilled water deters feeding of some lepidopterous larvae.311 If meat is rubbed with tansy, flies won’t bother it. Oil of tansy rubbed on the skin is supposed to repel insects. Tansy is one old cancer folk remedy that showed some activity in the NIH cancer program. Although poisonous, tansy finds its way into omelets, puddings, and herbal teas. Fresh tender young leaves are used sparingly as a spice to flavor an omelet, a baked fish, or in meat pie. Tansy “tea” is a bitter beverage brewed from either fresh or dried leaves and tops, and is said to have a calming effect on the nerves. Leafy tips are used in the preparation of cosmetics and ointments. The essential oil has been used in perfumery. “A tea made from the leaves and flowering tops is probably sufficiently dilute to permit ingestion.”11 Cows and sheep eat tansy, but horses, goats, and hogs are said to refuse it. My rabbit and goats certainly turned it down. Said to repel deer, e.g., if planted around a poisonous yew tree, tansy can be planted to repel ants as well as flies. Tyler’s stance is not quite so positive. “Since far more effective insect repellants are readily available, there is no real reason to use tansy for anything; well perhaps there is just one. Tansy is used as a flavoring agent in certain alcoholic beverages, including Chartreuse, but the resulting product must be thujone-free.”37 It is the source of green dye. In Maine, tansy water is poured into milk before making the curds of tansy cheese. Sometimes dangerously mixed in with green salads and potherbs, cheeses, salad dressings, omelets. Once used as a pepper substitute. The flowers and foliage do well in dry bouquets. Oil is of some use in the perfume industry.
Atlas of Autofluorescence in Plant Pharmaceutical Materials
Published in Victoria Vladimirovna Roshchina, Fluorescence of Living Plant Cells for Phytomedicine Preparations, 2020
Victoria Vladimirovna Roshchina
Common tansy, Tanacetum vulgare, belonging to the family Asteraceae, is a flowering plant that used in medicinal, veterinary, and culinary uses. The button-like, roundish, flat-topped, yellow flower heads with a characteristic smell, like camphor with hints of rosemary, serve as a raw material for pharmacy (Rohloff et al. 2004; Murav’eva et al. 2007). Physicians recommend a tincture or decoction of the herb against Ascaris and pinworms for helminth invasion. Moreover, the species is included in various categories of treatment for problems with bile, in particular cholecystitis. In agriculture and veterinary medicine, tansy is used as an insecticide-bearing plant and cultivated as an insect repellent. The active components of the volatile oil include terpenes such as1,8-cineole, trans-thujone, camphor, and myrtenol, with the quantities and proportions of each varying seasonally. Among terpenoids, the species contains flavonoids and bitter compounds. Standardization of the raw pharmaceutical materials is carried out according to flavonoid content (no lower than 2.5% in terms of luteoline). Tanacetum vulgare demonstrates anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibiotic, and cytotoxic activity due to its essential oil (Coté et al. 2017). Tansy oil is a potent poison due to the presence of a high concentration of thujone, and even small doses can be fatal. It can also trigger hallucinations and severe nervous or neurotic disturbances while having addictive, narcotic effects. A total of 83 compounds were identified in both the oils that make up 98.4% of the oil in Estonia (Raal et al. 2014) The quantitatively most important components in tansy oil from Harju district were trans-chrysanthenone (41.4%), 1,8-cineole (9.6%), β-pinene (6.5%), α-pinene (5.0%), and 6-camphenone (4.6%). In the oil from Tartu district, β-thujone (47.2%) and trans-chrysanthenyl acetate (30.7%) predominated. Thus, the analysis resulted in assigning the Tanacetum vulgare of Harju and Tartu districts as trans-chrysanthenone and β-thujone-trans-chrysanthenyl acetate chemotypes. Tansy should not be used without skilled medical supervision. However, common tansy is rich in volatile, aromatic oils, and fresh young leaves and flowers may be used sparingly as a substitute in cooking. There is high variability in the constituents of the species (Piras et al. 2014; Muresan et al. 2015). The main volatile oil is thujone, a potent and bitter chemical often used medicinally as a wash to treat roundworm or internally to expel worms and cause abortions. Antimicrobial properties of tansy have also been demonstrated (Devrnja et al. 2017).
Next-generation prebiotic promotes selective growth of bifidobacteria, suppressing Clostridioides difficile
Published in Gut Microbes, 2021
Rika Hirano, Mikiyasu Sakanaka, Kazuto Yoshimi, Naohisa Sugimoto, Syogo Eguchi, Yuko Yamauchi, Misaki Nara, Shingo Maeda, Yuta Ami, Aina Gotoh, Takane Katayama, Noriho Iida, Tamotsu Kato, Hiroshi Ohno, Satoru Fukiya, Atsushi Yokota, Mamoru Nishimoto, Motomitsu Kitaoka, Hiroyuki Nakai, Shin Kurihara
Gal-β1,4-Rha is found in nature as part of the pectin rhamnogalacturonan I structure,29 which is found in tansy, Tanacetum vulgare L.30 Several studies have shown that bifidobacteria can utilize plant-derived oligosaccharides31,32 as nutrient sources. Therefore, it is considered that plant-derived dietary fibers reach the large intestine of the animal host in an undigested state. Bifidobacteria may occupy a niche by employing an ABC transporter like a BL105A_0502 homolog as a solute-binding protein, conferring the ability to use an oligosaccharide containing the Gal-β1,4-Rha structure as a carbon source. Notably, Gal-β1,4-Rha structure is reportedly included in the extracellular polysaccharide produced by Bifidobacterium longum JBL05.33 The intestinal opportunistic strain Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron degrades and utilizes glycans from yeast cell walls,34 suggesting that intestinal bacteria may utilize polysaccharides from other organisms in the gut. Assuming that bifidobacteria share the adjacent niche in the large intestinal lumen, although the amount of Gal-β1,4-Rha there is unknown, it is conceivable that bifidobacteria may utilize Gal-β1,4-Rha derived from extracellular polysaccharides as a nutrient source produced by the same genus.