Medicinal Ferns and Fern Allies: Asplenium trichomanes, the English Spleenwort

 

This one also goes by many names.

Dioscorides wrote of it as Trichomanes:

Trichomanes grows about the same places, being like fern, very small, with slender leaves in order on

either side, or like lenticula, one against the other, upon thin little stems, glittering, with a bad taste, and somewhat black. It is thought it can do the same things to that mentioned before. Some also call this adiantum, some, pterion, some, opteron, the Romans, capillaris, some,pinula, some filicula.

Pliny included this plant with adiantum:

There are two kinds of this plant, one being whiter than the other, which last is swarthy and more stunted. It is the larger kind that is known as the “polytrichos,” or, as some call it, the “ trichomanes.” Both plants have tiny branches of a bright black colour, and leaves like those of fern, the lower ones being rough and tawny, and all of them lying close together and attached to footstalks arranged on either side of the stem: of root, so to say, there is nothing. This plant frequents umbrageous rocks, walls sprinkled with the spray of running water, grottoes of fountains more particularly, and crags surrounded with streamlets, a fact that is all the more remarkable in a plant which derives no benefit from water.

Mrs. Grieve tells us:

A tea derived from our Common Maidenhair (Asplenium trichomanes), a simple little fern, common on old walls, with long, simply pinnate fronds, their sori arranged on the back in oblique lines, has also demulcent effect. The fronds are sweet, mucilaginous, and expectorant, causing the tea to have been considered useful in pulmonary disorders. In Arran, the fronds have been dried and used as a substitute for tea; it acts as a laxative.

---Other Species---

The 'Golden Maidenhair,' which Culpepper also mentions is not a Fern, but a Moss. He describes it as 'rarely used, but very good to prevent the falling off of the hair and to make it grow thick, being boiled in water or lye and the head washed with it.'

The above three species are the doradilles of France, sometimes used as rather unsatisfactory substitutes for the Maidenhair of Montpellier and Canada and Mexico.

Plants for A Future states:

A tea made from the fronds is sweet, demulcent, expectorant and laxative. It has been used in the treatment of chest complaints and to promote menstruation.

Although we have found no reports of toxicity for this species, a number of ferns contain carcinogens so some caution is advisable. Many ferns also contain thiaminase, an enzyme that robs the body of its vitamin B complex. In small quantities this enzyme will do no harm to people eating an adequate diet that is rich in vitamin B, though large quantities can cause severe health problems. The enzyme is destroyed by heat or thorough drying, so cooking the plant will remove the thiaminase.

This article is an excerpt from 

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The information on this site is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing on this site has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I am not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and their is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm just a guy who studies herbs. I am not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write is accurate or true! I can tell you what herbs have "traditionally been used for." I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use any herb I, or anyone else, mentions you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, sensitivity or underlying condition that no one else shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to read my blog you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices and not to blame me for anything, ever.