Achillea millefolium

Achillea millefolium L.

(Achillea millefolium L.; Photo en.wikipedia.org)

Latin Name: Achillea millefolium L.

Family: Asteraceae; Genus: Achillea

Synonym Name: Achillea albida Willd.; Achillea alpicola (Rydb.) Rydb.; Achillea ambigua Boiss.; Achillea anethifolia Fisch. ex Herder; Achillea arenicola A.Heller; Achillea bicolor Wender.; Achillea borealis subsp. arenicola (A.Heller) D.D.Keck; Achillea borealis subsp. californica (Pollard) D.D.Keck; Achillea californica Pollard; Achillea ceretanica Sennen; Achillea coronopifolia Willd.; Achillea crassifolia Dietr. ex Colla; Achillea cristata Hort. ex DC.; Achillea cuspidata Wall.; Achillea dentifera Rchb.; Achillea gigantea Pollard; Achillea haenkeana Tausch; Achillea intermedia Schleich.; Achillea lanata Lam.; Achillea lanulosa f. peroutkyi F.Seym.

English Name: Common Yarrow, Yarrow, Common Milfoil, Milfoil, Common Yarrow, Western Yarrow, Yarrow.

Chinese name: 蓍 shi

Vietnamese Name: Dương kỳ thảo; Vạn diệp; cỏ thi; Cúc vạn diệp, Xương cá

Description: Herbs, perennial, 40-100 cm tall, with long rhizomes; stems erect, unbranched or branched in upper part, often with short sterile branches at leaf axils above middle, striate, usually white villous. Leaves sessile; leaf blade lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, or sublinear, 5-20 × 1-2.5 cm, (2 or)3-pinnatisect, abaxially densely villous, adaxially densely depressed glandular punctuate; ultimate segments lanceolate to linear, 0.5-1.5 × 0.3-0.5 mm, apex cartilaginous-mucronulate. Synflorescence a terminal flat-topped panicle 2-6 cm in diam. Capitula many. Involucres oblong or subovoid, ca. 4 × 3 mm; phyllaries in 3 rows, elliptic or oblong, 1.5-3 × 1-1.3 mm, scarious margin pale yellow or brown; midvein convex. Paleae oblong-elliptic, scarious, abaxially yellow gland-dotted. Ray florets 5; lamina white, pink, or violet-red, suborbicular, 1.5-3 × 2-2.5 mm, apex 2- or 3-denticulate. Disk florets yellow, tubular, 2.2-3 mm, exterior gland-dotted, apex 5-lobed. Achenes greenish, oblong, ca. 2 mm, with white lateral ribs. Corona absent. Flowering and fruiting: June to September.

Distribution: Growing in wet grasslands, wastelands or rail lines. Distributed in Northeast China, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and etc. Cultivated in the gardens of various places.

Part Used: Medical part: whole plant. Chinese name: Yangshicao.

Harvest & Processing: Harvested in summer and autumn, used fresh or cut into section and sun-dried.

Chemistry:

- Whole plant contains a-peroxyachifolid and β-peroxyisoachifolid, etc, tritrpenoids: taraxasterol, pseudotaraxasterol; flavone: apigenin, luteolin. Underground parts contain falconoid compound.

- flowering aerial parts of wild Achillea millefolium: The Italian volatile extracts are predominantly composed by alpha-asarone (25.6-33.3%), beta-bisabolene (27.3-16.6%) and alpha-pinene (10.0-17.0%); whereas the main components of the Portuguese extracts are trans-thujone (31.4-29.0%), trans-crhysanthenyl acetate (19.8-15.8%) and beta-pinene (1.2-11.1%)

Pharmacology:

- Hemostasis, anti-inflammatory and blood-pressure-reducing.

- In vitro antioxidant properties (free radicals scavenging activity, reducing power and lipid peroxidation inhibition) and antitumour potential (against breast, lung, cervical and hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines) of their methanolic extract

Properties & Actions: Pungent, little bitter, cool, toxic. Dispelling wind, and promoting blood circulation, detoxifying and arresting pain.

Indications & Usage: Rheumatic arthralgia, injuries from falls, hemostagnant dysmenorrhea, anthracia and sores, piles and hemorrhage. Oral administration: decocting, 5-10g, or made as medicinal liquor. Oral administration: decocting, 5-10g, or made as medicinal liquor.

Examples      

1. Injury from fall, furunculosis and swelling: common yarrow 15g, angelica 9g, decoct in water and swallow. Take an appropriate amount of common yarrow, decoct, fumigate and wash the lesions.

2. Rheumatic pain: common yarrow and wild rue of equal volume. Decoct, fumigate and wash with decoction.

3. Hemorrhoids hemorrhage, algomenorrhea and traumatic hemorrhage: common yarrow 9g, herba salviae chinnnsis 6g. Decoct in water for oral dose.

Use Ornamental: This is a good garden plant, as it can be used in fresh or dried arrangements and has a pleasing fragrance. Flat-topped clusters of small, whitish flowers grow at the top of a gray-green, leafy, usually hair, stem.

Use Other: The foliage has a pleasant smell when crushed.

References

- Chinese Medicinal Material Images Database

- efloras.org

- theplantlist

- wildflower.org

- Maria Inês Dias, Lillian Barros, Montserrat Dueñas, Eliana Pereira, Ana Maria Carvalho, Rita C Alves, M Beatriz P P Oliveira, Celestino Santos-Buelga, Isabel C F R Ferreira; Chemical composition of wild and commercial Achillea millefolium L. And Bioactivity of the Methanolic Extract, Infusion and Decoction; Comparative Study  Food Chem 2013 Dec 15;141(4):4152-60. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2013.07.018.

- Danilo Falconieri, Alessandra Piras, Silvia Porcedda, Bruno Marongiu, Maria J Gonçalves, Célia Cabral, Carlos Cavaleiro, Ligia Salgueiro; Chemical composition and biological activity of the volatile extracts of Achillea millefolium; Nat Prod Commun. 2011 Oct;6(10):1527-30.