Adiantum capillus-veneris

Adiantum capillus-veneris L.

(Adiantum capillus-veneris L.; Photo Robbin Moran and Peter Greenwood)

Latin Name: Adiantum capillus-veneris L.

Family: Adiantaceae; Genus: Adiantum

Synonym Name: Adiantum africanum R. Br.; Adiantum capillus Sw.; Adiantum capillus-veneris var. capillus-veneris; Adiantum capillus-veneris f. dissectum (M. Martens & Galeotti) Ching; Adiantum capillus-veneris var. fissum Christ    ; Adiantum capillus-veneris f. fissum (Christ) Ching; Adiantum capillus-veneris var. laciniatum Christ ex Tardieu & C. Chr.; Adiantum capillus-veneris var. modestum (Underw.) Fernald; Adiantum capillus-veneris var. protrusum Fernald; Adiantum capillus-veneris var. rimicola (Sloss.) Fernald; Adiantum capillus-veneris var. trifidum Christ; Adiantum coriandrifolium Lam.; Adiantum fontanum Salisb.; Adiantum formosum R. Br.; Adiantum michelii Christ; Adiantum modestum Underw.; Adiantum paradiseae Baker; Adiantum pseudocapillus Fée; Adiantum remyanum Esp. Bustos; Adiantum schaffneri E. Fourn.; Adiantum tenerum var. dissectum M. Martens & Galeotti; Adiantum trifidum Willd. ex Bolle

English Name: Maidenhair, Southern Maidenhair

Chinese name: 铁线蕨 tie xian jue

Vietnamese Name: Ráng vệ nữ, tóc thần vệ nữ.

Description: Plants terrestrial or epilithic, 10-40 cm tall. Rhizomes creeping, slender, scales dense, brown, lanceolate, margins entire. Fronds remote or closely spaced; stipe castaneous-black, glossy, 3-20 cm, slender, base covered with same scales as rhizome, distally glabrous; lamina mostly 2-pinnate below middle, 1-pinnate above middle, ovate-triangular in outline, 6-25 × 8-16 cm, base cuneate, apex acute; pinnae 3-5 each side, obliquely ascending, stalk up to 15 mm; rachises, costae, and stalks same color as stipes, slightly zigzag, color passing into lamina base; basal pair of pinnae larger, 1(or 2)-pinnate, narrowly ovate in outline, 3-9 × 2.5-4 cm, apex obtuse; pinnae from second pair upward all similar but progressively smaller; pinnules 2-4 pairs per ultimate pinna, alternate, obliquely ascending; stalk castaneous-black, 1-2 mm, slender; blade subequal in size or basal pair slightly larger, 12-20 × 10-15 mm, thinly herbaceous, green or dark brown-green, both surfaces glabrous, base cuneate, sides entire, upper margin rounded, 2-4-lobed or divided into twiglike segments; sterile pinnules with apex obtuse, with marginal teeth broadly triangular or erose; fertile segments with apex truncate, straight or slightly depressed, entire or with erose teeth on both sides; terminal pinnules flabellate, usually larger, base narrowly cuneate, stalks up to 1 cm. Veins multidichotomously forked, reaching margins, visible on both surfaces. Sori 3-10 per pinnule, on apices of lobes of upper margin; false indusia yellowish green, brown when old, narrowly reniform or orbicular-reniform, membranous, upper margins flat and straight, entire, persistent. Perispore thickly granular.

Distribution: Growing in crevices of stream rocks at altitude 100-2,800m, houses nearby and wall roots. Distributed in East, South-central and Southwest China, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu.

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

Harvest & Processing: Harvested in Sumner, autumn, well washed, used fresh or sundried.

Chemistry: Leaves contain astragalin, isoquercitrin, rutin, kaempferol-3-glucuronide, qucerciturone, kaempferol-3, 7-diglucoside, kaempferol-3-sulphate, 1-p-coumaroylglucose-6-sulphate, 1-p-coumaroylglucose-2-sulphate, 1-caffeoylgalactose-6-sulphate, sitosterol, stigmasterol, and campesterol. Migrated hopane triterpenoids:  4α-hydroxyfilican-3-one and fern-9(11)-en-12β-ol, and olean-18-en-3-one and olean-12-en-3-one.

Pharmacology: antimicrobial, antiinflammatory, analgesic, hypoglycemic, antioxidant, antilithiasic, antiproliferative, antidermatitis, neuroprotective, anticholesterolemic.

Properties & Actions: Bitter, cool. Clearing heat, detoxifying, inducing water circulation and treating stranguria.

Indications & Usage: Cold and pyrexia, cough with lung heat, diarrhea due to damp-heat, dysentery, stranguria with turbid urine, leukorrhea, mammary abscess, scrofula, furunculosis, scalding injuries and venomous snake bite. Oral administration: decocting, 15-30g, or made as medicinal liquor. External application: decocted for washing, or applied in powdered form.

Examples      

1. Pyrexia due to influenza: Maidenhair 60g, sheathed monochoria herb 30g, radix scutellariae 15g, shengcypsum fibrosum 30g. Decoct in water. Take in three respective doses.

2. Stranguria caused by urinary stone and bloody stranguria: herb of maidenhair 15g, climbing fern 15g, tiesiniu 15g. Decoct in water.

3. Scrofula: whole herb of maidenhair 9-30g. Decoct in water.

References

- libproject.hkbu.edu.hk

- efloras.org

- theplantlist

- C Pan, YG Chen, XY Ma1, JH Jiang, F He1 and Y Zhang; Phytochemical Constituents and Pharmacological activities of plants from the genus Adiantum: A Review; Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research October 2011; 10 (5): 681-692

- Takahisa Nakane, Yoshiko Maeda, Osama B. Abdel-Halim; Fern Constituents: Triterpenoids from Adiantum capillus-veneris; 2002, Chemical & Pharmaceutical Bulletin