Meadowsweet – A plant with childhood memories and an interesting medical past
If any time could be described as high summer, then the time is now. We all have happy memories of breaking up for the school summer holidays in late July, with the return in September seeming months away, rather than just a few short weeks.
Walk anywhere damp at this time of year and the frothy creamy-white flowers of Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) are in full flower. It is beside riverbanks, roadside verges, ditches and in meadows. For me it brings back childhood memories and has an interesting medical past.
I often stop to pick a stalk, crush it vigorously, and then inhale. You then get that overwhelming smell of Germolene. This antiseptic was used liberally during my childhood, and I suspect yours too, for cuts and grazes, from a time spent exploring the outdoors.
As a member of the rose family, it has the usual five sepals and petals and multiple stamens. But it is the fruit or seed pods which are fascinating, spiralled into a tight ball, looking like a miniature clenched fist with four fingers or that 1960s or 70s touch of indulgence, a walnut whip.
Despite being known as the ‘Queen of the Meadow’, this wildflower’s name doesn’t derive from where it grows, but from its use to flavour mead, ‘meodu’ in old English.
Meadowsweet also has an interesting medical past and has played its part in one of the most prescribed medicines today – Aspirin. The medicinal effects of willow bark have been known since Egyptian times. The Greeks and Romans used it for pain relief, joint problems, and to lower fever. In essence it was an analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic. However, the man who is credited with its discovery was the Reverend Edward Stone, vicar of Chipping Norton and fellow of Oxford University. In 1763 he performed one of the very first clinical trials, treating his parishioners with ague (chills and fevers) with willow bark.
It was not until 65 years later, in 1828, that the active chemical compound – Salicin was isolated, taking its name from the Latin for willow - Salix. A less well-known fact is that Meadowsweet was discovered by Swiss pharmacist Johann Pagenstecher in 1830, to have a very similar compound – salicylic acid. Industrial chemical synthesis soon followed and the need for a plant-based product was no longer necessary.
Salicylic acid became widely used but had a long list of troublesome side effects. A safer drug was needed. This resulted in the German chemical firm, Bayer, producing acetylated salicylic acid in 1897. Searching for a name they looked to Meadowsweet, then known by its Latin name Spiraea, and choose ‘Aspirin’.
‘A’ for Acetylated
‘SPIR’ for Spiraea (Meadowsweet's old Latin name)
‘IN’ a common drug suffix
Aspirin’s popularity grew, especially during the 1918-19 global influenza pandemic. However, during the second half of the twentieth century concern grew over its gastric side-effects. The introduction of safer drugs such as Paracetamol and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories like Ibuprofen and Naproxen, resulting in its decline. This might have left Aspirin as just as a footnote in medical history had it not been for the discovery in 1966, that Aspirin prolonged the bleeding time, and decreased the stickiness of platelets. A new use had now been found for this wonder drug. From the late 1980s onwards it has been widely used to both treat and prevent heart disease and stroke.
If you are one of the many people taking Aspirin today in the UK, then you have Meadowsweet, this flower of high summer in part to thank.