A genus of terrestrial orchids which yield the Salep of commerce.The tubers contain a bitter principle and a volatile oil. They are used as a farinaceous food, nervine tonic and aphrodisiac. They yield a lot of mucilage with water and form a jelly that is supposed to be nutritious and useful in diarrhea, dysentery and chronic fevers. Orchis mascula, Linn. (Salabmisri, Salep orchid):Nerve stimulant and revigorating tonic that has long been known for its value in cases of sexual weakness. It has also been tested recently for cases of nervous debility.
Salep (see following for more details) is very nutritive, astringent, expectorant and demulcent. It has been used as a diet of special value for children and convalescents, being boiled with water, flavoured and prepared in the same way as arrowroot. Rich in mucilage, it forms a soothing and demulcent jelly that is used in the treatment of irritations of the gastro-intestinal canal. One part of salep to fifty parts of water is sufficient to make a jelly. The tuber, from which salep is prepared, should be harvested as the plant dies down after flowering and setting seed.
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Basic Instruction
Orchis mascula or Salep Orchid,Salabmisri and famous mucilage source....
Orchis mascula (L.) L.
Latin name:Orchis mascula
English name: Salep Orchid
Genus: Orchis Family: Orchidaceae Subfamily: Orchidoideae Tribe: Orchideae.
Other Names:early purple orchid,salep,salep orchid. Saloop. Sahlep. Satyrion.Levant Salep.
Botanical Source:Orchis mascula (L.) L. subsp. occidentalis O.Schwarz; Orchis mascula (L.) L. subsp. wanikowii (E.Wulff) Soo; Orchis mascula (L.) L. var. obtusiflora W.D.J.Koch.
Habitat: Deciduous forest,Woodlands. Occasionally seen on meadows.
Subterranean part: Tuber
Seed dispersal: Wind dispersal
Vegetative dispersal: Tuber division
Pollination: Insect pollination
Size: Grows up to 60cms tall.
Flowering months: April to June.
A genus of terrestrial orchids which yield the Salep of commerce.Preliminary clinical trials indicate its possible therapeutic use in some.
Definition/Noun:
1. orchis - any of various deciduous terrestrial orchids having fleshy tubers and flowers in erect terminal racemes
2. orchis - one of the two male reproductive glands that produce spermatozoa and secrete androgens; "she kicked him in the balls and got away"
Habitats:Woodland Garden; Sunny Edge; Dappled Shade; Shady Edge; Lawn; Meadow;
Orchis mascula (Linn.), the Early Purple Orchis, common in English woods, is in flower from mid-April to mid-June.Bulb growing to 0.6m.A single flower-stem rises from the tuberous root, bearing flowers that as a rule are of a rich purple colour, mottled with lighter and darker shades, though often found of every tint from purple to pure white. Each flower has a long spur which turns upwards. The leaves are lance-shaped and do not rise far from the ground, giving a rosette-like effect, and are irregularly blotched with dark purple markings, which help to render the plant conspicuous. In woods and meadowland, the plant often attains a height of a foot or more, while on exposed and breezy downs it is seldom more than 6 inches high.
These species of orchids grow in a soil medium compared to the usual air or tree medium that most tropical orchids prefer. This specie likes calcareous or neutral soils and they can also thrive in broadleaved woodland. The Early Purple Orchid can also flourish in limestone, calcareous grasslands, and vicinity of coastal cliffs and even in roadsides.
It gained its name because this plant is among the first plants to bloom in the United Kingdom after the winter season. It is highly similar to the other orchid species, the green winged orchid, except for the difference in their basal and stalk leaves.
The blossoms are practically odourless in some specimens, whilst those of others are faintly fragrant, but in most cases the smell is not only strong, but offensive, especially in the evening. There is no honey in the flowers, but a sweet juice in the walls of the spur, which insects pierce with their probosces and suck out. The plant is provided with two fleshy, egg-shaped tubers, one serving to provide the necessities of the plant, shrinking as the plant reaches maturity, the other receiving the leaves' surplus supplies of foodstuffs to store for use in the following season.
The Early Purple Orchid usually has a basal cluster of around five (usual) to eight (unusual) blunt tipped leaves. The leaves are oblong in shape and are somewhat shiny and smooth in texture. The plant has a stalk from which a couple or more stem leaves may protrude. The leaves have some very visible spotting which can vary according to the sub specie of the orchid. Some Early Purple Orchid plants may not have the distinctive spotting on its basal leaves.
The flowers of the Early Purple Orchid bloom in a spike which stands at a maximum of 60 centimeters tall. They can be found in clusters of 20 to 50 flowers in one spike. They are usually purple in color but can also range from very light purple to almost pink or white blooms. The flowers are similar to most orchids' species which have several sepals and a lip along with the true petals of the flower. The center of the flowers' lip is usually paler in coloration compared to the entire flower.
The Early Purple Orchid smells sweet when it initially blooms but gradually turns to a smell that is slightly akin to urine after it has been pollinated. There are several bees that pollinate this purple orchid. Some people claim that the root of the Early Purple Orchid has some medicinal value. The roots are ground to produce a powder called salep which is either drank or added to other foods to make them more nutritious.
Witches were supposed to use the tubers in their philtres, the fresh tuber being given to promote true love, and the withered one to check wrong passions. Culpepper speaks of them as 'under the dominion of Venus,' and tells us among other things, that 'being bruised and applied to the place' they heal the King's Evil.
This Early Purple Orchis in Northants is called 'Cuckoos,' because it comes into flower about the time when the cuckoo first calls. In Dorset it has the name of 'Granfer Griggles,' and the wild Hyacinth, which often flowers by its side, bears the name of 'Granny Griggles.'
Ranges in height from 10-60 cm, with a basal cluster of four to eight shiny, oblong, blunt-tipped leaves, and two or three stem leaves. Most plants have darkly-spotted leaves, the degree of spotting being highly variable. There are 20-50 pinkish-purple flowers in a loose spike, which can be lax in woodland plants. The sepals spread upwards, almost touching above the loose hood formed by the upper sepal and blunter petals. The lip is broad, three-lobed with a notch in the central lobe, and with the crenated side lobes slightly reflexed. The centre of the lip is pale and marked with dark spots. The spur is stout, blunt and upturned. When the flowers are just opened the scent is usually sweet, like honey, but soon smells strongly of tom-cat's urine, a device which may serve to inform visiting insects that pollination has already occurred. It is normally monocarpic, depending entirely on seed for future generations, which explains the wide fluctuation in the number of flowering plants from year to year. White-flowered plants alb are not infrequent, and may form a high percentage of some populations, as in The Burren in Ireland; they have not been recorded in Scotland. Pink-flowered plants are less common. Plants with 'broken-coloured' flowers brf - pale pinkish-purple, but flecked all over with mauve spots - were first recorded in Gloucestershire in 1988, where they reappeared in 1991; such plants have also been seen in Wiltshire (1989), Kent (1991) and Sussex (2001).
Confusing Species: Very small, dark coloured plants with unspotted leaves may superficially resemble Green-winged Orchid, but lack the parallel green veins on the hood of that species.
Hybrids: The uncommon hybrid with Green-winged Orchid was recorded in Westmorland in 1985.
Habitat: Grows in a wide variety of habitats on neutral or calcareous soils, flourishing in particular in broadleaved woodland and coppices. It also grows on calcareous grassland, limestone pavement, road verges and beside damp flushes on coastal cliffs.
Pollination: Buff-tailed Bumblebees frequently visit the flowers. Less common pollinators recorded are solitary bees (possibly Eucera longicornis) and cuckoo bees of the genus Psithyrus (Bombus).
Conservation: Some populations have been lost from broad-leaved woodlands which have been cleared and replanted with conifers.
Cultivation details and Propagation:
Succeeds in most soils, but it prefers a moist loam and lots of leaf mould. Requires a deep rich soil. Grows well in full sun or partial shade, doing well in a woodland garden. It also succeeds in a sunny dry border or on a scree.
Orchids are, in general, shallow-rooting plants of well-drained low-fertility soils. Their symbiotic relationship with a fungus in the soil allows them to obtain sufficient nutrients and be able to compete successfully with other plants. They are very sensitive to the addition of fertilizers or fungicides since these can harm the symbiotic fungus and thus kill the orchid. This symbiotic relationship makes them very difficult to cultivate, though they will sometimes appear uninvited in a garden and will then thrive. Transplanting can damage the relationship and plants might also thrive for a few years and then disappear, suggesting that they might be short-lived perennials.
Plants seem to be immune to the predations of rabbits.
The flowers have a fairly pleasant odour from a distance, but an unpleasant fur-like smell near to which is more pronounced at nightfall and as the flowers begin to fade.
Cultivated plants are very susceptible to the predation of slugs and snails.
Plants can succeed in a lawn in various parts of the country. The lawn should not be mown early in the year before or immediately after flowering. Plant out bulbs whilst the plant is dormant, preferably in the autumn. Bulbs can also be transplanted with a large ball of soil around the roots when they are in leaf, they are impatient of root disturbance.
Seed - surface sow, preferably as soon as it is ripe, in the greenhouse and do not allow the compost to dry out. The seed of this species is extremely simple, it has a minute embryo surrounded by a single layer of protective cells. It contains very little food reserves and depends upon a symbiotic relationship with a species of soil-dwelling fungus. The fungal hyphae invade the seed and enter the cells of the embryo. The orchid soon begins to digest the fungal tissue and this acts as a food supply for the plant until it is able to obtain nutrients from decaying material in the soil. It is best to use some of the soil that is growing around established plants in order to introduce the fungus, or to sow the seed around a plant of the same species and allow the seedlings to grow on until they are large enough to move. Division of the tubers as the flowers fade. This species produces a new tuber towards the end of its growing season. If this is removed from the plant as its flowers are fading, the shock to the plant can stimulate new tubers to be formed. The tuber should be treated as being dormant, whilst the remaining plant should be encouraged to continue in growth in order to give it time to produce new tubers. Division can also be carried out when the plant has a fully developed rosette of leaves but before it comes into flower. The entire new growth is removed from the old tuber from which it has arisen and is potted up, the cut being made towards the bottom of the stem but leaving one or two roots still attached to the old tuber. This can often be done without digging up the plant. The old tuber should develop one or two new growths, whilst the new rosette should continue in growth and flower normally.
Flowers: Fresh,The flowers have a fairly pleasant odour from a distance, but an unpleasant fur-like smell near to which is more pronounced at nightfall and as the flowers begin to fade.
Phytochemicals and Constituents of Orchis mascula:
The constituents of Salep are subject to great variation, according to the season of collection. Raspail found the old tuber, collected in autumn, to be free from starch, while the young one was richly supplied with it.
The tubers contain a bitter principle and a volatile oil. They are used as a farinaceous food, nervine tonic and aphrodisiac. They yield a lot of mucilage with water and form a jelly that is supposed to be nutritious and useful in diarrhea, dysentery and chronic fevers.
The most important constituent is mucilage, amounting to 48 per cent. It also contains sugar 1 per cent), starch (2.7 per cent), nitrogenous substance (5 per cent), and when fresh a trace of volatile oil. It yields 2 per cent of ash, consisting chiefly of phosphates and chlorides of potassium and calcium.
Salep is very nutritive and demulcent, for which properties it has been used from time immemorial. It forms a diet of especial value to convalescents and children, being boiled with milk or water, flavoured and prepared in the same way as arrowroot. A decoction flavoured with sugar and spice, or wine, is an agreeable drink for invalids. Sassafras chips were sometimes added, or cloves, cinnamon and ginger.
From the large quantity of farinaceous matter contained in a small bulk, it was considered so important an article of diet as to constitute a part of the stores of every ship's company in the days of sailing ships and long voyages, an ounce, dissolved in 2 quarts of boiling water, being considered sufficient subsistence for each man per day, should provisions run short. In this form it is employed in some parts of Europe and Asia as an article of diet. It is to the mucilage contained in the tuber that Salep owes its power of forming jelly, only 1 part of Salep to 50 parts of boiling water being needed for the purpose.
To allay irritation of the gastro-intestinal canal, it is used in mucilage made by shaking 1 part of powdered Salep with 10 parts of cold water, until it is uniformly diffused, when 90 parts of boiling water are added and the whole well agitated. It has thus been recommended as an article of diet for infants and invalids suffering from chronic diarrhoea and bilious fevers. In the German Pharmacopoeia, a mucilage of Salep appears as an official preparation.
The root of the early purple orchid (O. mascula) and several other species contain a nutritive starch. In southern Europe they are softened by soaking to produce a drink called salep. The green-winged orchid (O. morio) is widely distributed throughout Eurasia.
Edible Uses and Medicinal Uses:
Drink; Root.
Root - cooked. It is a source of 'salep', a fine white to yellowish-white powder that is obtained by drying the tuber and grinding it into a powder. Salep is a starch-like substance with a sweetish taste and a faint somewhat unpleasant smell. It is said to be very nutritious and is made into a drink or can be added to cereals and used in making bread etc. One ounce of salep is said to be enough to sustain a person for a day.
Medicinal Uses:
Disclaimer:Astringent; Demulcent; Expectorant; Nutritive.
Salep (see above for more details) is very nutritive, astringent, expectorant and demulcent. It has been used as a diet of special value for children and convalescents, being boiled with water, flavoured and prepared in the same way as arrowroot. Rich in mucilage, it forms a soothing and demulcent jelly that is used in the treatment of irritations of the gastro-intestinal canal. One part of salep to fifty parts of water is sufficient to make a jelly. The tuber, from which salep is prepared, should be harvested as the plant dies down after flowering and setting seed.
Love herbs and Orchis mascula:
THE World Health Organization defines sexuality as an integral part of everyone's personality. It is a basic need and an aspect of being human that cannot be separated from other aspects of human life.
Sexuality is so interwoven into our lives that it forms an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Sexual health is very much bound to both physical and mental health.
One's sexual health is an important indicator of the quality of life and overall health. Today, we face many sexual health problems that pose a threat to our quality of life. Recent research indicates that sexual problems are highly prevalent in both sexes as it is estimated that 10% to 52% of men and 25% to 63% of women encounter them.
The common sexual problems or dysfunctions encountered in both men and women are loss of libido or lack of interest in sex and infertility, while men alone face problems like premature ejaculation, low sperm counts, and erectile dysfunction.
Various underlying factors like age, obesity, stress, depression, hypogonadism (low levels of sex hormones), lack of sexual knowledge, certain medical conditions like hypertension, atherosclerosis, cigarette smoking and certain medications cause sexual dysfunction.
While correcting underlying causes using pharmacological and psychological therapy forms the basis of addressing it, lifestyle changes and herbs can also help in such conditions.
Sexual health has a unique position in Ayurveda. While describing daily routine, Ayurveda explains the schedule for the night as well, and one of the most important activities at this time is the sexual act.
The literature explains at length about the need for satisfying this innate desire of man. To fulfil this desire in the most effective way, Vajeekarana or Vrushyachikitsa (to make a strong potent man), one of the eight specialty disciplines, was developed in Ayurveda 3,600 years ago.
The term Vajee means horse-like virility and Vajeekarana means strengthening or arousing sexual desire or producing virility. It is also known as Vrushya (Vrusha means Bull), meaning penile tumescence (that which increases the organ size), and mood elevation.
Benefits of this treatment include fulfilling satisfaction, nourishment, enhanced fertility, momentary joy and strong body.
There are several herbs used in Ayurveda to promote virility. Almonds are commonly recommended to restore strength and replenish vitality.
The cause of low libido is the diminution of vital reproductive elements in the body called Shukra dhatu. Emotional factors and high stress are also some of the primary causes of a reduced sex drive. Ashvagandha (Withania somnifera) is recommended in men while Shatavari (Asperagus racemosus) is recommended for women with this condition.
In the case of impotence, it is recommended to take saffron (Crocus sativus) and Sunishannaka (Blepharis edulis), which are aphrodisiacs and also help to increase sperm count.
Kokilaksha (Asteracantha longifolia) is used in disorders of genitourinary system and is useful in impotence, spermatorrhoea and seminal debilities.
Several other herbs are recommended in Ayurveda and they are Gokshura (Tribulus terrestris), Kokilaksha (Asteracantha longifolia), Kumkuma (Crocus sativus), Sunishannaka (Blepharis edulis), Salab misri (Orchis mascula) Vathada (Prunus amybdalus), Kapikachchu (Mucuna pruriens) and others.
Gokshura (Tribulus terrestris), also known as the small caltrops, is a small herb (and often seen as a common weed) found in many parts of the world. It also bears small yellow or pale yellow flowers. The fruit or root of Gokshura is well known for its properties that are useful in the treatment of kidney stones and painful urination. It is also recommended in impotence and in kidney dysfunction. Its effects in erectile dysfunction are pronounced.
Recent studies have demonstrated a direct relationship between serum levels of the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and the incidence of erectile dysfunction.
Protodioscin, a phytochemical agent derived from Gokshura, has been clinically proven to improve sexual desire and enhance erection via the conversion of protodioscin to DHEA. Several studies support the pro-erectile effects of Gokshura. Protodioscin from Gokshura also improves blood flow to the erectile tissues.
Kapikachchu (Mucuna pruriens) is a twining plant that grows all over India. The alkaloids from this plant have been found to increase sperm production in treated rats. It also exhibited testosterone-induced androgenic activity in another set of individuals. Traditionally Kapikachchu is used in increasing sperm count in men and ovulation in women and for relief from Parkinson's disease.
Recent studies attribute oxidative stress as one of the main reasons for arteriogenic erectile dysfunction and conclude that antioxidants may be helpful in preventing dysfunction. Kapikachhu is a potent antioxidant, which reduces the oxidative damage to sperm by preventing the disruption in its membrane integrity.
Ayurvedic formulations available for such conditions include a combination of the above herbs or single herb preparations.
In conclusion, sexual health is the integration of the somatic, emotional, intellectual, and social aspects of living. Hence, for optimum sexual health, the above factors are very essential. These herbs and herbal formulations are positively enriching and help to enhance personality, communication, and love.
Scientific References:
1.Orchis mascula or Salep Orchid,Salabmisri and famous mucilage source....
Claims & Warning:
Claims: Information this web site presented is meant for Nutritional Benefit and as an educational starting point only, for use in maintenance and promotion good health in cooperation with a common knowledge base reference...Furthermore,it based solely on the traditional and historic use or legend of a given herb from the garden of Adonis. Although every effort has been made to ensure its accurate, please note that some info may be outdated by more recent scientific developments......
Pharmakon Warning: The order of knowledge is not the transparent order of forms and ideas,as one might be tempted retrospectively to interpret it; it is the antidote....(Dissemination,Plato's Pharmacy,II.The Ingredients:Phantasms,Festivals,and Paints;138cf. Jacques Derrida.).
And as it happens,the technique of imitation,along with the production of the simulacrum,has always been in Plato's eyes manifestly magical,thaumaturgical:......and the same things appear bent and straight to those who view them in water and out,or concave and convex,owing to similar errors of vision about colors, and there is obviously every confusion of this sort in our souls.And so scene painting (skiagraphia) in its exploitation of this weakness of four nature falls nothing short of witchcraft (thaumatopoia), and so do jugglery and many other such contrivances.(Republic X,602c-d;cf.also 607c).
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Serie No.:P051.Basic Data Sheet Download
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seminal trace...Orchis mascula Extract,Salabmisri extract,Salep Orchid extract,Extract of Orchis mascula.Early Purple Orchid extract.Mucilage. 5:1,Mucilage 20%.CAS.RN:90082-24-9.cure Premature Ejaculation,ED....
Basic Botanical Data of Orchis mascula:
Spread Areas:
Scientific References:
Claims & Warning:
