RUE RUTA GRAVEOLENS, MEDICINAL PLANT, MAGIC PLANT, TOXIC PLANT
There are several hundred species of RUTA, RUTACEAE, in temperate and subtropical regions.
RUTA GRAVEOLENS, rue, common rue or herb-of-grace, and RUTA CHALEPENSIS, are the best known and used, to a lesser extent Ruta montana.
These are plants native to the Mediterranean region and the Middle East but which were acclimatized since the Middle Ages in the colder temperate regions of Europe. The Spanish and Portuguese introduced them in the 16th century to South America.
Rues have indeed been traditional medicinal plants in Europe since Greco-Roman times. This includes plants that are now somewhat neglected in modern herbal medicine because they are rightly considered to be potentially too toxic. On the other hand, Ruta graveolens remains a plant used in Homeopathy.
Ruta graveolens and Ruta chalepensis look very similar.
They are small plants (up to 1 m), perennial, with poorly branched stems, with alternate leaves composed of oval leaflets, of a pale green, slightly grayish color. Rue leaves have numerous translucent points (essential oil glands) due to their transparency.
The smell of crushed leaves is rather unpleasant and quite typical.
The flowers, in small terminal bouquets, yellow-greenish, have 4 or 5 petals depending on the position of the flower in the inflorescence. The petals of Ruta graveolens are smooth but those of Ruta chalepensis are finely divided, lacinated, on their border. The fruit is a capsule.
RUE MEDICINAL PLANT
The common rue, Ruta graveolens, contains substances of pharmacological interest:
- flavonoids: including rutin (up to 5%) and quercetin, vascular protectors
- photosensitizing furanocoumarins: bergapten and xanthotoxin
- alkaloids (very little studied and used)
- especially essential oil, 0.5 to 3%, depending on the part of the plant.
This rue essential oil is very rich in methyl-nonyl-ketone for the plant, and in 2-un-decanone for the essential oil of the fruits. - The whole plant would be spasmolytic but on the other hand would promote uterine contractions.
- Rue is traditionally used to promote the onset of menstruation (emmenagogue) and as an anaphrodisiac in men.
- Rue, and especially its essential oil, are antihelminthic (neurological poison for parasites).
- The essential oil is rubefacient and used to rub on painful areas of the joints or muscles.
- Cats are very repelled by the smell of rue, especially when the leaves are a little crushed, it seems that certain insects are repelled by the smell of rue essential oil.
The rue is almost no longer used in Europe; on the other hand, it remains a plant appreciated by traditional practitioners (especially Native Americans) in South America (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina). In general they use it in a mixture with other plants (sage, eucalyptus, molle, rosemary, chamomile) as a digestive antispasmodic, period regulator and even in young, agitated and crying children.
Rue has been known since antiquity as an abortifacient plant, but it is an abortifacient plant which also kills the mother or at least induces serious hepatorenal disorders.
RUE MAGIC PLANT
It is very common, in South America, to note the presence of rue in the gardens of houses, in the gardens of churches or around presbyteries. It is generally Ruta chalepensis. This is the rue in the Middle East, the one in which, according to the Bible, Jesus tried to hide to escape the Roman soldiers. Is this the origin of its fame as a protective plant against “evil forces”?
This belief is still very much alive in South America, it is the plant of luck, the one which opens the doors to success, the one which wards off evil spirits and protects from spell casters.
In the province of Corrientes, Argentina, it is traditional to drink a rue infusion flavored with cane juice on the first day of August to ensure good health for the year to come.
RUE TOXIC PLANT
- Furanocoumarins and the essential oil of rue, Ruta graveolens, can cause serious problems.
- Furanocoumarins (psoralens) are phototoxic.
They induce, through contact with bruised leaves followed by exposure to the sun, an acute dermatitis which resembles a first or second degree burn.
Secondarily, the skin will retain hyperpigmentation which can persist for quite a long time. This phototoxic reaction is accentuated by humidity. - More seriously, after digestive absorption, these coumarins are toxic to the kidney and liver, or even carcinogenic, because they alter nucleic acids and can thus cause damage to the genome.
- The essential oil causes contractions of the uterus muscle as well as uterine bleeding.
The signs of rue poisoning begin with digestive problems (pain, vomiting, hypersalivation) which are quickly accompanied by signs of hypotension, heart problems, even convulsions.
At the same time, genital bleeding may be observed.
Later, and depending on the severity of the poisoning, kidney and liver failure may develop which could lead to death. There is no antidote for rue poisoning (Ruta graveolens or Ruta chalepensis).
RUE poisoning is generally intentional to induce an abortion.
It should be remembered that abortion is most often prohibited in South America. Pregnant women should avoid consuming rue extracts even in small quantities because animal studies have shown that rue extracts cause fetal malformations.
Copyright 2024: Dr Jean-Michel Hurtel