Saussurea
Encyclopedia
Saussurea is a genus of about 300 species of flowering plant
s in the family Asteraceae
, native to cool temperate
and arctic
regions of Asia
, Europe
, and North America
, with the highest diversity in alpine
habitats in the Himalaya and central Asia. Common names include saw-wort and snow lotus, the latter used for a number of high altitude species in central Asia.
They are perennial
herbaceous
plants, ranging in height from dwarf alpine species 5–10 cm tall, to tall thistle
-like plants up to 3 m tall. The leaves
are produced in a dense basal rosette, and then spirally up the flowering stem. The flower
s form in a dense head of small capitula
, often completely surrounded in dense white to purple woolly hairs; the individual florets are also white to purple. The wool is densest in the high altitude species, and aid in thermoregulation of the flowers, minimising frost damage at night, and also preventing ultraviolet light damage from the intense high altitude sunlight.
De Candolle named the genus after Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure
(1767–1845).
s for their decorative dense woolly flowerheads; they are among the most challenging plants to grow, being adapted to harsh climates from 3500–5000 m altitude, demanding cool temperatures, a very long (up to 8–10 months) winter rest period, and very good soil drainage in humus-rich gravel soils.
, and is believed to have been the dried root of Saussurea lappa. Saussurea lappa is used as an anti-inflammatory
drug, and a component of the traditional Tibetan medicine Padma 28, and has been shown to inhibit the mRNA expression of iNOS by lipopolysaccharide
stimulated macrophages, thus reducing nitric oxide
production. In rats, 50-200 milligrams per kilogram of crude ethanolic extract reduced observed inflammation in standard laboratory tests, and 25-100 milligrams per kilogram of the sesquiterpene
fraction of the extract reduced several molecular markers of inflammation.
Saussurea involucrata flowers and stems have long been used in traditional Chinese medicine
for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis
, cough with cold, stomachache, dysmenorrhea
, and altitude sickness, and has been found to have antiinflammatory, cardiotonic, abortifacient, anticancer, and antifatigue actions. Ethanol extracts were shown to have analgesic and antiinflammatory effects at doses of 75-300 milligrams per kilogram. As the slow-growing wild plant is endangered by collections, a substitute grown in tissue culture has been suggested, which is mostly equivalent. Generally the analgesic and antiinflammatory effects of the plant are much inferior to those of 10 milligrams of indomethacin.
mushroom, and old ginseng
.
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
s in the family Asteraceae
Asteraceae
The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...
, native to cool temperate
Temperate
In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...
and arctic
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
regions of Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, with the highest diversity in alpine
Alpine climate
Alpine climate is the average weather for a region above the tree line. This climate is also referred to as mountain climate or highland climate....
habitats in the Himalaya and central Asia. Common names include saw-wort and snow lotus, the latter used for a number of high altitude species in central Asia.
They are perennial
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
herbaceous
Herbaceous
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
plants, ranging in height from dwarf alpine species 5–10 cm tall, to tall thistle
Thistle
Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant – on surfaces such as those of the stem and flat parts of leaves. These are an adaptation that protects the...
-like plants up to 3 m tall. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are produced in a dense basal rosette, and then spirally up the flowering stem. The flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s form in a dense head of small capitula
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
, often completely surrounded in dense white to purple woolly hairs; the individual florets are also white to purple. The wool is densest in the high altitude species, and aid in thermoregulation of the flowers, minimising frost damage at night, and also preventing ultraviolet light damage from the intense high altitude sunlight.
De Candolle named the genus after Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure
Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure
Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure was a Swiss chemist and student of plant physiology who made seminal advances in phytochemistry....
(1767–1845).
Uses
A number of the high alpine Himalayan species are grown as ornamental plantOrnamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
s for their decorative dense woolly flowerheads; they are among the most challenging plants to grow, being adapted to harsh climates from 3500–5000 m altitude, demanding cool temperatures, a very long (up to 8–10 months) winter rest period, and very good soil drainage in humus-rich gravel soils.
Medicinal uses
Costi amari radix or costus root was an important item of Roman trade with IndiaRoman trade with India
Roman trade with India through the overland caravan routes via Anatolia and Persia, though at a relative trickle compared to later times, antedated the southern trade route via the Red Sea and monsoons which started around the beginning of the Common Era following the reign of Augustus and his...
, and is believed to have been the dried root of Saussurea lappa. Saussurea lappa is used as an anti-inflammatory
Anti-inflammatory
Anti-inflammatory refers to the property of a substance or treatment that reduces inflammation. Anti-inflammatory drugs make up about half of analgesics, remedying pain by reducing inflammation as opposed to opioids, which affect the central nervous system....
drug, and a component of the traditional Tibetan medicine Padma 28, and has been shown to inhibit the mRNA expression of iNOS by lipopolysaccharide
Lipopolysaccharide
Lipopolysaccharides , also known as lipoglycans, are large molecules consisting of a lipid and a polysaccharide joined by a covalent bond; they are found in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, act as endotoxins and elicit strong immune responses in animals.-Functions:LPS is the major...
stimulated macrophages, thus reducing nitric oxide
Nitric oxide
Nitric oxide, also known as nitrogen monoxide, is a diatomic molecule with chemical formula NO. It is a free radical and is an important intermediate in the chemical industry...
production. In rats, 50-200 milligrams per kilogram of crude ethanolic extract reduced observed inflammation in standard laboratory tests, and 25-100 milligrams per kilogram of the sesquiterpene
Sesquiterpene
Sesquiterpenes are a class of terpenes that consist of three isoprene units and have the molecular formula C15H24. Like monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes may be acyclic or contain rings, including many unique combinations...
fraction of the extract reduced several molecular markers of inflammation.
Saussurea involucrata flowers and stems have long been used in traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine refers to a broad range of medicine practices sharing common theoretical concepts which have been developed in China and are based on a tradition of more than 2,000 years, including various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage , exercise , and dietary therapy...
for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder that may affect many tissues and organs, but principally attacks synovial joints. The process produces an inflammatory response of the synovium secondary to hyperplasia of synovial cells, excess synovial fluid, and the development...
, cough with cold, stomachache, dysmenorrhea
Dysmenorrhea
Dysmenorrhea is a gynecological medical condition of pain during menstruation that interferes with daily activities, as defined by ACOG and others. Still, dysmenorrhea is often defined simply as menstrual pain, or at least menstrual pain that is excessive...
, and altitude sickness, and has been found to have antiinflammatory, cardiotonic, abortifacient, anticancer, and antifatigue actions. Ethanol extracts were shown to have analgesic and antiinflammatory effects at doses of 75-300 milligrams per kilogram. As the slow-growing wild plant is endangered by collections, a substitute grown in tissue culture has been suggested, which is mostly equivalent. Generally the analgesic and antiinflammatory effects of the plant are much inferior to those of 10 milligrams of indomethacin.
Literature and Culture
In most Chinese martial arts literature, the snow Lotus was classified a rare herb as precious as lingzhiLingzhi
The lingzhi mushroom or reishi mushroom encompasses several fungal species of the genus Ganoderma, and most commonly refers to the closely related species, Ganoderma lucidum and Ganoderma tsugae. G...
mushroom, and old ginseng
Ginseng
Ginseng is any one of eleven species of slow-growing perennial plants with fleshy roots, belonging to the genus Panax of the family Araliaceae....
.
Selected species
- Saussurea abnormis. Himalaya.
- Saussurea acrophila. China.
- Saussurea albescens. Western Himalaya.
- Saussurea alpina. Common Saw-wort. Northern and central Europe, northwest Asia.
- Saussurea amara. China, Russia.
- Saussurea americanaSaussurea americanaSaussurea americana is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name American saw-wort. It is native to northwestern North America from Alaska to far northern California to Montana, where it grows in mountain habitat, such as meadows and forests...
. American Saw-wort. Western North America. - Saussurea amurensis. China.
- Saussurea angustifolia. Narrowleaf Saw-wort. Arctic northeast Asia, Alaska, Canada.
- Saussurea auriculata. Himalaya, western China.
- Saussurea bhutkesh. Himalaya.
- Saussurea bodinieri. China.
- Saussurea bullockii. China.
- Saussurea cana. China.
- Saussurea candolleana. Himalaya.
- Saussurea ceratocarpa. Kashmir.
- Saussurea chinnampoensis. China.
- Saussurea chrysotricha. Himalaya.
- Saussurea controversa. Russia.
- Saussurea cordifolia. China.
- Saussurea costusSaussurea costusSaussurea costus is a plant in the family Asteraceae. Its root was known as costus to the ancient world. The root is also known as putchock, puchuk, koshet , Kuth, Kut, Koot or Kushta ....
. Eastern Himalaya. - Saussurea crispa. Himalaya.
- Saussurea deltoidea. Himalaya, China, Taiwan.
- Saussurea densa. Clustered Saw-wort. Arctic northeast Asia, Canada, Montana.
- Saussurea dhwojii. Himalaya.
- Saussurea discolor. Alpine central Europe.
- Saussurea dolichopoda. China.
- Saussurea donkiah. Himalaya.
- Saussurea dutaillyana. China.
- Saussurea dzeurensis. China.
- Saussurea elegans. Caucasus.
- Saussurea epilobioides. China.
- Saussurea fastuosa. Himalaya, western China.
- Saussurea formosana. Taiwan.
- Saussurea forrestii. Himalaya.
- Saussurea frondosa. China.
- Saussurea glandulosa. Taiwan.
- Saussurea globosa. China.
- Saussurea gnaphalodes. Himalaya, western China.
- Saussurea gossypiphora. Himalaya.
- Saussurea graminea. China.
- Saussurea graminifolia. Himalaya.
- Saussurea grandiflora. China.
- Saussurea heteromalla. Himalaya.
- Saussurea hieracioides. Himalaya, western China.
- Saussurea hookeri. Himalaya.
- Saussurea involucrata. Snow Lotus, Himalaya, (Vansemberuu) Mongolia.
- Saussurea iodostegia. China.
- Saussurea japonica. Japan, Korea, northern China.
- Saussurea kanaii. Himalaya.
- Saussurea kanzanensis. Taiwan.
- Saussurea kingii. China.
- Saussurea kiraisanensis. Taiwan.
- Saussurea laminamaensis. Himalaya.
- Saussurea lanicepsSaussurea lanicepsSaussurea laniceps is a rare plant found only in the Himalaya and southwest China above about 3500 m altitude...
. China. - Saussurea lanuginosa. China.
- Saussurea lappa. Himalaya.
- Saussurea leontodontoides. Himalaya.
- Saussurea licentiana. China.
- Saussurea likiangensis. Southwest China.
- Saussurea linearifolia. Himalaya.
- Saussurea longifolia. China.
- Saussurea manshurica. Northern China.
- Saussurea medusa. China.
- Saussurea mongolica. Western China, Mongolia.
- Saussurea namikawae. Himalaya.
- Saussurea neofranchetii. China.
- Saussurea nepalensis. Himalaya.
- Saussurea nigrescens. China.
- Saussurea nishiokae. Himalaya.
- Saussurea nivea. China.
- Saussurea nuda. Nutty Saw-wort. Alaska.
- Saussurea obvallataSaussurea obvallata-Introduction:Saussurea obvallata is a species of flowering plant native to the Himalayas and Uttar Pradesh, India, Northern Burma and South-West China. In Himalayas, it is found at an altitude of around 4500 m. It is considered to be the state flower of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Saussurea...
. Brahma Kamal. Himalaya, northern Burma and south-west China. - Saussurea oligantha. China.
- Saussurea otophylla. China.
- Saussurea pachyneura. Himalaya.
- Saussurea parviflora. Russia, China.
- Saussurea pectinata. China.
- Saussurea peguensis. China.
- Saussurea phaeantha. China.
- Saussurea pinetorum. China.
- Saussurea piptathera. Himalaya.
- Saussurea platyphyllaria. Himalaya.
- Saussurea polycephala. China.
- Saussurea polystichoides. Himalaya.
- Saussurea populifolia. China.
- Saussurea porcii. Carpathians.
- Saussurea pulchella. Japan, Korea, northern China, eastern Siberia.
- Saussurea pygmaea. Alps, Carpathians.
- Saussurea quercifolia. China.
- Saussurea romuleifolia. China.
- Saussurea roylei. Himalaya.
- Saussurea runcinata. China.
- Saussurea salsa. Russia, China.
- Saussurea simpsoniana. Himalaya.
- Saussurea sobarocephala. China.
- Saussurea spicata. Himalaya.
- Saussurea stafleuana. Himalaya.
- Saussurea stella. China.
- Saussurea stracheyana. Himalaya.
- Saussurea sughoo. Himalaya.
- Saussurea taraxacifolia. Himalaya.
- Saussurea tangutica. Western Asia.
- Saussurea topkegolensis. Himalaya.
- Saussurea tridactyla. Himalaya.
- Saussurea turgaiensis. Russia.
- Saussurea uniflora. Himalaya.
- Saussurea ussuriensis. China, eastern Russia.
- Saussurea vansemberuu. Mongolia.
- Saussurea veitchiana. Central China.
- Saussurea velutina. China.
- Saussurea viscida. Sticky Saw-wort. Alaska.
- Saussurea weberi. Weber's Saw-wort. Rocky Mountains.
- Saussurea werneroides. Himalaya.
- Saussurea yakla. Himalaya.