Common Soapwort
Scientific name: Saponaria officinalis L.
Family: Caryophyllaceae
MORPHOLOGY
Growth habit and size: Perennial herbaceous plant, equipped with a creeping, branched, reddish-brown rhizome. Height ranges from 30 cm to 1 m.
Stem: Erect or ascending stems, glabrous or slightly pubescent, sometimes woody at the base.
Leaves: Opposite, oval, elongated, and curved leaves, the lower ones shortly petiolate, the upper ones sessile and opposite at the nodes, covered with short hairs or glabrous, wrinkled on the edges, with 3(5) prominent veins.
Flowers: Flowers are pink to varying degrees, occasionally white, with 5 slightly notched petals,a purplish, tubular and pubescent calyx, grouped in compact clusters at the apex of the stems. They emit a delicate fragrance, especially in the evening. Blooms from May to September.
Fruits and seeds: The fruits are oblong-pyriform capsules, dehiscent with 4 apical teeth, containing numerous black, kidney-shaped seeds with a tuberculate surface.
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT
It grows throughout Italy from sea level to 1,000 m. It prefers fresh and moist soils, riverbanks, ruderal environments, fields, and anthropized areas.
USE
Its properties are mainly depurative, diuretic, expectorant, sudorific, and tonic. Internally used for gout and dermatitis, bronchial congestion, and jaundice. Today it is rarely used due to its irritating effect on the digestive system. In excess, it destroys red blood cells, causes paralysis of the vasomotor centers. Externally, a decoction is useful in cases of dermatitis and for skin affected by acne or psoriasis. Although sometimes recommended as a shampoo, it can cause severe eye irritation. Before taking any plant-based product (medicinal or non-medicinal) for therapeutic or similar purposes, it is always advisable to consult a doctor. The root and dried leaves were used, before commercial soap production began around the early 19th century, as a detergent for washing delicate fabrics. A decoction obtained by boiling the various parts of the plant in rainwater is indicated for restoring the brightness of ancient silk fabrics, lace, and embroideries, whose colors have been dulled by dust.
INTERESTING FACTS
Already used as soap by the Assyrians in the 8th century B.C., five centuries before Christ, Saponaria was used for degreasing the wool that the nomadic populations of Asia used to weave their famous carpets. Around 400 B.C., the great physician Hippocrates cited the therapeutic possibilities attributed to soapwort roots, “capable of purifying the body and giving women a rosy skin, worthy of that of Venus.” In the past, it was used by the ancient Romans in thermal baths, and Arab doctors used it in the treatment of leprosy. In The English Physitian Enlarged (1653), Nicholas Culpeper states that this plant “is an excellent cure for syphilis.” Its use in treating the symptoms of this disease and other venereal diseases was also recommended by Greve (A Modern Herbal 1931), especially in cases where treatment with mercury, used for about 400 years, had failed. Species belonging to the genus Saponaria, as far as the European area is concerned, were imported in ancient times to bring a touch of color to the gardens of castles, convent gardens, and monastery cloisters; only later did they spread and naturalize. Saponaria officinalis is often found in the wild in the sites of old woolen mills, where it was once cultivated for washing fabric.
Photos: Kindly provided by Claudio Farinati
