Salix alba / White Willow / Salicaceae (Willow family)

Information

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Contents

The active constituent of the bark of Salix alba is salicin, à glucoside of o-hydroxybenzylalcohol. (6)

Historical

Medicines derived from Willow trees and other salicylate-rich plants have been part of pharmacopoeias at least dating back to ancient Sumer. A stone tablet of medical text from the Third Dynasty of Ur, dated ca. 3000 BC, lists Willow among other plant- and animal based remedies; however, no indications are given. The earliest specific reference to conditions Willow was used for comes from the Ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian medical text from ca. 1543 BC, likely a copy of a text from around the time of the Ur tablet. (2) In Greece Hippocrates gives women Willow leaf tea to relieve the pain of childbirth (ca. 400BC). In 1763 Reverend Edward Stone of Chipping Norton near Oxford gives dried Willow bark to 50 parishioners suffering rheumatic fever and describes his findings in a letter to the Royal Society of London. 1823 In Italy the active ingredient is extracted from Willow and named salicin. (3) Through the middle decades of the 19th century, the use of salicylate medicines—including salicin, salicylic acid, and sodium salicylate—grew considerably, however, the unpleasant side effects, particularly gastric irritation, limited their usefulness. (2) 1893 German scientists find that adding an acetyl group to salicylic acid reduces its irritant properties, which a few years later was followed by patenting acetyl salicylic acid, named aspirin. (3)
Today Willow bark is still used in herbal medicine. Clinical trials have shown that it contributes to healthy muscles and joints. (4)

Plant Description

It is a medium-sized to large deciduous tree growing up to 10-30 m tall, with a trunk up to 1 m diameter and an irregular, often leaning crown. The bark is grey-brown, deeply fissured in older trees. The shoots in the typical species are grey-brown to green-brown. The leaves are paler than most other willows, due to a covering of very fine silky white hairs, particularly on the underside; they are 5-10 cm long and 0.5-1.5 cm wide. The flowers are produced in catkins. (5)

Legal Remarks

This product is illegal or somehow problematic to send to the following countries. Click on the country link for further information.

• Finland
• Norway

References

(1) Aspirin Timeline, Aspirin Foundation
(4) Document: NL E4-0-C-REF, Netherlands Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
(5) Salix alba, Wikipedia.
(6) Salicin, MediLexicon Medical Dictionary.