Plants related to the life and medicinal practice

Plants related to the life and medicinal practice
of St. Ivan Rilski
Anely NEDELCHEVA
Department of Botany, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria
Abstract (Bulgarian)
Свети Иван Рилски днес е провъзгласен за покровител на българският народ и е един от най-важните светци на
Българската православна църква. Според житията му, като отшелник извършва множество чудеса и се отдава на
лечителска дейност. Настоящето проучване представя данни за над 80 вида лечебни растения използвани от светеца и
документирани в стар лекарственик. Видовете Rheum palmatum и Rheum rhaponticum (рилски ревен) се свързват с
лечителската дейност на монасите от Рилския манастир, чийто основател е Св. Ив. Рилски. Съществуват писменни
сведения за използването на Cicer arietinum (нахут) и Rosa canina (шипка) като едни от неговите основни храни.
Introduction
For centuries, Bulgarian people have been using
herbal medicine for the treatment of some daily
diseases. The empirical data of medicinal plants and
traditional herbal drugs are passed on from one
generation to the next as an oral folklore and only little
part of this knowledge is stored as written textsmanuscripts or herbal books. The Bulgarian
ethnobotanical literature not considered the oldest text
documents related to Bulgarian herbal history
(Achtarov et al. 1939; Stojanov and Kitanov 1960;
Stranski 1963; Petkov 1982; Leporatti and Ivancheva
2003, etc.).
St. Ivan Rilski (876-946) was the first Bulgarian
hermit. He was revered as a saint when alive and
legend has it that wild animals sought him out and
birds landed on his hands. St. Ivan Rilski is also
legendary known to have performed a multitude of
miracles in order to help people healed illness and
infirmities. Data about the herbs and remedies used by
him are not found and described till now. In
hagiography there is some information about several
plants used as food in his daily life (Duichev 1947;
Pulos 1992; Bayramova 1997) as well as one botanical
study (Stranski 1953).
Saint Ivan Rilski is today honoured as the patron
saint of Bulgarian people and one of the most important
saints in Bulgarian Orthodox Church (fig. 1).
Material and methods
The object of the present study is a book “Canon …”
(1836, 1845) (fig. 2) a part of the Bulgarian early printed
1. - St. Ivan Rilski - icon, wall painting.
literature heritage (Petkanova 2003). The book is written
in Old Church Slavonic language by anonymous author
(supposed to be Neofit Rilski), it contains three main
parts: I. “Canon-prayer”, II. “Prayer to St. Ivan Rilski”
and III. Folk remedies.
Why this book? The book is one of the oldest written
documental sources with traditional herbal remedies and
is much more than a catalog of natural cures. The book
is dedicated to St. Ivan Rilski. Plant identification as
scientific (Latin) names follows the medicinal and
botanical books of that time, classical Bulgarian
ethnobotanical sources (Achtarov et al. 1939; Stojanov
and Kitanov 1960; Stranski 1963) and modern
ethnobotanical databases and glossaries (Gernot
Katzer’s Spice Pages 2000).
The aim of this study is to establish plants related to
the life and medicinal practice of St. Ivan Rilski by
analyzing information given in old written sources.
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PLANTS RELATED TO THE LIFE AND MEDICINAL PRACTICE OF ST. IVAN RILSKI
Families
Species
Alliaceae
Allium sativum L., Allium cepa L.
Anacardiaceae
Pistacia lentiscus L.
Apiaceae
Angelica archangelica L., Pimpinella anisum L.,
Asteraceae
Artemisia spp., Chondrilla juncea L. Cichorium intybus L.
Cannaceae
Canna indica L.
Caprifoliaceae
Sambucus nigra L., Sambucus ebulus L.
Cistaceae
Cistus landaniferus L.
Fabaceae
Cicer arietinum L., Cassia acutifolia Delile, Cassia senna L.
Juglandaceae
Juglans regia L.
Lamiaceae
Mentha piperita L., Mentha longifolia (L.) Huds., Teucrium chamaedrys L.
Lauraceae
Cinnamomum camphora L., Cinnamomum verum J. Presl
Liliaceae
Aloe spp., Convallaria majalis L.
Moraceae
Ficus carica L.
Myristicaceae
Myristica fragrans Houtt
Myrtaceae
Syzigium aromaticum (L.) Merr.& Perry
Orchidaceae
Platanthera bifolia (L.) L.C. Rich
Phytolaccaceae Phytolacca decandra L.
Piperaceae
Piper nigrum L., Piper longum L., Piper cubeba L.
Poaceae
Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud.
Polygonaceae
Rheum palmatum L., Rheum rhaponticum L.
Rosaceae
Potentilla argentea L., Potentilla reptans L., Potentilla erecta L., Cydonia
oblonga Mill.
Zyngiberaceae
Curcuma zedoaria L., Zingiber officinale Roscoe
Table 1. - Plant names used in the text.
Results
2. - The first page of “Canon Prayer to St. Ivan Rilski and Medicinal Text” (1945), Bucharest, P. Sapunov Publ., 65 p.
3. - Recipe 10 demonstrated the kind of description.
The book is one of the oldest catalogues of natural
cures in Bulgaria and consists of 92 (ninety-two) folk
remedies and more than 80 medicinal plants, used of
wide spectra of health problems. For each remedy the
related disorder it was intended to is pointed out, as
well as ingredients, order to preparation, and some
instructions for use (fig. 3). The herbs are mentioned
with their common names.
Most of the medicinal plants are used as spices, well
known from classic herbal and medicinal texts and
widely used in the Eastern medicine. Along with them
many common wild medicinal plants, traditionally used
by Bulgarian people, are included (Table 1). The
Bulgarian wild species are 53% from totally number of
plants. Various parts from herbs are mentioned for use as
a treatment remedy - aerial parts (20%), seeds (17%),
roots (21%), fruits (7%), leaves (5%), ingredients from
animal origin (2%), mineral elements and other
compounds. For 60% of plants the used parts are
specified. The presented 92 folk recipes target fifteen
different kind of ill health that ranges between antiseptic
to nerve disorders (fig. 4).
Cicer arietinum is the only plant mentioned in
various “Saint’s Lives” as a plant used by a hermit (fig.
5). The same plant is one of the most commonly found
in recipes and is used for measuring standards in the
preparation of pills.
Both species Rheum palmatum and Rheum
rhaponticum (Bulgarian: “reven”) (localized in Rila
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ANELY NEDELCHEVA
4. - The most widely included system disorders (in %).
7. - Rosa canina.
mountains) (fig. 6) are related to health of Rila
monastery monks, as St. Ivan Rilski was the founder of
Rila monastery.
There is written evidence of how the hermit used
Rosa canina (Bulgarian: “shipka”) (fig. 7) as one of his
main foods. He prepared a rosehip powder and baked
special bread called “prosfor” (communion bread).
5. - Cicer arietinum (Chick-peas), seeds.
Conclusions
The study enlarges the knowledge of species used in
traditional medicine in the investigated period, on the
base of written documental source. The traditional use
of medicinal plants is more precise and more oriented to
“Asian plants“ than the views received up to now.
Results of this study can be used as a proof of relation
between information in the investigated book and the
knowledge of St. Ivan Rilski (in hagiography).
The ethnobotanical data are in accordance with
modern hagiographical concept of St. Ivan Rilski as high
educated person (Pulos 1992), in contradiction to
traditional ideas.
References
6. - Rheum rhaponticum.
Achtarov et al. 1939: B, Achtarov, B. Davidov and A.
Javashev - Materials for Bulgarian Botanical Glossary,
Sofia, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Pridvorna
Pechatnitza, 1939 (in Bulgarian).
Bayramova 1997: M. Bayramova - Some Hagiographies
and Sermons in Honour of St. Ivan Rilsky, Sofia, Izd.
“Lingua Institut”, 1997 (in Bulgarian).
Duichev 1947: I. Duichev - Rilskiyat svetets I negovata
obitel, Sofia, Pechatnitsa Provadaliev, 1947, 432 p. (in
Bulgarian).
Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages 2000: Gernot Katzer’s Spice
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PLANTS RELATED TO THE LIFE AND MEDICINAL PRACTICE OF ST. IVAN RILSKI
Pages, Common Name Index http://www.unigraz.at/~katzer/engl/, 2000.
Ivancheva and Stancheva 2000: S. Ivancheva and B.
Stantcheva - Ethnobotanical Inventory of medicinal
plants in Bulgaria, in Journal of Ethnopharmacology,
69, p. 165-172.
Leporatti and Ivancheva 2003: M.L. Leporatti and S.
Ivancheva - Preliminary comparative analysis of
medicinal plants used in the traditional medicine of
Bulgaria and Italy, in Journal of Ethnopharmacology,
87, p. 123-142.
Petkanova 2003: D. Petkanova - Starobalgarska literature,
Veliko Tarnovo, Abagar, 2003, 582 p. (in Bulgarian).
Petkov 1982: V. Petkov - Savremenna fitoterapia, Sofia,
Medicina i fizkultura, 1982, 517 p. (in Bulgarian)
Pulos 1992: P. Pulos - Sveti Ivan Rilski, Sofia, Univ. Izd.
“Sv. Kl. Ohridski”, 1992, 561 p. (in Bulgarian).
Stojanov and Kitanov 1960: N. Stojanov and B. Kitanov
- Wild useful plants in Bulgaria, Sofia, Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences, 1960 (in Bulgarian).
Stranski 1953: I. Stranski - The food sources of Ivan Rilski,
in Priroda, 2, 1953, p. 10-17 (in Bulgarian).
Stranski 1963: I. Stranski - Wild and cultural plants in
Bulgaria, Sofia, izd. BAN, 1963 (in Bulgarian).
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