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Mariann Garner-Wizard
Heather S Oliff, PhD
Shari Henson
Brenda Milot, ELS
Densie Webb, PhD
Executive Editor – Mark Blumenthal Consulting Editors - Steven Foster, Roberta Lee, MD, Allison Turner, MS
Managing Editor – Lori Glenn
Funding/Administration – Wayne Silverman, PhD
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FILE: ƒDoctrine of Signatures
ƒTraditional Israeli Medicine
ƒIsraeli Folk Medicine
ƒEthnobotany
HC 070131-251
Date: February 27, 2004
RE: Doctrine of Signatures as Used in Israeli Folk Medicine
Dafni A, Lev E. The doctrine of signatures in present-day Israel. Economic Botany
2002;56(4):328-334.
The authors of this article conducted a ten year survey of folk medicinal use of the flora of Israel,
where amidst a scientifically orthodox medical establishment (see HC 110328.230), Arab, Druze,
and Bedouin villages maintain traditional healing methods and practitioners. Among the plants
used by these practitioners, a significant number are linked to the Doctrine of Signatures which
holds that plants (and/or animals and minerals) have colors, shapes, or habitats that can disclose
their medicinal use. Among the 15 plants identified in this article, eight have only one medicinal
use. According to the Doctrine of Signatures, plants with yellow flowers, fruits, or sap can be used
to treat jaundice; those with parts shaped like testes have been used for impotence; etc. Thus,
many plants which grow in rock are used to treat kidney stones; in Europe, Saxifraga spp., which
are used for this purpose, are called "breakstone" in several languages. This theory also underlies
that of sympathetic magic where a particular herb (e.g. turmeric) is used in a ritual to cure a disease
(e.g. jaundice).
The authors cite several additional references and provide a table that lists species, common name,
plant part used, medicinal use, perceived appearance of part used, method of preparation and
administration, and region of use. Seven of these plants which seem to have other medicinal uses
are not identified, nor are their other uses stated.
The authors group the plants in terms of their relationship to the Doctrine of Signatures. Those
with parts resembling human parts include camel's thorn (Alhagi maurorum), milk vetch
(Astragalus macrocarpus), and blue hound's tongue (Cynoglossum creticum), all of which have
kidney-shaped seeds and are used throughout Israel to treat kidney stones. Roots of autumn
mandrake (Mandragora autumnalis), whose shape resembles either the human body or male
organ, and tuber roots of orchids (Orchis spp.), shaped like testicles, are both used to treat
impotence. The heart-shaped leaves of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) are used for weak hearts.
The leaves of southern maidenhair fern (Adiantum capillus-veneris) "are similar to female hair and
are used to treat hair weakness."
Plants perceived as similar to animals include European turnsole (Heliotropium europaeum),
whose fruits resemble scorpions' abdomens and are used to treat scorpion bites, and starwort
(Asteriscus spinosus), whose flowers resemble spiders and are used for spider bites. Large
quaking grass (Briza maxima) has a more complex association. When the plant's heart-shaped
spikelets shake in the wind, they resemble the mating acts of the male tortoise. The plant is used to
increase love and affection. In this instance, the overlap of the doctrine of similarities with
sympathetic magic is clearly shown, as this is not a medicinal use, but a purely magical one. The
plant apparently also had a magical use in England reported in 1889, where "mainly because of its
shaking ability," it was placed in houses "as a powerful deterrent." However, the authors do no say
what it was used to deter.
Three plants with yellow color characteristics are used to treat hepatitis: Italian buckthorn
(Rhamnus alaternus; a.k.a. evergreen buckthorn), colocynth or bitter gourd (Citrullus colocynthis,
not to be confused with India's Momordica charantia, a.k.a. bitter melon), and squirting cucumber
(Ecballium elaterium). Pellitory-of-the-wall (Parietaria judaica), which grows on rocks and
walls, is used for kidney stones. Interestingly, squirting cucumber, used in ancient Greece for
tumors, yields a modern chemotherapy agent (see HC 111191.167).
Finally, although discussed with pellitory-of-the-wall under the heading "Similarity to plant
habitat or characteristic," African or fringed rue (Ruta chalepensis) has leaves which resemble the
hand, and is used to ward off the evil eye. The authors characterize this as a "mental disease;"
others consider evil eye an ethnomedical condition (see HCs 100626.223 and 081219.228), seated
in cultural beliefs rather than mental dysfunction.
Considered within its somewhat limited framework of relationship to the Doctrine of Signatures,
this article is interesting and valuable. However, it might have been more useful if the authors had
included information on other uses of the plants mentioned which are not based on that doctrine
and if they had not limited their research to marginalized Israeli minority communities. They
acknowledge that "Israel is an area in which, throughout its long history, many cultures have
intermingled...The co-existence of different ethnic groups of various origins enables the absorption
and the maintenance of the old traditions." It would be interesting to know if older European and
Asian Israeli Jews maintain herbal traditions which might be part of this unique mix − some of
which might even be related to the Doctrine of Signatures.
⎯ Mariann Garner-Wizard
Enclosure: Referenced article reprinted with permission from the New York Botanical Gardens Press.
The American Botanical Council provides this review as an educational service. By providing this service, ABC does not warrant
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