# Arthritica (Ajuga iva)

**Artetico*; *iva artetica**

**Known today as.** *Ajuga iva*, named for its use against gout (note XLIX).

Kind: Plant

## What did Canale use it for?

Among the amulet herbs: hung about the neck, and used in fumigations and decoctions against hexes (ch. 10; see [the amulet herbs](https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/the-amulet-herbs)).

## What does modern science say?

Some anti-inflammatory activity is reported in animals; no established effect.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **ajugarin I**: a clerodane diterpene
- **ecdysterone**: an insect-moulting hormone, in the Ajuga species
- **iridoid glycosides**: harpagide, 8-O-acetylharpagide

**Mechanism.** Canale’s *iva artetica* is a ground pine or bugle, *Ajuga chamaepitys* or *A. iva*: its iridoids and diterpenes have anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive action in rodents, and the ecdysteroids are anabolic in insects, not in people.

**Dose.** No human toxicity recorded; the plant is bitter enough to limit the dose.

**Standing.** No monograph; *Ajuga iva* remains in North African folk medicine for diabetes and rheumatism, with animal data only.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny.** Of the chamaepitys, “called in Latin abiga, because it promotes abortion, and known to some as incense of the earth,” with the odour and blossoms of the pine, he gives three kinds, the third “altogether smaller, with a stem the thickness of one’s finger,” though with the same smell and so the same name.

## Sources

- Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 24.20, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library.
- Bouyahya, A., et al. (2020). “Ethnomedicinal use, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology of *Ajuga iva*.” *Journal of Ethnopharmacology* 258.
- Israili, Z. H., and Lyoussi, B. (2009). “Ethnopharmacology of the plants of genus *Ajuga*.” *Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences* 22.

---

*Arthritica.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/arthritica

Historical description, not medical advice.