# Masterwort and angelica (Peucedanum ostruthium)

**Imperatoria*; *angelica**

**Known today as.** *Peucedanum ostruthium* and *Angelica archangelica*.

Kind: Plant  
Poisoning: Phytophotodermatitis (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/phototoxic)

## What did Canale use it for?

Roots in the oil; among the amulets (chs. 9–10).

## What does modern science say?

Legend says an angel revealed angelica in a dream as a cure for plague. Both roots are used for digestive complaints.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **imperatorin**: a furanocoumarin, in both
- **ostruthol**: in masterwort
- **angelicin and xanthotoxin**: furanocoumarins
- **beta-phellandrene**: the angelica oil

**Mechanism.** Both are Apiaceae roots whose bitters and oil are carminative and whose furanocoumarins photosensitise the skin: a reader who rubs the oil on and goes into the sun blisters. Imperatorin is studied for anticonvulsant and vasodilator actions in rodents.

**Dose.** Safe at tea doses; avoid the sun after handling; the roots can be confused with hemlock water-dropwort.

**Standing.** Neither has an EMA monograph of its own: angelica root is assessed by the EMA within the bitter tea mixtures (*Species amarae*) and is approved by the German Commission E for dyspepsia and loss of appetite.

## What lore surrounds it?

Of angelica Folkard writes that “its old German name of Root of the Holy Ghost is still retained in some northern countries,” that “the Laplanders believe that the use of it strengthens life, and they therefore chew it as they would do Tobacco; they also employ it to crown their poets,” and that Du Bartas called it the “happy counterbane Sent down from heav'n by some celestial scout.” According to Fuchsius its roots “worn suspended round the neck, would guard the wearer against the baneful power of witches and enchantments,” and Gerarde has a piece of the root chewed to “drive away pestilential air.”

Thiselton-Dyer says the angelica “was thought to be specially noisome to witches” and “was in olden times used as an antidote for poisons.”

Grieve writes that in Courland, Livonia and the lakelands of Pomerania and East Prussia the peasants “march into the towns carrying the Angelica flower-stems and to offer them for sale, chanting some ancient ditty in Lettish words, so antiquated as to be unintelligible even to the singers themselves,” which she takes for “a survival of some Pagan festival.” “According to one legend, Angelica was revealed in a dream by an angel to cure the plague”; another says it blooms on the day of Michael the Archangel “and is on that account a preservative against evil spirits and witchcraft,” so that it was called “The Root of the Holy Ghost.” She adds that the Muscatel flavour of some Rhine wines “is (or is suspected to be) due to the secret use of Angelica.”

## What did the older authorities say?

**Culpeper.** Of angelica: an herb of the Sun in Leo, to be gathered when he is there; “In all epidemical diseases caused by Saturn, that is as good a preservative as grows,” resisting poison by comforting the heart, blood, and spirits, the root in powder to half a dram with treacle in carduus water and the patient laid to sweat; the stalks or roots candied and eaten fasting are preservatives in time of infection.

## Sources

- Culpeper, N. (1653). *The Complete Herbal*, “Angelica.” Project Gutenberg #49513.
- Folkard, R. (1884). *Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics*, “Angelica.” Project Gutenberg #44638.
- Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (1889). *The Folk-lore of Plants*. Project Gutenberg #10118.
- Grieve, M. (1931). *A Modern Herbal*, “Angelica.” botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/a/anegl037.html
- Blumenthal, M., ed. (1998). *The Complete German Commission E Monographs*, “Angelica root.”
- Sarkhail, P. (2014). “Traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological properties of the genus *Peucedanum*.” *Journal of Ethnopharmacology* 156.

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

Historical description, not medical advice.