# Orache (Atriplex hortensis)

**Atriplice**

**Known today as.** *Atriplex hortensis*, garden orache, a spinach-like plant.

Kind: Plant

## What did Canale use it for?

Root and seed as vomits (ch. 5).

## What does modern science say?

Pliny records the boiled seed as an emetic. A harmless leaf vegetable, rich in minerals; the seed in quantity would irritate the stomach, which is all the vomit amounts to.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **saponins**: 
- **oxalates**: 
- **betalains**: in red orache

**Mechanism.** A spinach relative eaten as a pot-herb; the root and seed in quantity are saponin-irritant enough to vomit, which was Canale’s use. Its oxalates are those of spinach.

**Dose.** A food; the seed vomits in quantity.

**Standing.** A vegetable; no monograph.

## What lore surrounds it?

Orache was the spinach of the Middle Ages, grown red and green in the kitchen garden before the true spinach arrived from Persia through the Arabs; its name is from the Latin *atriplex* by way of French *arroche*.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Dioscorides.** Gives *atraphaxis*, orache, raw or boiled, to soften the bowels, and the seed in honeyed water for the jaundice.

**Pliny.** Repeats the Greek complaint that it breeds dropsy and pallor, and gives the seed, with honey and water, as an emetic.

## Sources

- Pliny, *Natural History* XX.
- Dioscorides, *De materia medica* II.
- Grieve, M. (1931). *A Modern Herbal*, “Orach.”

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

Historical description, not medical advice.