wild quinine

Gail H

I am growing wild quinine (Parthenium integrifolium) Has anyone used this plant medicinally? I have looked at a few sites, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information out there. I have had the plant for several years and never really used it. The name intrigued me. I thought it might be handy "some day".

Karin

Interesting name, I wonder if it does have quinine in it? I always thought quinine only came from the bark of the cinchona tree. I have feverfew growing, it is useful for headaches and self-seeds prolifically!

Linda Bittle

It looks like Parthenium integrifolium is in the Asteracea family and Cinchona pubescens is in the Rubiaceae family. Although they have different properties, I do think that it might be useful. More information is needed, but herbs are not a "take this instead of that" type of health care. While the active ingredient n would not be quinine, there's probably something in it that works in a similar way.

Please do share info if you find documentation!

http://medicinalgarden.trekbirmingham.com/parthenium-integrifolium/

https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Cinchona+pubescens

Torey

There is very little info on this plant. I was unfamiliar with it so I did a fairly extensive search. Although, apparently, it was used in the past, as an adulterant in Echinacea products. It is very interesting that it is called wild quinine. It must have been used for intermittent fevers at some point but that could be due to a lack of anything else at hand. I would be cautious using this plant because of the lack of research.

bohocrow

Hello all,

I hope you're sitting down. I have a bomb to drop re: Parthenium Integrifolium. I am obsessed with this miracle of the Earth. While you've not had much luck searching this plant, there is a treasure trove of info out there about this precious plant. The key to unlocking the door to this info is knowing that the substance of interest in the plant is PARTHENOLIDE. You can search the net for Parthenium Integrifolium until you're blue in the face , and you'll find nothing but nurseries, cultivation info, and brief bytes about its use during WWI plus a few other uses of minor interest.

While we here in the U.S. are growing it because it's an attractive, stately native plant, Big Pharma-funded entities worldwide are feverishly working to corral the powers of Parthenolide into patentable medicines for everything from coronaviruses to cancers.

I settled in the midwest 8 years ago, and the plant grows on my property. Its lovely form attracted my attention last year, and when I saw the Latin name, it piqued my interest. Being into herbal medicine for over 40 years, I started to research, deeply. Lo and behold, busy little pharmacists in China, India, Iran, Germany and elsewhere are up to their eyeballs in studies on it. While most of the researchers are focusing on Tanacetum Parthenium (Tansy), Parthenium Integrifolium is a superior source of parthenolide, due to its lack of toxic constituents. I didn't bookmark the link confirming this, so I'm going to go looking for it, and I'll let you know when I do.

In the meantime, here's links to academic parthenolide research that should knock your socks off. It's heavy, highly technical data, but you can catch the general drift just by patiently scrolling through these documents. PLEASE SHARE THIS INFO.

Thank you all for your participation on the network.

Jean

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/?term=parthenolide

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20040086579A1/en

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780444639318000096

molecules-24-04131.pdf

Parthenolide_a_sesquiterpene_lactone_exp.pdf