Orchids in Economic Botany

It is perhaps of much general interest to remember that this largest of the families has furnished so few species which are of economic importance .We must not forget the great number of species which are valued highly in horticulture -and these provide the basis for an industry worth many millions of dollars -for the unexcelled beauty of their flowers that " assuage with their flamboyance our overlasting thirst for beauty ." But , horticulture aside , the Orchidaceae are unusally thirst for beauty ." But , horticulture aside , the Orchidaceae are usually lacking in utilitarian value to man . A few of the thousands of species have found limited use in folk medicine , but even these are esteemed only on a local scale and apparently as the directly result of superstition .

The name " Orchidaceae ," derived from the Greek word , was applied more than 2000 years ago to a species of the genus Orchis, probably O. Morio , one of Europe's commonest orchids. Many species of Orchis possess testiculate or twin tubers .The term was first , but very vagued , used by Theopharastus in his " Enquiry into Plants," written between 370 and 285 b.c. Dioscorides later associated the word definites with an orchid, and his influence extended well into the herbals of the Renaissance Period .Thus the term began " its career in one of the oldest botanical manuscripts and has preserved its identity in the genus Orchis and in the name of one of the largest of flowering plants."

It was the tropics of the New World that gave civilzation its most useful orchid . Long before the arrival of Europeans in Mexico , the Aztecs or their predecessors had discovered vanilla. This widely used spice and flavouring agent probably served the Mexican natives first as a medicine of some kind , but by the time of the Conquest it was most extensively employed as a flavouring agent for chocolate .The cured and unripened capsules -the " beans" or "pods" -of several species of Vanilla ,especially V. planifolia ,are the source of our vanilla. How vanilla came to be discovered is not easy to explain , because the fully ripened , uncurved capsules are devoid of the active principle,vanilline .

" The history of commercial vanilla , " Ames wrote , " opens up a wide field for biological speculations and emphasizes the fact that mankind , in what we call the infancy of the human species , possessed uncanny powers of observation and a positive genius for the human species , possessed uncanny powers of observation the species was first used as a drug .... and then , when some ' beans ' were carefully piled together for safekeeping , and fermentation took place , the discovery of the properties of vanilla was made ."

The active principle , vanilline ,is formed during sweating of the beans which brings about , through enzyme action , the change of a glycoside into vanilline (C8 H8 O8) , an aromatic white crystalline derivation of an aldehyde. Vanilline has been synthesized ,and by far the greatest amount used commercially is not extracted from the orchid but is produced by the decomposition of coniferine , a glycoside found in coniferous trees, or by the oxidation of eugenol , a constituent of oil of cloves . Natural vanilla is still prized over the chemically pure vanilline which is employed where low cost rather than flavor is the govering factor .

An early report of vanilla in a European herbal is that found in Pomet's (25)" Histoire Generale des Drogues ," published in 1694 . Pomet said of the "oil and volatile salt " of the vanilla " pod", " properties of a cordial ,cephalick , stomachick , carminative , apertive ; it alternates vicious humors , provokes urine and womens courses ; is mixed in chocolate."

Down through the Middle Ages , the ideas set forth by Diocorides concerning the association of orchids with sexual phenomena prersisted and were elaborated in many ways . Tuber-bearing orchids often had vernacular names which called attention to their testiculate underground parts- Dog Stones , Goat Stones , Fox Stones ,etc. The first English herbal , published in 1568 by Turner (31),stated of orchids or Dog Stones that " the herbe that if the greater roote be eatern as bulbous is . They write of herbe that if the greater roote be eaten of men it maketh men chyldren , and if the roote be eaten of weomen it maketh weomen chyldren . And moreover this is also told of it -that weomen of Thessalia geue it wyth gotes milk to provoke the pleasure of the bodye , whylse it is tender , but that they geue the drye one to hinder and stop the pleasure of the bodye."

The therapeutic value of orchids in the Europe of the Middle Ages , however ,went far beyond this basic concept and included a large variety of ills of mankind .To another orchid, Turner (31) attributed the " propertye of drying awaye swellinge and scouring of sores and to stay runing tetters. It cuttetch awaye swellinge and scouring of sores and to stay runing tetters . It cutteth awaye fistules , and if be layde to , it swageth places that are inflamed and set afyre... stoppeth eating sores and rotte sores and it healeth the grevous sores that are in the mouth . It stoppeth slao the bellye if it be droken wyth wyne ."

In 1633 , another English herbalist ,Gerarde (13), published a kind of classification of the orchids according to " stones " , correlating with this crude classification on morphological character the supposed virtues associated with the plants. Gerarde's classification makes extremely interesting reading to the modern naturalist . One group , for example , were called Goat Stones because they had a " stinking and loathesome smell " like that associated with goat. Seraphias Stones bore this name because " sundry of them bring forth flowers resembling flies and such like fruitfull and lascivious insects, as taking their name from Serapias , the god of the citizens of Alexandria in Egypt ,who had a most famous Temple at Canopus , where he was worshipped with all kinds of lascivious wantonnesse , songs and dances .... "

The claims for therapeutic properties of numerous orchid became so extensive that attempt were made to rationalize and explain the reasons for the supposed physiological actions of the plants . This was true especially for the claims of the influence of orchids on sexual phenomena in man. Kircher (17) further developed this theory and elaborations of it to lengths which we nowadays would hold to be ridiculous but which , in times when belief in spontaneous generation was accepted , would not find many doubting minds .

Reliance upon orchids for certain therapeutic uses did not die out completely after the Middle Ages in Europe . An American herbal , Good's (14)" The Family Flora ," published as late as 1845, reports for Cypripedium pubescens the following virtues : " Lady Slipper or Nerve Root. One of the most valuable of vegetable medicines. Its operation upon the system appears to be in harmony with the laws of animal life, giving tone to the nervous system ; and it is therefore useful in all cases of nervous irritability , hysterical affections , spasms , fits and all derangements of the functions of the brain , such as madness , delirium , etc. , and in all cases of inability to sleep , particularly in fevers consumption ,etc...." Lady Slipper is still to be found for sale in herb shops in Europe and the United States , even though there is no cscientific basis upon which its madicinal use may be defended .

Country folk in some parts of the United States still rely on Aerthusa bulbos to relieve toothache and Corallorrhiza odontorrhiza as a febrifuge . The Indians of North America continue to use orchids medicinally , such as Epipactis giganteum for cases of insanity . The native people of the West Indies drink the liquid in which pseudobulbs of Bletia purpurea have been boiled to relieve symptoms of ptomaine poisoning from fish .

It is in the Old World tropics , however , that most use is made of orchids as therapeutic agents. In Amboina , Indonasia , a pomate made of the pseudobulbs of Grammatophyllum scriptum is believed to cure sores , and the leaves of Hetaeria obliqua are used for a similar purpose . Several species of Dendrobium find employment in Malaya to treat skin eruption and infections , while in tropical Asia generally this genus is valued as cure for dropsy and headache . The Chinese consider the famous Dendrobium nobile something of a cure-all .

Species of Nervilia , Vanda ,Gastrodea , and Vanilla have extensive use as medicines in the Asiatic tropics . A number of orchids are valued as febrifuges in treating malaria ; Corymborchis longiflora , Tropidia curculigoides , and Acriopsis javanica are examples.

In Africa , we find that the Zulus employ an infusion of Habeneria foliosa and of Ansellia humilis as an emetic . The Swagi use Lissochilus Krebsii to treat a disease of children . Species of Eulophia are thought to prevent miscarriage , cure barrennes and to be valuable for other strange troubles.

Medicinal use of orchids , even amongst the Indian populations , is apparently not common in South America . Epidendrum bifidum has been employed to expel tapeworm and intestinal parasites , and the Chileans hold that Spiranthes diuertica is efficacious as a diuetic .

Salep , prepared from any of several species of Orchis , has been of great importance in the past as medicine , but its use has now fallen into disrepute except in the country parts of Asia Minor and the adjacent Mediterranean areas. Since the days of Dioscorides ,saleep has fallen considered an aphrodisiac. The tuberous underground parts are collected and scalded in boiling water , and skin is removed .They are then dried to a horny consistency and powdered for use .

Salep is probably somewhat useful as a food , and it is as a food that it is still employed . Its composition runs about 48 % mucilage , 3% starch , 5 % nitrogenous material , 2% mineral ashes . In India , where the tubers of Eulophia , Orchis , and Satyrium may all be used as salep, it is used like sago and narrow root and is prepared from a large variety of species.

Even though the Orchidaceae have given man few foods, there are some species which might be worth mentioning as nutrients of local use. The fragrant Angraecum fragrans forms the basis of the " faham tea" from Isle de Reunion , off the coast of Africa . It was once rather well known in France . The tea is delicious , but it did not become very widely accepted and has , for practical purposes , been completely forgotten.

In Mexico , candy images of animals are made to celebrate All Saints Day and the Day of the Dead , and among the plant materials employed are the pseudobulbs of Laelia speciosa and L. autumnalis .The fragrant leaves of Dendrobium salaccense are used as a condiment for rice in Malaya ,where several species of Habenaria are eaten as greens . In the tropics of Asia , roasted tubers of Gastrodia are eaten like potaoes . The Brazilians employ the seed capsules of Leptotes bicolor to flavor ice cream , and other species of orchids are valued locally throughout the tropics as condiments .

Some uses to which orchids are put command our interest because of their strangeness . Bowls for smoking pipes are carved by natives in the West Indies from the hollow psudobulbs of Laelia Thompsoniana , and in some parts of tropical Latin America trumpets to call childern are fabricated from the bulbs of L. tibicinis -the specific epithet coming from the Latin word for " trumpeter." In South America , glue for the cobbler's art is extracted from pseudobulbs of Cyrtopodium , whereas Middle American natives apply the dried gum from these pseudobulbs to violin strings .

The importance locally of orchid in witchcraft and magic is so extensive that it would not be possible to discuss the topic here. The weired aspect of many of species is undoubtedly the basis for much of the interest which primitive man has placed on the orchids.

For a throughly interesting and inclusive survey of the many folk uses of orchids, the reader is referred to M.A. Miller's article on " Orchids of Economic Use" (21).