Ivy: a tonifying vine

Hedera helix, commonly called Ivy, is an evergreen vine whose sterile branches, with the help of short and dense adventitious roots, can creep up walls, rocks, and trees to heights of up to 10 meters.

Botanical characteristics of Ivy:

The flowering branches are erect and rootless.

The leaves are leathery, of variable size (5-10 cm x 5-8 cm); those of the sterile branches are dark green, often with light veins; they have 3-5 triangular lobes, more or less deep; the terminal one is always larger than the lateral ones. The leaves of the fertile branches are entire, ovate-rhomboid, and acuminate. The phenomenon in which leaves on the same plant have different shapes is called heterophylly.

The flowers are clustered in simple terminal umbels, which can be solitary or grouped in panicles. The calyx has 5 small teeth; the corolla petals are 5, small and greenish; the stamens are 5; and the ovary is inferior, consisting of 3 carpels and surmounted by a nectariferous disk.

The fruit is a black drupe with 3 stones and a thin endocarp.

The seeds are oblong, rough, and reddish.

Ivy is erroneously considered a parasitic plant capable of sucking the sap of plants through adventitious roots; however, these roots solely serve a supportive function. Ivy contributes to the natural selection of the forest when it “embraces” the trunks; with its weight, it burdens and causes the less resistant and already sick trees to fall, accelerating forest renewal and completing the biological cycle.

It is present throughout the Italian territory, from 0 to 1450 meters above sea level, being an ubiquitous, invasive plant that prefers cool, moist, and shady places.

It blooms in September-October, and the fruits, which are poisonous to humans and harmless to birds, ripen in February-March.

The drug consists of the leaves, although the berries are also used as a less known remedy.

The leaves contain various phenolic compounds, flavonoids (rutin, nicotifloroside), caffeic and chlorogenic acid, and especially pentacyclic triterpenic saponosides (hederae terpene glycosides).

Saponins are foaming substances in aqueous solution, namely, they have surfactant properties. They are rather large molecules, with a lipophilic and a hydrophilic end. When in water, they align perpendicularly to the surface, reducing the surface tension of the water and forming foam.

They have balsamic, antitussive, expectorant, emmenagogic, antihypertensive, and emollient properties.

They are also used externally for their detergent, revulsive, antineuralgic, antirheumatic, and antiulcer properties.

A widely used preparation is the mother tincture, useful as an anti-edematous, analgesic, expectorant, bacteriostatic, and antifungal.

The berries have emetic and cathartic properties; they should be used with great caution because their activity is potentiated.

Also, use caution with the leaves to avoid irritation due to the intense activity of saponins.

Ivy is one of the plants useful for combating cellulite imperfections and the inconveniences of oily skin. Ivy extract has a pronounced toning cosmetic action on all parts of the body that tend to relax and lose tone; its astringent action promotes fluid reabsorption.

It is indicated for toning tired feet using the leaves for a foot bath.

Traditionally, it was used to restore color to faded black garments by immersing the fabrics in an infusion prepared with 40 leaves and a liter of water, leaving them for about 2 hours before rinsing them.

To make dark hair shiny, use a decoction of 3-4 leaves per deciliter of water, mixed with rinse water.

For coughs, prepare a 2% leaf infusion, while a 1% leaf decoction is able to stop milk secretion.

In antiquity, Ivy was one of the symbols of the Greek god Dionysus (our Bacchus). The myth tells that the plant appeared immediately after the birth of Dionysus to protect the child from the flames that burned the mother’s body after being struck by lightning thrown by Zeus. The plant also wrapped around the entire house, attenuating the earthquakes that had accompanied the lightning, further protecting the young Dionysus.

ANJA LATINI

Registered Herbalist at RNEP no. GLT0018S