Linden: a long-living plant of well-being

The generic name Linden refers to several species of the Tilia genus.

In herbal medicine, Tilia americana L., Tilia cordata Mill., Tilia europaea L., Tilia platyphyllos Scop., and Tilia tomentosa Moench are used; all belonging to the Malvaceae family.

The tree is arboreal, often of large dimensions (up to 30 meters in height), with a compact and almost spherical crown, with more or less roundish, heart-shaped, and asymmetrical leaves at the base, pointed and serrated; which have large veins with a tuft of short, white-gray hairs in the axils, and rigid. The upper surface of the leaf blade is dark green and smooth, while the lower surface is lighter and more or less hairy depending on the species.

The flowers are collected in small axillary cymes, long-pedunculate, and the peduncle is fused to a long, narrow bract. The flower is dialipetalous, with numerous stamens, the ovary has 5 carpels united in a single style. Only one ovule is fertilized.

The fruit is a nut with 5 ribs.

From a taxonomic point of view, the numerous species are divided into two main groups:

The single-flowered lindens (T. platyphyllos, T. vulgaris, T. cordata) and the double-flowered lindens (originating from mountain areas and tolerating little heat) represented by T. americana and T. tomentosa.

Tilia cordata has a bract 5-6 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, thin, pale green in color, entire, and with a network of prominent veins. The number of flowers can reach up to 12 and beyond. They consist of 5 free sepals of yellow-green color; hairy inside and glabrous outside; and 5 free petals of yellowish-white color, with about 30 stamens grouped at the base, in clusters, and as long as the petals. The scent is very intense and pleasant.

All species have the same health properties.

The drug consists of several parts: bark of young branches, flowers and bracts, sapwood, wood, and buds.

The balsamic period of flowers and bracts is June-July; they contain essential oil, fatty acids, saponins, quercetin, mucilage, tannins, sugars, hesperidin, waxes, malic acid, tartaric acid, acetic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, vitamin C, and carotene.

The leaves and bracts of Linden have pectoral, anticatarrhal, diaphoretic, emollient, sedative, antispasmodic, and vasodilatory properties.

They are advisable in case of anxiety, insomnia, gastric pains, spastic colitis, cough, and catarrh.

The preparations that can be used are decoction (bark), infusion either alone or compounded, fluid extract, syrup, and also glyceric macerate.

The species used for the glyceric macerate is Tilia tomentosa, and the drug used is the fresh bud, which must be collected in early spring.

Linden buds contain triterpenic derivatives, flavonoids, and farnesol and numerous trace elements including iron, chromium, germanium, magnesium, manganese, nickel, selenium, silicon, and zinc. The bud derivative has sedative, antispasmodic, diaphoretic, and diuretic properties, therefore advisable in case of stress, anxiety, and insomnia in both adults and children, hyperemotionality, circulatory arrhythmias, spastic colitis.

Linden is also an ornamental plant found in many parks and gardens and is a symbol of Longevity because a specimen can live up to a thousand years.

In the legend of Philemon and Baucis, the husband transforms into an Oak, a symbol of masculinity, while the wife becomes a Linden, and perhaps from this story, the Linden flower has become a symbol of marital love.

Linden has also been the protagonist of a poem by the famous artist Pier Paolo Pasolini:

 

The day of my death

In a city, Trieste or Udine,

along an avenue of lindens,

when in spring

the leaves change color,

I will fall dead

under the burning sun,

blond and tall,

and I will close my eyelids

leaving the sky to its splendor.

Under a warm green linden,

I will fall into the blackness

of my death that disperses

the lindens and the sun.

The beautiful young boys

will run in that light

that I have just lost,

flying out of the schools,

with curls on their foreheads.

I will still be young,

with a light shirt,

and with sweet hair raining down

on the bitter dust.

I will still be warm,

and a child running on the warm

asphalt of the avenue,

will place a hand

on my crystal lap.

ANJA LATINI

Registered Herbalist at RNEP No. GLT0018S