Ficus, Fig
Dried Figs were traditionally called Carice
Anjeer (Unani)
Ma (Sumerian)
Tittu (Akkadian)
Ortus Sanitatis, Meydenbach, 1491
Krauterbuch, Lonitzer, 1578
Flora von Deutschland, Kohler, 1886
Dried Fig slices added to flower teas in China (Adam, 2017)
Botanical name:
Ficus carica
Related species are used similarly in various systems.
Parts used:
Fruit, most commonly in their dried form
Temperature & Taste:
Dried Figs: Warm, moist; Fresh Figs and Temperate and Moist. Sweet
Classification:
PURIFYING LENITIVE SUPPURATIVE RAREFYING. RESOLVENT
APHRODISIAC EXPECTORANT STRENGTHENING. ALEXIPHARMIC ANTI-TUSSIVE
PECTORAL
Uses:
1. Strengthens the Lungs, Stops Cough:
-Hoarseness, Cough, Whooping Cough, Asthma, shortness of Breath, Lung Ulcers, Hemoptysis
-cleanses tough phlegm from the Lungs
-useful in Lung deficiency
2. Clears Heat, Laxative:
-habitual constipation, Diverticulitis, Enteritis, Dysentery, Hemorrhoids
3. Nourishes Qi and Blood:
-Convalescence, chronic Illness, chronic Debility, diseases of the Elderly
-nourish the Blood, increase body weight
-“Figs steer one to carnel lust: and likewise they have many superfluities, and augment the Seed of generation”. (Reginum Sanitatis Salerni, 1528)
4. Clears Heat and Poison:
-protects from infection of Epidemic diseases
-Measles, Pox
-Tumors, Cancer
5. Promotes Urine, clears Stones:
-Edema, Gravel, Stones (Urinary and Gall Bladder)
6. Moves the Blood:
-gently promote Menstruation
-has been used for bruising, trauma
-“Eaten by women near the time of Birth to hasten it”. (Marrow of Chirurgery, Cook, 1685).
7. Externally:
-they soften, ripen and dissolve Swellings; the roasted or decocted fruit was split and applied to Tumors.
-milky juice of the Fig tree is applied to Warts, Freckles, “lichen-like eruptions”, and Leprosy (since Dioscorides)
-milky juice is dropped into teeth for Toothache.
-juice is dropped into the ears for Noise, Pain and Deafness.
-leaf decoction for Sore Heads, Morphew, Scabs, White Scurf, Running Sores and Leprosy.
-leaf decoction applied to old Ulcers to cleanse the excess moisture and promote the growth of new flesh.
-One old TCM authority said “the leaves of the plant is the best herb for Hemorrhoids”.
-roasted fruit was split and applied to Dental Abscesses; used as a wash for Gum Boils.
-ashes of the wood is made into an ointment for Chilblains.
-juice was also applied to poison Bites.
-Green fruit has been applied to Gout in TCM.
-in TCM, it is mixed with oil and applied to various infections such as Carbuncles, Cellulitis, Scabies, ulcerated Small Pox and Breast Masses
Dose:
Dry Figs: 3–6 in Decoction
Correctives:
1. Lemon (Unani)
2. Aniseed (Unani)
3. Mother of Thyme (Unani)
4. Oregano (Unani)
5. Avicenna said dry Figs didn’t produce good blood unless combined with Walnuts.
Substitute:
1. Raisins
2. Pine nuts
3. Pistachio; Almond. (Unani)
Main Combinations:
Lungs
1. Cough, Asthma:
i. Figs with Licorice (A Treatise on Foreign Drugs, Geoffroy and Thicknesse, 1749)
ii. Figs with Hyssop, given warm in the fit of Asthma (A Treatise on Foreign Drugs, Geoffroy and Thicknesse, 1749)
ii. Figs with Hyssop, Rue (as in Decoction of Hyssop and Rue)
iii. Figs with Hyssop, Coltsfoot, Raisin, Licorice
iv. Figs with Dates, Barley, Mallow, Hyssop, Currants, Licorice, Aniseed (as in Pectoral Decoction)
v. with Lung deficiency, Figs with Elecampane, Licorice, Coltsfoot (as in Decoction to Strengthen the Lungs)
vi. Asthma from crass Humors, Figs with Fennel root, Aniseed, Licorice, Sweet Almond, Bitter Almond, Aniseed, Hyssop (as in Decoction for Asthma from Crass Humors)
vii. Asthma, Figs with Raisin, Celery seed, Fennel seed, Maidenhair, Licorice, Hyssop, Horehound, Fenugreek (as in Decoction for Asthma)
Other:
2. Laxative:
i. Figs with Senna and an aromatic such as Fennel seed or Orange peel
ii. Figs with Tamarind, Cinnamon, Senna, Prune, Coriander seed, Licorice
iii. for use in Hemorrhoids, Figs with Raisins, Chebulic, Emblic and Belleric Myrobalan, Fennel seed, Bdellium (Unani)
3. Against Poison:
i. take Figs with Walnuts
ii. Figs, Rue
4. To resist Infection in Epidemics, Figs with Walnut, Rue and Juniper berry (as in Electuary of Nuts of Mithridate)
5. To promote the eruption of Measles and Small Pox, Figs with Deer horn shavings, Columbine seed, Fennel seed. (A Treatise on Foreign Drugs, Geoffroy and Thicknesse, 1749)
6. As an Aphrodisiac, Figs with Almonds, Pistachio, Cardamon, Saffron
7. Scrofula, Tumors, Figs beaten with Marshmallow root and applied topically.
8. Stomach and Bowel Cancer: 5 pieces of fresh Figs are eaten, or 20 grams of the dried fruit are decocted, taken after each meal. (TCM)
9. Esophageal Cancer: 500 grams of Fresh Figs is stewed with 100 grams of lean meat for half an hour and the broth and the meat are taken together. (TCM)
Externally:
10. As a gargle for inflammations of the Throat, macerate Figs, then boil, in hot Milk.
11. Decoct Figs with Pomegranate peel and used as a wash to remove membranous growths of the eyes. (Dioscorides)
12. Edema, decoct Figs with Wormwood in Wine, add Barley flour to form a plaster and apply. (Dioscorides)
13. Burn Figs and mix with cerate for Chilblains (Dioscorides)
14. Grind raw Figs and mix with mustard seed and dropped in the ear for Tinnitus. (Dioscorides)
15. Milky juice of the Fig mixed with Fenugreek meal and Vinegar is applied to Gout. (Dioscorides)
Major Formulas
Decoction of Fruit
Decoction of Fruit and Flowers
Decoction to Strengthen the Lungs
Decoction of Hyssop (Zacharia)
Decoction of Hyssop and Coltsfoot (Wirtzung)
Decoction of Hyssop and Rue
Decoction for Asthma (Zacharia)
Decoction for Asthma from Crass Humors (Hamech)
Electuary of Nuts (Mithridate)
Electuary to Clear Phlegm from the Intestines
Pills of Fig (Unani)
Cautions:
1. They should not be taken in excess
2. ‘being too frequently used they occasion Flatulencies, hurt the Liver and Spleen, and render the Flesh lax, turgid, and flabby. Persons who are liable to Obſtructions of the Bowels, or whose Belly is over moiſt, ought to avoid using them’. (A Treatise on Foreign Drugs, Geoffroy and Thicknesse, 1749)
3. ‘They ferment and rarify the Bile like Honey, Sugar, and other sweet Things; and are therefore very improper in bilious Temperaments, in Fevers arising from Bile, and inflammations of the Spleen and Liver’. (A Treatise on Foreign Drugs, Geoffroy and Thicknesse, 1749)
Main Preparations used:
Pulp
1. Pulp of Figs:
i. Boil Dried Figs in sufficient water until softened; pulp, and push through a sieve. Add to it the water of the decoction, and gently evaporate it to a proper consistency. (Pharmacopoeia Gallica, 1818)
Click the above Tabs for more information on this medicine
-“If any man be bit or stung of any venomous creature-let him presently drop in 2 or 3 drops of the milk of a Fig tree into the wounds, and he shall find wonderfull help”. (Mizald)
-“It is tradition, that Warts rubbed with Fig leaves will all decay, if they be buried under the earth”. (Mizald)
-Fig is said to have been the first fruit eaten by man.
–Bacchus was said to have acquired his great strength and corpulency from eating Figs. The Romans gave Figs to wrestlers and champions for strength and endurance.
–Pliny said Figs are the best restorative in weakness due to languishing diseases with loss of color.
From Reginum Sanitatis Salerni:
” … through their sweetness, nourish and fatten much. And touching figs, though they nourish not as strong as flesh and grain: yet there is no fruit so strong a nourisher …
“Here be declared 2 wholesome things, that come by plasters made of figs.
“First, figs sod in water, and moist laid to any of these 3 diseases cures it, that is swines evil, kernels, and swellings. By swines evil is understood inflation under the chin about the throat. And it is called scrofula a scrofa, that is to say a sow or swine …
“The second utility is, that a plaster made of figs and poppy seed joins or sets broken bones together again. And they must be sod together in water without vinegar: and then stamp it in a mortar, and put thereto a little of the water that it was sod in: and so lay it to the sore”.
Pharmacographia, Fluckiger & Hanbury, 1879
“Figs were a valued article of food among the ancient Hebrews and Greeks, as they are to the present day in the warmer countries bordering the Mediterranean. In the time of Pliny many varieties were in cultivation The Latin word Carica was first used to designate the dried fig of Caria, a strip of country in Asia Minor opposite Rhodes, an esteemed variety of the fruit corresponding to the Smyrna fig of modern times.
In a diploma granted by Chilperic II., king of the Franks, to the monastery of Corbie, A.D. 716, mention is made of “Karigas” in connection with dates, almonds and olives by which we think dried figs (Caricce) were intended. Dried figs were a regular article of trade during the middle ages, from the southern to the northern parts of Europe. In 1380 the citizens of Bruges, in regulating the duties which the “Lombards,” i.e. Italians, had to pay for their imports, quoted also figs from Cyprus and from Marbella, a place south-west of Malaga.
In England the average price between A.D. 1264 and 1398 was about 1 3/4d. per lb., raisins and currants being 2 3/4d.”
1. The Fruit is Laxative.
2. Anti-Tumor and Anti-Cancer effects have been shown: the processed, aqueous extract of the fruit inhibited Ehrlich’s tumour, and the juice of the immature fruit inhibited transplanted tumours in rats and breast cancer in Mice. The juice of the whole plant has an anti-cancer effect. It has been used for Cancers of the Stomach and Bowels, Esophageal, Lung and Cervical Cancers, Cancer of the Urinary Bladder, Myeloid leukemia, pharyngolaryngeal and adeno-carcinomas. Japanese researchers identified an anti-cancer compound in the distillate as being Benzaldehyde which was capable of reducing tumors by 39%. A subsequent study treated 57 cancer patients with Benzaldehyde from Figs and there was a 50% reduction in tumors.
3. Gastric Cancer: A report in ‘Medical Reference Data’ (Vol. 2, 1972) said 5 advanced cases of Gastric Cancer were treated with IV administration of an extract of the fruit. After 30-50 days, the tumours disappeared.
4. The Sulphur compund Ficin, found in the fruit, is valuable in treating Chronic Joint Inflammation and Soft Tissue Swelling; this includes rheumatoid arthritis and acute traumatic injuries. A poultice of the mashed fruit may be applied topically.
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