Fróðskaparrit

						46

FIELD HORSETAIL (EQUISETUM ARVENSE) AS A FOOD PLANT

the 1950s (Svanberg, 1987a; Isaksson and

Lindstrom, 1988). Instead, other species of

Equisetum, especially E. arvense and

sometimes the shady horsetail, E. pratense,

have been utilised as food plants for human

beings.

Looking at the recorded folk knowledge

from pre-industrial Europe we find several

examples of the use of E. arvense as a food

plant. Our first example is one of the most

detailed descriptions of the literature and

originates from the western periphery of

the Eurasian region. In 1800 reverend

Landt writes in his monograph of the Faroe

Islands that Equisetum arvense is »... very

common, particularly in the cultivated

fields. The root which is called kannubjøl-

la, is often found when the ground is dug up

in the spring; in loose earth it throws out its

red filaments, to which are suspended the

kannubjølla properly so called; that is tu-

beri, which are almost as large as cherries.

They are covered with a black skin, but in

the inside they are white. They have a sweet

taste, and therefore, they are eaten by the

inhabitants, wherever they are found«

(Landt, 1800: 215). This interesting eth-

nobotanical note of E. arvense as a food

plant is corroborated by other sources as

well, both from the Faroe Islands and from

other parts of Europe and Asia (Svanberg,

1997a, c). We will return to these later.

The field horsetail (Equisetum arvense)

is a wide-spread species known from Eura-

sia south to Turkey, Iran, the Himalayas,

and across China, Korea and Japan, and

from North America where it is found

throughout Canada and the USA, except

for the southeast. It was introduced by man

in Mexico, South America, South Africa

and New Zealand (Hulten and Fries, 1986:

971). In this article I will discuss ethnob-

otanical aspects of the field horsetail, i.e. its

relation to people, especially in the Eur-

asian region (for definitions on ethnob-

otany, see Svanberg, 1987b; 1997a; b; c;

Wickens, 1990: 16-18; Given and Harris,

1994: 1-8; Alcorn, 1995; Martin, 1995;

Balee and Brown, 1996; Balick and Cox,

1996; Cotton, 1996: 9-13). It is unavoid-

able not to give some details about the eth-

nobotany of other Equisetum species as

well.

Medicinal uses

Equisetum arvense is a well-known tradi-

tional and modern medicinal plant in Eu-

rope, Asia and North America, recom-

mended already by Dioscorides and Plinius

(Hewe, 1939: 142; Abbe, 1981: 91). Ac-

cording to the ethnobotanical Phytocheme-

co Database at the US Department, Agri-

cultural Research Service, National Germ-

plasm Resources Laboratory, available on

Internet and compiled by Stephen M. Beck-

strom-Sternberg and James A. Duke, its

ethnomedicinal uses are countless: albu-

minuria, anodyne, antiseptic, astringent,

bladder, calculus, cancer, carminative, dia-

betes, diarrhoea, diuretic, dropsy, dyspep-

sia, gout, gravel, hematuria, hemopoietic,

hemoptysis, hemostat, kidney, lung, piles,

sore, tuberculosis, tumour, and wound.

It has been officinal (Herba Equiseta) in

Scandinavian pharmacies until rather re-

cently (Bergmark, 1981: 138) and it was

still available, and popular, in health stores

providing alternative medicine in Sweden