Asarabacca

Asarabacca aka European wild ginger or hazelwort (Asarum europaeum) is a perennial herb. It is native from Europe (excluding Spain and Portugal) to Central Siberia. It is hardy in USDA zones 5-8.

Asarabacca was sometimes used as an ingredient in classical Roman cooking, particularly in sauces for roast meats. See for example, The Art of Cooking, Book VII, section VI, recipe 4. “Another sauce for roast meat. 6 scruples each of pepper, lovage, parsley, celery-seed, dill, asafetida root, hazelwort, a little pyrethrum, 6 scruples each of Cyperus, caraway, cumin, ginger, 1 pint liquamen [i.e., fermented fish sauce], ½ gill of oil.” Quoting from The Roman Cookery Book, translation by Barbara Flower and Elisabeth Rosenbaum, Peter Nevill Limited, London and New York, 1958, page 175.

When he issued the Capitulare de Villis in about 800 A.D., the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne required that asarabacca (vulgigina in Carolingian Latin) be grown on all his imperial estates. In traditional medicine asarabacca was used as a purgative, emetic, and for respiratory issues. Today it is used strictly as an ornamental because it contains aristolochic acid which is carcinogenic, and it also contains nephrotoxin which can cause kidney failure.

Asarabacca prefers rich soil, consistent moisture, and part shade. It is naturalized in the St. Louis Region. Asarabacca can easily be distinguished from the native Canadian wild ginger (Asarum canadense) because the upper leaf surfaces of asarabacca are shiny.

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