Butcher’s Broom

When dealing with butcher’s broom, we are not basically talking about the literal meaning as the “broom of the butcher”.  Instead, we are talking about a wonder evergreen bush that has a crucial role in medical and scientific fields. 

The butcher’s broom is an evergreen bush (Ruscus aculeatus) which is native to the Mediterranean region.  Its spines were once popular for making brooms, as the name implies.  For some centuries, many people from the Mediterranean region consumed the butcher’s broom as a vegetable, which is said to be closely related to the asparagus. 

The butcher’s broom holds its reputations as a folk medicine for so many years.  In fact, the herb is also applied as a folk medicine for years in Europe, specifically for treating constipation, kidney stones, urinary tract infections, and some other gastrointestinal complaints.  In those places, it is a typical preparation that the fleshy root of the butcher’s broom is boiled and drunk as a tea.

With the advent of the twentieth century, the butcher’s broom’s use as a folk remedy started to fade until some reports from France during the 1950s changed such level of thinking about the butcher’s broom as an ancient herb.  Most of the investigators at that time found out that dogs and hamsters treated with an extract of the herb’s underground stem were able to feel a narrowing of their blood vessels. 

Due to such event, and since such kind of action in the body has a significant implications for healing vessel diseases, the butcher’s broom is nowadays acclaimed and used to treat such sort of vessel disease.

Speaking of vessel disease, the butcher’s broom is typically used to treat varicose veins for the fact that the herb has vein-narrowing qualities that have been found to essentially relieve the discomforts of varicose veins as well as other circulatory conditions like chronic venous insufficiency. 

The butcher’s broom is also applied to treat hemorrhoids since it produces suppositories and topical ointments that are particularly essential when it is dabbed into the itchy and painful hemorrhoids.  With that, the burning sensation is such disease may subside as an effect.

With the narrowing of vessels that are observed in the small animal studies of butcher’s broom, the experts have attributed such action to the steroid-like compounds which are known as ruscogenins and neuroscogenins in the herb’s rootstock.  Such compounds contained in the rootstock of this herb not only contract veins and strengthen and tone them but also lessen the inflammation.
The butcher’s broom, which is also known by the name box holly, knee holy, and pettigree, now thrives in many corners of the cosmos, including the southern part of the United States.  Its dried root and rootstock are now applied in medicinal preparations for its chemical and medicinal properties.  Greatly, the butcher’s broom products come in forms of tablet, suppository, ointment, liquid, and capsule. 

In taking the butcher’s broom, many experts recommended to try taking it along with vitamin C to boost its effectiveness. In fact, numerous findings have shown that such combination greatly enhances the plant’s potency.  But for anything other than hemorrhoids, it is best suggested to consult the doctor since the kind of circulation problems that are usually treated with butcher’s broom can be serious.