AvencaAdiantum capillus-veneris

Did you know?

• Capillus-veneris is Latin for "Venus's hair", for the fern's fine, hair-like stalks and delicate fronds. Much of Europe uses the same image: cheveu de Vénus in French, capelvenere in Italian and Venushaar in German^{[2, 3, 8, 9]}.

• Adiantum comes from the Greek adiantos, "unwetted". Water beads up and runs straight off the fronds^{[2, 3, 9]}. The Roman naturalist Pliny noticed it too: "in vain do you plunge the Adiantum into water, it always remains dry"^[13].

• Capillaire, the old European syrup, was made by pouring boiling water over the fronds, straining the infusion and dissolving sugar in it. Many recipes added orange-flower water^{[5, 6, 7]}.

• Spanish and Arabic both link the fern to wells. It is culantrillo de pozo, "little coriander of the well", in Spanish, and kuzbarat al-bir, "coriander of the well", in Arabic^{[8, 9]}.

• In France it is also called capillaire de Montpellier, after the city in the south of the country^{[8, 9]}.

• Avenca is not the "maidenhair tree". That name belongs to ginkgo, an unrelated tree^{[10, 11]}.

Origins and history

Avenca is a small fern, usually 6 to 20 inches (15–50 cm) tall, growing in clusters from a creeping underground stem, or rhizome^{[2, 3, 9]}. Its fronds are divided again and again into fan-shaped leaflets carried on black, wiry stalks^{[3, 4, 9]}. It needs shade and constant moisture, and it is most at home on limestone and other lime-rich rock kept damp by moving water, from shady ravines to sea cliffs^{[2, 4, 5]}. It is one of about 250 species of maidenhair fern in the genus Adiantum^[4]. Linnaeus gave it its scientific name in 1753^{[1, 8]}.

Its use goes back to ancient times, and the Greek writer Dioscorides mentions it^[13]. In Europe the fern's reputation was as a gentle herb for the chest, and by the nineteenth century that reputation had become a popular syrup^{[5, 6]}. Sirop de capillaire was made in France and Germany by steeping the fronds in boiling water and dissolving sugar in the strained infusion^[6]. Many cooks added orange-flower water, French makers often added Narbonne honey, and in English the word "capillaire" came to name both the fern syrup and a syrup flavored with orange flowers^{[5, 7, 13]}.

In Portuguese the fern is avenca, and in Spanish it is culantrillo^{[8, 9]}. Its fronds are also brewed as a light herbal tea^{[5, 9]}, and a syrup made from the plant makes a cooling summer drink^[9].

Traditional uses

Clinical studies of avenca in people are still few, but its traditional use is long and widespread, from European syrups to herbal teas and hair rinses.

• Capillaire syrup

  The fronds were steeped, strained and sweetened into a soothing syrup for the chest, a favorite in nineteenth-century France and Germany.^{[5, 6]}

• Respiratory health

  Avenca has long been valued as a herb for the chest and breathing. Avenca supports respiratory health.*^{[5, 6, 9]}

• A light frond tea

  The dried fronds are brewed in hot water and drunk as a tea.^{[5, 9]}

• Healthy hair

  Rinses made from the fronds have long been used on the hair and scalp. Avenca supports healthy hair.*^{[5, 9, 10]}

Plant compounds

Avenca fronds contain naturally occurring triterpenoids, including a group named after the fern itself, the adiantanes, and compounds of the related fernane type^{[9, 12]}. They also contain flavonoids such as rutin and isoquercetin (a quercetin glucoside), phenolic acids, tannins and mucilage^{[6, 9, 12]}.