MacelaAchyrocline satureioides

Did you know?

• In southern Brazil, gathering macela is a Good Friday custom: people go out before sunrise to pick the flowers while they are still wet with dew^{[5, 9]}.

• The dried flowers have long been used to stuff pillows, and one Brazilian name for the plant is macela-de-travesseiro, "pillow macela"^[5]. On the coast of São Paulo state, local families still make pillows, cushions and sachets filled with macela^[6].

• Another Brazilian name is camomila-nacional, "national chamomile"^[5].

• Since 5 December 2002, macela has been the official herbal symbol of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state^[9].

• The French naturalist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck first described it in 1788 as a species of Gnaphalium; Augustin Pyramus de Candolle moved it to the genus Achyrocline in 1838^{[1, 2]}.

• Macela is one of the native plants of the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia, which sets out how its flower tea is made^[4].

Origins and history

Macela is a perennial subshrub, woody at the base, with yellow flower heads that appear in southern Brazil from March to May, early autumn in the Southern Hemisphere^{[1, 3, 5, 6]}. It likes sunny, open ground: grassy fields, clearings, sandy soils, rocky places and roadsides, from the lowlands up to about 2,000 m^{[3, 5]}. Its native range runs down the western side of South America from Colombia to Peru and Bolivia, and east through Paraguay to southern and eastern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina^{[1, 3]}.

Botanists took some time to settle its name. Lamarck described it in 1788 as Gnaphalium saturejoides, and de Candolle gave it its present genus, Achyrocline, in 1838^{[1, 2]}. The people who live with the plant have names of their own: macela or marcela in Brazil^{[4, 9]}, vira-vira in Colombia^[7], and, also in Brazil, camomila-nacional and macela-de-travesseiro, the "pillow macela"^[5].

Its best-loved tradition belongs to Easter. In Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, it is customary to harvest macela on Good Friday, as a rule before the sun comes up, while the dew is still on the flowers, in the belief that the plant gathered that day is at its strongest^[9]. Since 2002 macela has been the state's official herbal symbol^[9]. In Florianópolis, a local newspaper recalled a craftsman who, every Good Friday, left home before dawn to gather the yellow flowers still wet with dew^[5]. The dried plant is kept in cloth bags and used in two ways: steeped as a tea, and packed into fragrant pillows^[5].

Traditional uses

Clinical studies of macela in people are still few^[4], but its traditional use is rich, and its flower tea is widely drunk across southern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina^[4].

• A flower tea

  The dried flower heads are steeped in freshly boiled water and drunk as a tea. This is also the preparation set out in the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia.^{[4, 5]}

• Digestive comfort

  Macela tea is a traditional drink to settle the stomach. Macela supports digestive comfort.*^[5]

• Calm, restful nights

  Pillows stuffed with the dried flowers are an old custom in southern Brazil, and the fragrant flowers are valued for their calming character.^[5]

Plant compounds

Macela's flower heads are rich in flavonoids. The main compounds found in the traditional tea are quercetin, luteolin and 3-O-methylquercetin, together with a less common compound called achyrobichalcone^[4]. The plant is aromatic and yields an essential oil^[8].