Wild celery (Angelica archangelica) is a vegetable plant that is grown both for its vegetable use, and also for medicinal benefits. It commonly referred to as garden angelica, wild celery, and Norwegian angelica. Garden angelica is a biennial plant from the family Apiaceae, and is grown for its sweet scented and edible roots and stems.
Can you eat wild celery?
Of course, garden angelica is edible and has been used for culinary purpose. Though thought of as a wild celery, every part of the plant is beneficial for cooking as well as for adding aromatic flavor to your food. It is also used in liqueur production and in cosmetics.
What does wild celery taste like?
Garden angelica taste a bit sweet, slightly bitter. It is earthy and present a slight licorice flavor. Sometimes, it exude a flavor that is similar to that of juniper berries, and the roots and stems exhibit the strongest taste.
What are the benefits of wild celery?
Wild celery possesses bioactive compounds that exhibit strong medicinal properties. The most common compounds present in the plant include coumarins, furanocoumarins, and essential oil.
Wild celery is potential for treating cancer
Wild celery possesses strong antitumor activity across its parts. Both the leaves, roots and seed essential oil have extensively been studied and found to possess cytotoxic effect on breast cancer cell line.
According to a study published on the Journal of Integrative Medicine, The root extract of Angelica archangelica exhibited cytotoxicity for breast cancer cell lines studied but not for human fibroblasts. Treatment of 4T1 cells with the root crude extract increased Bax protein levels accompanied by decreased Bcl-2 expression, in the presence of cleaved caspase-3 and cytosolic calcium mobilization, suggesting mitochondrial involvement in breast cancer cell death induced by the crude extract in this cell line.
Sigurdsson et al. demonstrated that Angelica archangelica tincture fruits, as well as its components (imperatorin and xanthotoxin), inhibited the proliferative potential of human pancreas cancer cells PANC-1.
Imperatorin also induced apoptosis in leukemia HL60 cells, and inhibited the proliferation of lung carcinoma (A549), melanin pigment-producing mouse melanoma (B16 melanoma 4A5), human T-cell leukemia (CCRF-HSB-2), and human gastric carcinoma derived from metastatic lymph node (TGBC11TKB). These studies confirms the usefulness and effectiveness of Wild celery in the treatment of several cancer diseases.
other herbal remedies, such as soursop bitters and pigeon pea roots are excellent home remedies for managing various forms of cancers And they are readily available, so you can easily assess them from your gardens or in the supermarkets.
Garden angelica is beneficial for treating depression
The juice or tea made from the whole plant can taken to suppress anxiety or insomnia. They are also useful for treating anxiety disorder. In Chinese and Indian system of medicine, wild celery is also used for nervous disorders including anxiety, anorexia, migraine and other cerebral diseases. The anxiolytic properties of Angelica archangelica due to the imperatorin and isoimperatorin present in the plant.
Angelica tea can also be taken after or during work time to ease stress, improve insomnia and relax your nerves. The tea can also improve neurological health.
Garden Angelica improves gastric ulcer
Another benefit of garden angelica is in gastrointestinal protection, especially with regard to gastric ulcer. It has been used in traditional medicine for this purpose, and has also been proved scientifically. The antimicrobial activity of wild celery may be employed against Helicobacter pylori, which is a bacterial responsible for increasing the acidity of the gastric mucosa as as well as causing ulceration.
Another means by which the plant protects the gastric cell wall from ulceration is through the inhibition of proton pump into the gastric mucosa.
While wild celery suppresses the secretion of acids through proton pump, it also increases the secretion of mucosa fluids, increases the secretion of prostaglandin E2, and decreases the activities of leukotrienes. This anti-ulcer activity of Angelica archangelica may be compared to that of cabbage juice. So far, cabbage juice have shown exceptional potency for treating gastrointestinal ulceration.
Wild celery improves wound healing
Angelica root may promote wound healing through stimulation of angiogenesis, or by activating the creation of new blood vessels. The antimicrobial property would ensure protection against bacterial infection at the wounded surface. The root powder of wild celery may be combined with that of other herbs with similar or more potent wound healing effect, such as Ficus platyphylla, and Garcinia kola.
Garden angelica is beneficial for Rheumatoid arthritis
Although there are no research support for the traditional use of Angelica archangelica in the treatment of Rheumatoid arthritis, a close specie of the same family, Angelica sinensis have been extensively studied proved to possess strong anti-inflammatory activity. The root extract of Angelica sinensis are able to inhibit IL6 and TNF-alpha levels, along with prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and prostaglandin D2 (PGD2).
Wild celery improves cognition
The root extract and Feru-guard, which is a commercialized root product of Angelica archangelica is being used for treatment of mild cognitive impairment in older people. This may be attributed to several bioactive compounds present in wild celery root extract. Both Imperatorin and Xanthotoxin are active cholinesterase inhibitors. Another compound, decursin is able to lower calcium influx in glutamate-treated rat cortical cells, and also inhibited apoptosis by suppressing caspase-3 activity in amyloid-β treated PC12 cells.
Aside improving cognitive dysfunction, the root of wild celery, like spermidine supplement, is also of great benefit for improving brain function and memory capacity.
Other health benefits of wild celery
There are several other benefits of wild celery, which we may not discuss in details for now. May be in the next updates, we may be able to do so. Some of these other health benefits of garden angelica in includes treatment of rashes, measles, anorexia, and migraine, bronchitis, chronic fatigue, menstrual and obstetric complaints. Others include fever, and headache. The essential oil is used for the treatment of seizures and epilepsy.
Conclusion
Angelica archangelica is a wonderful herbal plant that you should cultivate in your garden as a home remedy for certain illnesses. Although, unlike Angelica sinensis, Angelica archangelica has no known toxic effect, it is proper to consult your doctor before embarking on traditional medications.
References
S. Vogl et al. Ethnopharmacological in vitro studies on Austria’s folk medicine—an unexplored lore in vitro anti-inflammatory activities of 71 Austrian traditional herbal drugs J Ethnopharmacol (2013).
Kumar, Dinesh & Bhat, Zulfiqar & Kumar, Vijender & Shah, M.Y.. (2013). Coumarins from Angelica archangelica Linn. and their effects on anxiety-like behavior. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry. 40. 180–186.
plant.[42,43Luszczki, J. J.; Glowniak, K.; Czuczwar, S. J. Time–Course and Dose–Response Relationships of Imperatorin in the Mouse Maximal Electroshock Seizure Threshold Model. Neuroscience Research 2007, 59, 18–22.
Maurya, Anupam & Verma, Dr Subash & Gupta, Vijay & Shankar, M.. (2017). Angelica archangelica L.-A Phytochemical and Pharmacological Review. Asian Journal of Research in Chemistry. 10. 852. 10.5958/0974-4150.2017.00142.0.
