Username Password

Remember Me

Forgot your password?

Forgot your username?

No Account Yet? Create an account

Scotch Broom

Botanical Name: Cytisus scoparius, Fabaceae

Botanical synonyms: Sarothamnus scoparius, Spartium scoparium, Planta genista

Common names: Broom, Scotch Broom, Green Broom, Hogweed, Scoparius, Basam, Bisom, Bizzom, Browme, Brum, Breeam.

Plant description: Broom grows to a height of between 1 and 1.5 meters, and produces numerous long, straight, slender green branches, tough and very flexible, glabrous and angular. The leaves are alternate, glabrous when young, the lower ones shortly stalked, with three small, oblong leaflets, the upper ones, near the tips of the branches, sessile and small, often reduced to a single leaflet. It moist places it is said to develop trifoliate leaves. The flowers are large, fragrant, bright yellow, and a favorite of bees, blooming from April to July. They are borne on axillary stalks, either solitary or in pairs, and succeeded by oblong, flattened pods, about 3-5 cm in length, hairy on the edges, but smooth on the sides. When fully mature the pods almost turn black in colour, and burst open with a violent, twisting action, flinging the seeds some distance away. The sounds of the crackling pods can often be heard in the middle of summer, on a hot sunny day.

Habitat, Ecology and Distribution: Broom plants will often be found growing together as dense thickets, in waste areas, abandoned pastures and road sides, preferring poor, sandy soils. Its penetrating root structure indicates that Broom is an important pioneer species, holding together poor soils and preventing erosion, and providing important habitat for game. Broom is indigenous to temperate Europe and northern Asia, and with the European colonization has become naturalized in North America. There are other similar species that are common in warmer environs, such as Spanish broom (Spartium junceum) and Canary Island broom (Genista canariensis). For the botanist Broom presents some interesting challenges by its tendency to interbreed so much that many plants found growing ‘wild’ are actually hybrids.

Part Used: Aerial portions, flowering tops.

History: In northern Europe Broom has a long history as a heraldic emblem, by notables such as Geoffrey of Anjou, Richard I of England, King Louis IX of France. As a tough, durable plant with fragrant golden blossoms the insignia of Broom no doubt conveyed the idea of strength and virtue. Apart from the military connotations, Broom is associated with springtime and fertility, especially during times when the blossoms were especially abundant. And as might be inferred from its name Broom was gathered in bunches and used to sweep dirt from the homes, but only when the plant was not in blossom:

‘If you sweep the house with blossomed Broom in May

You are sure to sweep the head of the house away.’

Broom has also been used as a source of fiber from very ancient times, and can be made into paper and cloth by soaking the stems in water in much the same way as flax. As a wood product very large specimens of Broom were at one time highly valued by cabinetmakers as a beautifully veined hardwood use in veneer. As a food, Broom was at one time used instead of Hops to add a bitter flavour to beer, and as Maude Grieve suggests, “… to render it more intoxicating.” The ground seeds were also used at one time as a drink similar to coffee. In Mexico, the Yaqui shamans smoke the fermented flowers of a similar species (Genista canariensis) for a marijuana-like effect. Broom has also been used as thatching for cottages, in basket weaving, and the tannins in the bark for tanning leather. The young tops yield a green dye.

Constituents: Broom contains about 0.8 – 1.5% quinolizidine-type alkaloids, including the major sparteine (0.3 – 0.8%), as well as minor alkaloids cytisine, genisteine, lupanine, oxysparteine and sarothamine. Various amines found in Broom include epinine, tyramine and hydroxytyramine. Flavonols such as scoparin and vitexin have also been noted, as well as carotenoids, bitter principles, amino acids, fats, resins, wax and volatile oils (Newall et al 1996, 50).

Medical research:

Cardiovascular: In his text Herbal Medicine, Rudolf Weiss mentions several older German studies and a variety of mechanisms by which Broom exerts an anti-arrhythmic and bradycardiac effect. Sparteine and oxytyramine appear to have vasoconstrictive properties that act on the conductivity of the heart, reducing increased irritability of disease states, normalizing electrical conduction and improving venous return (Weiss 1988, 150). Other alkaloids found in Broom such as sarothamine and genisteine also inhibit conduction, and the yellow-pigmented flavonol scoparin “… have an beneficial effect on myocardial and the induction of cardiac impulses” (Weiss 1988, 150). Sparteine has been shown to possess a tachycardiac effect in small doses and a bradycardiac effect in large doses (Newall et al 1996, 50). In the peripheral nervous system sparteine is reported to have a paralytic action on nerve transmission similar to curare (Newall et al 1996, 50).

Gynecology: Sparteine has a uteroconstrictive and styptic property similar to quinine, and has been studied for its inductive effect in premature rupture of the fetal membranes (Weiss 1988, 150; Freeman and Mishell 1968).

Addiction: Cytisine has been studied for its effects in tobacco addiction (Scharfenberg et al 1971).

Psychotropic: Cytisine has demonstrated hallucinogenic and psychotropic effects, and is highest in the seed (Duke 1992; Harbone and Baxter 1983).

Toxicity: Duke lists the oral LD₅₀ for cytosine in mice as 101 mg/kg (1985, 530). No data for an oral dose for sparteine could be found, but subcutaneous administration in mice was found to have an LDLo (lowest published lethal death) of 120 mg/kg for mice, and 100 mg/kg in rabbits (Duke 1985, 544). Symptoms of sparteine poisoning are listed as tachycardia, nausea, diarrhea, vertigo and stupor (Newall et al 1996, 50). Weiss states that the whole herb can be given on a long-term basis without toxicity (1988, 150).

Herbal Action: cardioactive, diuretic, peripheral vasoconstrictive, uterine stimulant (oxytocic), uterine styptic, emetic, cathartic

Indications: congestive heart failure, myocardial weakness, tachycardia, palpitations, low blood pressure, menorrhagia

Contraindications and cautions: hypertension, heart disease, lactation, pregnancy

Medicinal Uses: According to Weiss, Broom is not a plant to be used in the general treatment of cardiac pathologies but is specific to arrhythmia, when there is a “… tendency to extrasystoles and post-infectious myocarditis with arrhythmia” (1988, 150). For the treatment of “absolute arrhythmia or paroxysmal tachycardia” however, Broom alone is insufficient (Weiss 1988, 150). Weiss also mentions that the herb must be given on a long-term basis to achieve its therapeutic benefit (188, 150). Felter and Lloyd also mention the utility of Broom as a diuretic, “… especially beneficial in dropsy of the thorax, combined with diseases of the lungs” (Felter and Lloyd. 1893). Cook cautions however that Broom can “…readily overwork the kidneys” (1869, 398). As a bitter cholagogue Broom has found use in traditional herbal medicine in the treatment of jaundice, the English herbalist Gerard stating that a “… decoction of the twigs and tops of Broom doth cleanse and open the liver, milt and kidnies.”

Pharmacy and Dosage:

• Fresh Plant Tincture: 1:2, 95% alcohol, 15-30 gtt.
• Dry Plant Tincture: 1:5, 50% alcohol, 20-40 gtt.
• Hot Infusion: 1:20, 60-90 mL

◄ Rosemary		Selfheal ►