Interesting facts

The scientific name Petasites comes from the Latin word “petasus” or Greek “petasos“= large, wide-brimmed hat; possibly a comparison with the large leaves which many peoples used as sunhats. The butterbur got its German name “Pestwurz“ in the Middle Ages when it was used as an agent against the plague. The sweat-promoting root was said to repel the fatal disease with a sweating cure; an attempt which was not very successful. Perhaps at least the fresh leaves applied to the buboes relieved the pain.
As early as the time of the Celts, butterbur was used for wound healing. The Slovaks were convinced of the powerful healing effect of butterbur on asthma, worming treatments, epilepsy and as a diuretic, wound-healing and skin-cleansing agent and called it the “nine-power-leaf“: according to their folklore the leaf had nine veins with nine powers against nine different diseases.