''Sanguisorba officinalis'', commonly known as great burnet, is a plant in the family

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus ''Rosa''. Among the most species-rich genera are ''Alchemilla'' (270), ''Sorbus ...

, subfamily

Rosoideae The rose subfamily Rosoideae consists of more than 850 species, including many shrubs, perennial herbs, and fruit plants such as strawberries and brambles. Only a few are annual herbs. The circumscription of the Rosoideae is still not wholly cer ...

. It is native throughout the cooler regions of the

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, northern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, and northern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. It is a

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

growing to 1 m tall, which occurs in grasslands, growing well on grassy banks. It flowers June or July. ''Sanguisorba officinalis'' is an important food plant for the European large blue butterflies ''

Phengaris nausithous The dusky large blue (''Phengaris nausithous'') is a species of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Montenegro ...

'' and '' P. teleius''.World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1996. . Downloaded on 6 October 2010

Commercial uses

Use is made of its extensive root system for

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

control, as well as a bioremediator, used to reclaim derelict sites such as landfills.

Ornamental

''Sanguisorba officinalis'' is one of several ''Sanguisorba'' species cultivated as ornamental plants. The

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

'Tanna' is widely available, and has won the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

. The synonym ''Sanguisorba menziesii'' is also listed as having gained the Award.

Ethnomedical uses

It has been used in

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

(TCM) where it is known by the name Di Yu. It is said to cool the blood, stop bleeding, clear heat, and heal wounds (Chinese Herbal Materia Medica by Dan Bensky). Specifically, the root is used to stop

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

, nosebleeds, and is applied

topical A topical medication is a medication that is applied to a particular place on or in the body. Most often topical medication means application to body surfaces such as the skin or mucous membranes to treat ailments via a large range of classes ...

ly to treat burns and insect bites.

Phytochemistry

Sanguiin H-6 Sanguiin H-6 is an ellagitannin. Natural occurrence Sanguiin H-6 can be found in Rosaceae such as the great burnet (''Sanguisorba officinalis''), in strawberries (''Fragaria × ananassa'') and in ''Rubus'' species such as red raspberries (''Rub ...

is a dimeric

ellagitannin The ellagitannins are a diverse class of hydrolyzable tannins, a type of polyphenol formed primarily from the oxidative linkage of galloyl groups in 1,2,3,4,6-pentagalloyl glucose. Ellagitannins differ from gallotannins, in that their galloyl group ...

that can be found in ''S. officinalis''. Ziyuglycoside II is a

triterpenoid saponin Saponins (Latin "sapon", soap + "-in", one of), also selectively referred to as triterpene glycosides, are bitter-tasting usually toxic plant-derived organic chemicals that have a foamy quality when agitated in water. They are widely distributed ...

that can be found in ''S. officinalis''.

References

officinalis ''Officinalis'', or ''officinale'', is a Medieval Latin epithet denoting organisms—mainly plants—with uses in medicine, herbalism and cookery. It commonly occurs as a specific epithet, the second term of a two-part botanical name. ''Officinali ...

Medicinal plants Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{rosoideae-stub