Arum maculatum (for advanced foragers only)

[Ginger]

This is a post for advanced bushcrafters – you should know that the plant discussed is poisonous and should not be eaten (or even tasted). But now that that is said, this plant has clearly been eaten in our history and the knowledge of how to prepare it must be out there somewhere.

I want to get the warnings behind us and have an deeper discussion about this interesting plant.

When I lived in East Sussex A. maculatum (Cuckoo Pint, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Lords and Ladies) was very common and appeared early, being very easy to find in winter. So it clearly had potential as a winter (or more likely spring) supply of carbohydrate. Over the years, I've heard people say that there are some tribes around the world that know how to prepare its root to make it safe but that there was some evidence that it wasn't quite as simple as it looked.

I think the issue is that British Arum maculatum contains saponin alongside the other acrid poison that is in all Arums' (Arisaema) roots. But I know that British Arum maculatum was prepared into a food and was used to make blancmange and Portland sago, so it is possible to render this plant safe.

So, my question is: does anyone have any modern knowledge of how to prepare Arum maculatum root to make it safe to eat? I think I know how to make other Arums safe and I think the remaining problem with using these methods to make British Arum maculatum safe would be how to get the rid of the saponin.

After going through every book I have (and that's quite a few of them!), here's what I can find about how the American natives prepared Arum triphyllum – also called Jack-in-the-Pulpit and which strongly resembles Arum Maculatum.

From Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Bradford Angier:
Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema)
Many Indians relied on the dried and powdered roots of the familiar jack-in-the-pulpit for flower. The wonder is that aborigines the world over have learned to rid arum roots of their corrosive acridness and thus capitalize upon their nutritious, delicate, white starchiness.
Boiling won't do it! Drying will. The fastest way to do this is by roasting. The simplest method is just to cut the fresh roots into very thin slices, then set these aside in a dry place for upwards of three months. They then provide pleasant snacks, either as is or with a potato crisp dip. Or you can crumble the crisp slices into flour and use it to in regular recipes, most satisfactorily half and half with wheat flour, to make special delicacies.
Has pic of what is clearly an arum plant type though I can't tell if it is arum maculatum.

From Native Harvests by Barrie Kavasch:
Indian Turnip or Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
This familiar woodland perennial wild flower was used by numerous tribes as a headache treatment. The toxic root, containing the acrid poison calcium oxalate, was pounded with water into a pulp, then allowed to dry several weeks (rendering it harmless). In this state it was used variously as a palatable flour, as snuff, and as a medicinal tea.

A couple of extra bits I found on the Web about Arum maculatum:
Arum maculatum, Cuckoo-pint.—Europe. This plant is somewhat similar to Indian turnip, possessing the same chemical components, with the addition thereto of saponin, fixed oil, and resin. Large doses of it have produced inflammation of the bucco-oesophageo-gastric tract, and fatal effects are recorded from its use. In times of famine the peasants have used the prepared corm in making bread. Small amounts of a starchy material were at one time prepared from it on the Isle of Portland, England, and sold on the market as "Portland sago" or "Portland arrowroot".

Arum maculatum
Said to be edible, if dried and baked. (A. maculatum is said to be one of the more toxic members of the genus, please do not experiment without due caution). Portland Arrowroot (Portland Sago) used to make puddings or blancmange, was a starch obtained from washed, cooked, and pounded tubers. Cyprus powder, a C.18th Parisian cosmetic is said to have contained A. maculatum starch. Juice extracted from the tuber was used in Italy to remove freckles and skin blemishes. In parts of France the residue from soaked stalks of flowering A. maculatum was used as a laundry soap (that'll be the saponin)
I suspect the answer is to pound it in water, then dry it for three months and then bake or roast it as a final step. Of course, I'm not going to try it and I don't recommend you do either, but can anyone add more to this?

 

[Realgar]

the only way I know is the soak method - grate the roots finely and add to water, stir well, allow to settle, pour off the water and do it again. If I remember right you need to soak it for at least 24 hours. What you collect is the starch grains that settle out - essentialy arrow root, rather unappetising wallpaper paste when cooked as is.
If you want to practise, I've used a similar method ( but with less soaking ) to get starch out of potatoes for thickening stews.
Realgar

 

[match]

I'm not sure this is ever going to be a useful thing to be able to do -especially not considering the risks involved.

If you've got Arum Maculatum growing in an area, then you're almost guaranteed to have hundreds of other much more edible plants growing in the same area, as it tends to favour the same places things like Burdock, Dandelions, Nettles etc grow in. In terms of time, I would also rather be eating a well-boiled tough burdock root in February, or scavenging about for nettle tips for stews than spending a long time trying to make safe a small root. While having a source of starch is always useful, I would probably only ever use it for non-food uses (glues etc). The risk of poisoning is just too high.

Its a very pretty plant to look at though!

 

[Realgar]

It's certainly not one I'd try - but then people have eaten lethal varities of cassava for years with no problem just by soaking the roots. Cuckoo pint is supposed to make a superb laundry starch but does anyone use it these days?

Realgar

 

[Jumbalaya]

My researches back in very old literature produced some interesting finds about arum and which I have used to experiment with arum for the first time at the beginning of the year. The plant is highly toxic in its raw state, but 200 grammes of raw root produced appx. 70 gms. of dried flour. It almost has the same cooking qualities of arrowroot and cassava flour. More details and pictures at: www.countrylovers.co.uk/wfs/arum.htm

PLEASE DO BE VERY CAREFUL IN HANDLING ARUM

 

[Moonraker]

Interesting post Ginger

The PFAF web database page for PFAF - Arum maculatum has some info:

Edible Uses

Leaves; Root.
Tuber - cooked and used as a vegetable[2, 177]. A mild flavour, the root contains about 25% starch[74]. A farina can be extracted from the root[2]. Roots can be harvested at any time of the year, though they are best when the plant is dormant[K]. At one time, the tubers of this plant were commonly harvested and used for food, but they are very rarely used nowadays[268, K]. The root must be thoroughly dried or cooked before being eaten, see the notes above on toxicity.

Leaves - must be well cooked[177]. Available from late winter. Caution is advised, see the notes above on toxicity.

Mrs Grieve in her famous ( still great resource!) 'A Modern Herbal' states:

The Arum has large tuberous roots, somewhat resembling those of the Potato, oblong in shape, about the size of a pigeon's egg, brownish externally, white within and when fresh, fleshy yielding a milky juice, almost insipid to the taste at first, but soon producing a burning and pricking sensation.The acridity is lost during the process of drying and by application of heat, when the substance of the tuber is left as starch. When baked, the tubers are edible, and from the amount of starch, nutritious. This starch of the root, after repeated washing, makes a kind of arrowroot, formerly much prepared in the Isle of Portland, and sold as an article of food under the name of Portland Sago, or Portland Arrowroot, but now obsolete. For this purpose, it was either roasted or boiled, and then dried and pounded in a mortar, the skin being previously peeled.

source: http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/cucko122.html

The 'Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula) is an altogether safer option which has similar characteristics to arrowroot for culinary use. In fact it has abundant mucalige, starch sugar and protein. It is also used medicinally for abdominal catarrhs and diarrhoea. Like other wild plants it is protected by the 'Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, Section 13'( including Arums also and you can not remove the roots without the landowners permission) which means that you need the landowners permission before gathering the roots (different laws apply for fruit flowers and foliage under common law).

As with any wild plant they should only be gathered sparingly and only where they are abundant locally.

 

[Jumbalaya]

A note on Mookraker's posting to my arum flour information. As far as I know, and can ascertain, arum masculatum is not a 'protected' plant species under Schedule 8 of the WCA 1981, though it is a general species which cannot be uprooted without 'authorisation' as with all wild plants which do not fall under the 'protected' category - that is, you need to own the land, or have permission to uproot and remove plants. 'Protected' plants cannot be uprooted even by the owner and O. mascula is certainly a 'protected' plant. Sch. 8 was last revised in 1998, I think, and I cannot see any mention of arum. I am unaware of a Shc. 13 or is section 13 something entirely different?

Not being a great fan of Grieve [1933] - although I once was - I nowadays prefer to find primary sources for my information where possible. As Jim Duke commented many herbal sources are simply 'bibliographic echoes' and frequently shed little new light. Some older ones were pure plagiarism. Gerard, for example, used lots of the work of the Flemish herbalist Dodoens who wrote several decades before Gerard.

As for Orchis mascula - the male orchid. That plant was commonly used to make a thick drink/porridge variously known as salep, saloop and salop, although back in times past the best salep was deemed to be imported from Turkey. Withering [1776] describes how the bulbs would be skinned, baked in an oven till they acquired a transparency, then removed and allowed to harden over several days or continued baking at a very low heat. The roots of O. mascula and several others were identified as pot herb replacements in 'Observations... food in times of scarcity.' Parmentier (Trans. Murray) [1783].

The most comprehensive description of the production of salep comes from Rhind [1872]: 'Orchis Mascula, is the species usually employed for the manufacture of salep. It grows abundantly in Oxfordshire, and there salep of the best quality has been manufactured from the roots.'

'The most approved mode of treating the roots is as follows: The root is to be washed in water, and the fine brown skin which covers it is to be separated by means of a small brush, and rubbing it with a coarse linen cloth. When a sufficient number of roots have thus been cleansed, they are to be spread on a tin plate and placed in an oven, heated to the usual degree, where they are to remain for six or then minutes, in which time they will have lost their milky whiteness, and acquired a transparency like horn, without any diminution of bulk. Being arrived at this state, they are to be removed, in order to dry and harden in the air, which will require several days to effect; or by using a very gentle heat, they may be finished in a few hours.'

'Salep has been lauded as containing a greater quanity of nourishment, in a given bulk, than any other vegetable body; we suspect, however, that in this respect it must yield to good wheaten bread. It has been said, however, that an ounce of powdered salep, mixed with an ounce of animal jelly or portable soup, and boiled in two quarts of water, will be sufficient for the daily food of an able-bodied man. It has accordingly been recommended as a part of ships' stores on a long voyage. A small quantity of salep added to milk retards the latter from becoming sour.' Rhind also went on to describe the incorporation of salep into bread.

Carter [1749] describes a recipe for making salop [which largely replicates Eliz. Smith's one of 1739]; putting 1/4 oz. of powdered salop in a quart of water, boiling for 30 mins., then adding white wine and lemon suice, and sweetening to taste. The end result was consumed as a drink.

Interestingly Curtis [1798] mentions that the dried powdered roots of arum 'afford nourishment somewhat similar to sago or salep'. One of the descriptions I love about the acrid nature of raw arum root is from Lewis [1799] who describes how it does: 'burn and vellicate' the tongue several hours after chewing.

Marcus

 

[match]

Section 13 of the WCA 1981 implements the general rule of protection for all plants in Schedule 8, and gives the Four f's exclusion (flowers, fruits, foliage, fungi).

Arum maculatum is not on the protected list, but you would need landowners permission to uproot it.

O. mascula IS on the protected list and so can never be uprooted.

 

[Jumbalaya]

Section 13 of the WCA 1981 implements the general rule of protection for all plants in Schedule 8, and gives the Four f's exclusion (flowers, fruits, foliage, fungi).
.

Yup, silly me. Misinterpreted previosu post. Hadn't equated S. 13 with the ACTUAL legal / philosophical umbrella on foraging which I think is very impt.

As a PS to this post. I was looking through a copy of Hill [1812] which describes how the Turks would prepare their salep/salop. Happy to E text to anyone who wants to know more.