Local Names

Georgian: (mariamdzmara); Russian: кокорыш (kokorish); Armenian: шикарос (shikaros) (Grossheim 1952; Ketskhoveli et al. 1971–2011; Makashvili 1991; Sokolov 1988).

Botany and Ecology

Biennials or annuals; root thin, fusiform; stems usually single, 30–100 cm high, faintly ribbed, hollow, branching, like leaves glabrous; leaves bi- or tripinnate, dark green, very shiny beneath when fresh; leaflets triangular or ovate, deeply cut or parted; lower leaves on petioles, the upper sessile on dilated sheath. Umbels opposite leaves, long-peduncled; rays 12–18, unequal, scabrous above; involucre absent or of 1–2 leaflets; involucels asymmetrical, of 3 recurved leaflets with scarious base and margins, nearly twice as long (var. gigantea Lej.) or as long as pedicels (var. cynapioides (M.B.) Ficinus et Heynh.); petals white or slightly reddish, obcordate, cuneate at base, elongating in peripheral flowers; stylopodium flat-inflated; fruit 2–3 mm long, 2–2.5 mm wide, with arcuate canals toward commissure. Flowering June–October. Ural, Caucasus, weed, kitchen gardens, gardens, shrubs, felled areas, floodplain forests (Shishkin 1950).

Phytochemistry

Alkaloids (Coniine) (Sokolov 1988).

Local Medicinal Uses

The leaves are used to treat gum disease (Bussmann et al. 2016, 2017).

Local Food Uses

The leaves are used as food (Bussmann et al. 2016).

Local Handicraft and Other Uses

Aethusa cynapium contains the poisonous alkaloid cynapine and causes poisoning in horses, cows, and pigs who usually avoid the plant because of its disagreeable odor (Grossheim 1952; Sokolov 1988).

The leaves are used to dye wool yellow (Grossheim 1952; Sokolov 1988).