Salvia
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 Salvia pratensis (Meadow sage)
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Salvia is the largest genus of plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, with approximately 900 species of shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annuals.[1] It is one of three genera commonly referred to as sage. When used without modifiers, sage generally refers to Salvia officinalis ("common sage"); however, it can be used with modifiers to refer to any member of the genus. The ornamental species are commonly referred to by their scientific name Salvia. The genus is distributed throughout the world, with the center of diversity and origin appearing to be Central and South Western Asia,[2] while nearly 500 species are native to Mexico and Central and South America.[3]
The name is derived from the Latin salvere ("to save"), referring to the long-believed healing properties of salvia. The Latin was corrupted to 'sauja', to the French 'sauge', and to the old English 'sawge', and eventually became the modern day 'sage'.[4] Pliny the Elder was the first to use the Latin name salvia.[5]
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Description
Salvia species include annual, biennial, or perennial herbs, along with woody based sub-shrubs. The stems are typically angled like other members in Lamiaceae. The flowers are produced in spikes, racemes, or panicles, and generally produce a showy display with flower colors ranging from blue to red, with white and yellow less common. The calyx is normally tubular or bell shaped, without bearded throats, and divided into two parts or lips, the upper lip entire or three-toothed, the lower two-cleft. The corollas are often claw shaped and are two-lipped with the upper lip entire or notched and spreading. The lower lip typically has three lobes with the middle lobe longest. The stamens are reduced to two short structures with anthers two-celled, the upper cell fertile, and the lower imperfect. The flower styles are two-cleft. The fruits are smooth nutlets and many species have a mucilaginous coating.
Salvia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species including the bucculatricid leaf-miner Bucculatrix taeniola which feeds exclusively on the genus and the Coleophora case-bearers C. aegyptiacae, C. salviella (both feed exclusively on S. aegyptiaca), C. ornatipennella and C. virgatella (both recorded on S. pratensis).
Classification
The defining characteristic of the genus Salvia is the unusual pollination mechanism, which consists of two stamens (instead of the typical four found in other members of the tribe Mentheae) and the way the two stamens are connected to form a lever. When a pollinator enters the flower for nectar, the lever activates causing the stamens to move and the pollen to be deposited on the pollinator. When the pollinator withdraws from the flower, the lever returns the stamens to their original position. As the pollinator enters another flower of the same species, the stigma is placed in a general location that corresponds to where the pollen was deposited on the pollinator's body. It is believed that this is a key factor in the speciation of this large group of diverse plants.[6] However, it now appears that somewhat different versions of this lever mechanism have evolved in the tribe Mentheae, and that Salvia is not monophyletic.[7][8]
Commonly used species
- Salvia officinalis, or "Common sage" is used widely in cooking and as an herbal medicine. It shows promise as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease patients.[9][10][11][12]
- Red sage (Salvia miltiorrhiza) is used in Traditional Chinese medicine.[13]
- Salvia splendens or "Scarlet sage" is a popular ornamental bedding or pot plant.[14]
- Salvia apiana is the "whitesage" used in smudge sticks in many U.S. Native American traditions.[15]
- Salvia divinorum, or "Diviner's sage", is a popular hallucinogenic drug that has been made illegal in several U.S. states.[16]
Selected species
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Notes
- ^ Clebsch, Betsy; Carol D. Barner (2003). The New Book of Salvias. Timber Press. p. 18. ISBN 9780881925609. http://books.google.com/books?id=NM0iwB8GrQYC&pg=PA18.
- ^ Kintzios, Spiridon E. (2000). Sage: The Genus Salvia. CRC Press. pp. 27. ISBN 9789058230058.
- ^ Clebsch, p. 19.
- ^ Kintzios, p. 10.
- ^ Clebsch, p. 17.
- ^ Clasenbockhoff, R. (2004), "The staminal lever mechanism in Salvia L. (Lamiaceae): a key innovation for adaptive radiation?", Organisms Diversity & Evolution 4: 189, doi:, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7GJ9-4D2F13P-9&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=ba36292de66337e1fc11c4c8ab5670b5
- ^ Jay B. Walker, Kenneth J. Sytsma, Jens Treutlein and Michael Wink (2004). "Salvia (Lamiaceae) is not monophyletic: implications for the systematics, radiation, and ecological specializations of Salvia and tribe Mentheae". American Journal of Botany 91: 1115–1125. doi:. http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/91/7/1115.
- ^ Walker, Jay B., Sytsma, Kenneth J. (August 2007). "Staminal Evolution in the Genus Salvia (Lamiaceae): Molecular Phylogenetic Evidence for Multiple Origins of the Staminal Lever". Annals of Botany 100 (2): 375–391. doi:. PMID 16926227.
- ^ Akhondzadeh, S; Noroozian, M; Mohammadi, M; Ohadinia, S; Jamshidi, Ah; Khani, M (February 2003). "Salvia officinalis extract in the treatment of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease: a double blind, randomized and placebo-controlled trial". Journal of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics 28 (1): 53–9. doi:. ISSN 0269-4727. PMID 12605619.
- ^ Dos, Santos-Neto, Ll; De, Vilhena, Toledo, Ma; Medeiros-Souza, P; De, Souza, Ga (December 2006). "The use of herbal medicine in Alzheimer's disease-a systematic review" (Free full text). Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM 3 (4): 441–5. doi:. PMID 17173107. PMC: 1697739. http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=17173107.
- ^ Perry, Ek; Pickering, At; Wang, Ww; Houghton, P; Perry, Ns (Winter 1998). "Medicinal plants and Alzheimer's disease: Integrating ethnobotanical and contemporary scientific evidence". Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) 4 (4): 419–28. doi:. ISSN 1075-5535. PMID 9884179.
- ^ Iuvone, T; De, Filippis, D; Esposito, G; D'Amico, A; Izzo, Aa (June 2006). "The spice sage and its active ingredient rosmarinic acid protect PC12 cells from amyloid-beta peptide-induced neurotoxicity" (Free full text). The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics 317 (3): 1143–9. doi:. PMID 16495207. http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=16495207.
- ^ Tan, Benny K.-H., Boon-Huat Bay, and Yi-Zhun Zhu. 2004. Novel compounds from natural products in the new millennium: potential and challenges. Singapore: World Scientific. Page 183.
- ^ http://hort.ufl.edu/shrubs/SALSPLA.PDF
- ^ Gladstar, Rosemary; Pamela Hirsch (2000). Planting the Future. Inner Traditions / Bear & Company. pp. 247–251. ISBN 9780892818945. http://books.google.com/books?id=ndk42wxMBzUC&pg=PA247.
- ^ Sack, Kevin; Brent McDonald (2008-09-08). "Popularity of a Hallucinogen May Thwart Its Medical Uses". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/us/09salvia.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-19.
References
- Sage: The Genus Salvia by Spiridon E. Kintzios, CRC Press, 2000. ISBN 9789058230058.
- The Gardener's Guide to Growing Salvias by John Sutton, Timber Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0881924749.
- The New Book of Salvias by Betsy Clebsch, Timber Press, 2003. ISBN 9780881925609. An excellent reference on salvias.
External links
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