Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Armoracia rusticana
Pronounced Horseradish = HORS-rad-ish; Armoracia rusticana = ar-mor-AY-shee-uh rus-tih-KAH-nuh
Hot, dry, and fiercely pungent: a mustard-oil stimulant that fires cold, torpid digestion, drains boggy damp through diuresis and expectoration, and reddens the skin as a rubefacient, powerful and irritating, for cold atonic terrain only.
Avoid therapeutic and large amounts. Modern references rate horseradish LIKELY UNSAFE in medicinal quantities during pregnancy: the volatile allyl isothiocyanate (mustard oil) is a toxic mucosal irritant, and the tincture, used regularly or in large amounts, is reported to risk miscarriage. The German Commission E and standard drug databases advise against medicinal use in pregnancy. Small culinary amounts of the condiment are generally considered acceptable, but concentrated preparations, tinctures, and therapeutic doses should be avoided. Source: WebMD/RxList Horseradish; Drugs.com Horseradish monograph; German Commission E monograph (Armoraciae rusticanae radix).
Avoid therapeutic and large amounts. Horseradish is rated LIKELY UNSAFE in large or medicinal amounts while breastfeeding; the pungent isothiocyanates are excreted and are mucosal irritants, and human lactation-safety data are lacking. Commission E and drug databases advise against medicinal use during lactation. Culinary seasoning amounts are generally considered acceptable. Source: WebMD/RxList Horseradish; Drugs.com Horseradish; German Commission E monograph.
Not for medicinal use under four years of age. The German Commission E contraindicates internal horseradish for children under four, and modern references rate it LIKELY UNSAFE by mouth in young children because the mustard oil irritates the digestive tract. Older children may take small culinary amounts as tolerated. External rubefacient use on a child's skin risks burning and is not advised. Source: German Commission E monograph (Armoraciae rusticanae radix); WebMD/RxList Horseradish.
A strong mucous-membrane and skin irritant. Taken in more than culinary amounts it can cause burning epigastric pain, nausea, and vomiting (King's: immoderate doses cause burning pain at the epigastrium, nausea, and vomiting), and in excess bloody vomiting and diarrhea; Grieve notes it is, if taken too freely, emetic. On the skin the fresh grated root is a rubefacient that will redden and then blister if left on too long, so external applications are kept brief and removed at the first sharp sting. It is goitrogenic: the isothiocyanates can depress thyroid function, so it is best avoided in hypothyroidism and by anyone on thyroid-hormone medication. Avoid therapeutic doses in pregnancy and lactation, in gastrointestinal ulcers and inflammatory bowel disease, and in kidney disease. Not for medicinal use in children under four years of age. Ordinary culinary condiment amounts in healthy adults are generally regarded as safe.
Contraindicated (per the German Commission E) in gastrointestinal ulceration and in kidney disorders, and for internal medicinal use in children under four years. Avoid therapeutic doses in pregnancy and while breastfeeding, and in hypothyroidism or alongside thyroid-hormone drugs (goitrogenic). Not a substitute for medical care of a suspected kidney infection, a persistent cough, or gastrointestinal bleeding. Ordinary culinary use of the condiment by healthy adults is not a concern.
No conservation concern. Armoracia rusticana is a vigorous, cold-hardy perennial that spreads aggressively from root fragments and readily naturalizes, to the point of being weedy or invasive in some regions. It is abundantly cultivated, is not on the United Plant Savers at-risk list, and puts no pressure on wild stands. Grow it in a contained bed (it is hard to eradicate once established) and use fresh-dug root.
Associated with the Passover maror, the bitter herbs commanded with the lamb in Exodus 12:8 (with bitter herbs they shall eat it) and Numbers 9:11, but not as the original plant. Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) is native to southeastern Europe and western Asia, not the land of the Bible, and the maror of the Hebrew text and the Mishnah was a Mediterranean bitter green (lettuce, endive or chicory, or a sowthistle-type herb). Ashkenazi Jews in medieval and early-modern Eastern Europe adopted horseradish (Yiddish khreyn) as maror where those bitter greens would not grow in early spring, and it became the familiar Passover bitter herb by custom, not botany. Honestly, then: a later European stand-in for the biblical bitter herb, carried into Western tradition by Jewish practice and by the folk and eclectic herbals (Grieve, King's).
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