ソクズは丈が高く、木本のように見えるものの多年生草本。白色の小花が平らに集まって咲き、黄色の腺体が疎らに受粉昆虫を誘き寄せます。
Chinese Elder is a tall, woody plant, but is actually a perennial herb. Its small white flowers bloom in flat clusters, among which sparsely distributed yellow glands attract pollinating insects.
【仮名】ソクズ, クサニワトコ
【和名】蒴藋, 草接骨木
【英名】Chinese Elder
【学名】Sambucus chinensis
【誕生】07/ ??
【開花】07, 08, 09月
【花色】White
ソクズ
ソクズの概要
ソクズはレンプクソウ科ニワトコ属の多年草です。日本では本州、四国、九州、国外では中国、東南アジアに分布。山野の林縁や水辺、荒れ地や路傍などで群生しています。丈が高く、木本のように見えるものの、茎や葉に青草のような臭気がある草本。「草接骨木」とも呼ばれます。
ソクズの名前
ソクズの和名の由来は中国の生薬名「蒴藋」の音読み（サクダク・サクテキ）、または平安時代の古名「ソクドウ」の転訛です。ラテン語の属名サンブクスは弦楽器や管楽器に由来し、茎が笛などの材料に使われたため。種小名キネンシスは「中国」という意味で、原産地を表します。
ソクズの姿形
ソクズは地下茎が横に這い伸び、地上茎が太く直立。葉は対生の奇数羽状複葉で、縁に鋸歯があります。花は小さく、花冠が５裂、雄しべが５本。白色の小花が平らに集まって咲き、黄色の腺体が疎らに受粉昆虫を誘き寄せます。花後は丸い液果が結実。赤色に熟すと甘味があります。
ソクズの利用
ソクズは古くから漢方の生薬で「蒴藋」、民間薬で「接骨草」と呼ばれました。刈り取った全草を干し上げ、むくみには煎じて服用、神経痛や打撲には浴用、腫れには潰して外用。ウルソール酸、各種フラボノイド、精油などが含まれ、血管収縮作用や鎮痛作用があるとされています。
Chinese Elder
Chinese Elder is a perennial herb in the Adoxaceae family. It is found in Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu in Japan, and in China and Southeast Asia overseas. It grows in clusters on forest edges, near water, wastelands, and roadsides. Although it appears tall and woody, its stems and leaves have a grassy odor. For this reason, it is also known as “herbaceous elder.”
The Japanese name for Chinese Elder comes from the name of a Chinese herbal medicine and an ancient name from the Heian period. The Latin genus name, Sambucus, comes from stringed and wind instruments, since its stems were used to make flutes and other instruments. The specific epithet, chinensis, means “China” and indicates its place of origin.
Chinese Elder has creeping underground stems and thick, upright aboveground stems. The leaves are opposite, odd-pinnate, and compound with serrated edges. The flowers are small, with five-lobed corollas and five stamens. The small white florets bloom in flat clusters, among which sparsely distributed yellow glands attract pollinating insects. After flowering, round berries form, which turn red and ripen to a sweet taste.
Chinese Elder has long been used as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine and folk remedy. The whole harvested plant is dried and brewed into a decoction for swelling, used as a bath for neuralgia and bruises, and crushed for external use on swelling. It contains ursolic acid, various flavonoids, and essential oils, and is said to have vasoconstrictive and analgesic properties.
