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Common names: Calamus root, sweet flag, rat root, sweet sedge, flag root, sweet calomel, sweet myrtle, sweet cane, sweet rush, beewort, muskrat root, pine root, racha (India), shih-ch'ang pu (China), makan-ninida (Omaha and Ponca), mankan-kereh (Winnebago), kahtsha itu (Pawnee), sinkpe-ta-wote (Dakota), sanka ce (Lakota), pexe boao'ka (Osage), wi'ukh is e' evo (Cheyenne), moskwas'wask (Algonquian), muskwe s uwesk (Penobscot), weekas (Cree).
An uncommon but widespread semi-aquatic plant found in temperate and subtemperate zones of both the Old and New Worlds.
It has a branched and aromatic root or rhizome from which rise its long erect leaves. It is classified as belonging to the arum family Araceae but recent studies suggest that it should be placed in its own family. Both the leaves and rhizome are apparently psychoactive, due to the presence of asarones, which have mescaline-like hallucinogenic properties if taken in sufficient quantities.
In lesser amounts it has stimulating and tonic effects. According to Arabic, Roman and later European folk botany, the plant is also an aphrodisiac.
It is commonly known as sweet flag, flag root and sweet calomel in Europe and was once dubbed the Tatar or Mongolian Poison by those peoples who were invaded and conquered by the Mongols, who used it for the innocent purpose of purifying water.
It was used in the sacred incenses of both the Sumerians and the ancient Egyptians and remains of the plant were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. It may also have had a similar use in Biblical times. In Exodus 30: 23,24,34, when God ordered Moses to make the Holy Oil, one of its constituents was an aromatic reed which some authorities have suggested might have been Acorus calamus.
The plant is mentioned by many of the great classical writers on medicine, from Hippocrates (460-377 BC) and Theophrastus (371-287 BC) onwards. According to Dioscorides the smoke of Acorus calamus, if taken orally through a funnel, relieves a cough. Celsus records that the plant was readily available in the markets of India almost 2,000 years ago.