Frequently (and not so frequently) Asked Questions
BRIEF: Could you give me some more information about Spartium Junceum?
QUESTION:
Somewhere I read that Mexican Chamanes used Spartium Junceum (spanish broom) for
high blood pressure but I have never found that book again and I do not know the
toxicity of that plant. I have a plant of Spanish Broom in my garden. My father
has high blood pressure and he use traditional medication. He wants to
know about using Spanish broom for himself because he once tried mother tinture of
spanish broom and it really was effective. I searched the
toxicity of the plant on the internet and did not find very good information.
I found opposite information about the medical use and its toxicity.
I would like to know if the mother tinture of flowers made with half litre
of drinking alcohol and 100 gr of dry flowers of the spanish broom, taken
in 15 drops 2 times a day, can be toxic. The effects in high blood pressure
are amazing, and better than traditional drugs, because it regulates and
mantains a similar pressure all day long, and help as a diuretic and heart
tonic, problems that appear with traditional medication for high blood
pressure, on my father.
ANSWER:
Spartium Junceum, spanish broom, has been used for at least two thousand years as
a diuretic and to strengthen the heartbeat and to reduce total body fluids.
Advocates of its use believe that the quinolizidine alkaloid sparteine temporarily
raises renal aterial blood pressure enough to increase kidney filtration and
thereby act as a diuretic, which then lowers blood pressure below what it was at
the start for an extended period. I am not a physician, but your father should
discuss this with one before trying to use this old drug. A physician might be
able to tell him if the the hazard of increasing the strength of the heart's
contraction is worth the benefit of lower blood pressure that follows.
One reason this old drug has been replaced by newer ones, is that an individual's
response can be unpredictable. About 1 patient in 11 lacks the enzyme needed to
efficiently break down and clear sparteine from the body. For these people,
repeated dosing with spanish broom can be very dangerous. There is a test for this
condition that involves taking a tiny dose and looking for the proper carabolites
in the urine, but obviously, this must be run by a medical laboratory.