The Fig tree, a tropical tree in the temperate zone?

The Fig tree wherever it is in Europe has the art of always being noticed, even in the areas of its favorite “terroir” around the Mediterranean. Its large thick leaves with broad lobes, its smooth and curved trunk, it has really nothing to do physically with its local congeners, oaks, beeches and other leafy trees or even with the pines and holm oaks which often accompany it in these terroirs. hot or winter is just a rainy season. It also happens that  its botany is fundamentally different: It has no sap but latex, according to some studies the branches and the trunk have a photosynthesis system in addition to the leaves, but the main clue that its origin would be from the tropics is that transplanted from temperate to tropical zones it adapts instantly  to its new temperature conditions and bears fruit several times a year, depending on the variety, up to 4 a year. Moreover of the 700 or 800 species of Ficus all are tropical! Except our Ficus carica

If the Fig tree is adapted to this point to this change of climatic zone, it is also, according to the studies of Gemmotherapy , one of the buds which has the broadest spectrum of actions of all those which have been studied. Can we say that Fig Tree Gemmotherapy has the virtue of adapting  to malfunctions  physiological and psychological? 

Plants have a genetic heritage of about 500 million years, in comparison humanity has been present on earth for about 2 million years, so plants have long developed by innovating to protect themselves from external aggressions, bacteria, fungi, climatic variations

Ficus septica (Indonesia)

The fig tree professor of medicine

From the leaves to the roots, all parts of the fig trees are used in traditional medicine: bark, latex, fruit, everything is used to heal, of course, but it is also a shamanic tree in Peru that allows a journey through trance (Renaco , Ficus insipida ), this trip should teach  medicine to the Shaman.

Since the 1970s studies and research have multiplied, this tree has fascinated scientists and confused botanists. Most cited tree in the Old Testament whose fruit is used as a poultice on swellings that would be either infections or tumors *(1.Ben-Noun 2003).

The indications are linked since antiquity and in particular:

  • pathologies of inflammatory origin
  • diabetes, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia
  • infectious diseases
  • parasites and gastrointestinal and pulmonary disorders

pharmacological actions:

  • antibacterial
  • antioxidants
  • anti-inflammatory
  • gastroprotective
  • antidiarrhetic
  • vulnerable
  • antitumor
  • anticancer
  • antispasmodic
  • immunobalancing /immuniharmonizing

supports tumor treatment, reduces side effects of actinotherapy and chemotherapy* (4.Zhang and Jiang 2006)

1. Ben-Noun, LL 2003. Figs—the earliest known ancient drug for cutaneous anthrax. Ann Pharmacother . 37: 297–300. 

2. Luna, LE (1984) The healing practices of a Peruvian Shaman. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 

3. Luna, LE 1984. The concept of plants as teachers among four Mestizo shamans of Iquitos, northeastern Peru. J Ethnopharmacol. 11:135–56.

4.Zhang, K., and R. Jiang. 2006. Pharmacological study of Ficus carica . Zhongguo Linchuang Kangfu 10:226–8.

5. Bolay, E. 1979. Figs and strangler figs. Pharm Unserer Zeit 8: 97–112.
Condit, IJ 1928. Cytological and morphological studies in the genus Ficus . I. Chromosome 

6. number and morphology in seven species. Univ Calif Publ Bot. 11:233–44.
Same. 1934. Cytological and morphological studies in the genus Ficus . II. Chromosome number and morphology in thirty-one species. Univ Calif Publ Bot. 17:61–74. Same. 1964. Cytological studies in the genus Ficus . III. Chromosome numbers in sixty-two species. Madrono 17:153–4.

7. Flaishman, MA, V. Rodov, and E. Stover. 2008. The fig: Botany, horticulture, and breeding. 

Hortic Rev. 34: 113–96.
Kislev, ME, A. Hartmann, and O. Bar-Yosef. 2006. Early domesticated fig in the Jordan 

8. Lansky, EP, and DD Von Hoff. 2005. Complex and simple. Leuk Res. 29: 601–2.
Luna, LE 1984. The concept of plants as teachers among four Mestizo shamans of Iquitos, Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications.

9. Ohri, D., and TN Khoshoo. 1987. Nuclear DNA contents in the genus Ficus (Moraceae). Plant System Evol. 156: 1–4.

10. Pollan, M. 2001. The Botany of Desire . New York: Random House.

11. Saxton, JE 1971. The indolizidine group of alkaloids. Alkaloids (London) 1: 76–85.

12. Storey, WB 1975. Figs. In Advances in Fruit Breeding , ed. J. Janick, and JN Moore, 568– 

13. Wang, RW, and BF Sun. 2009. Seasonal change in the structure of fig-wasp community and its implication for conservation. Symbiosis 47: 77–83.

14. Zhang, K., and R. Jiang. 2006. Pharmacological study of Ficus carica . Zhongguo Linchuang 


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