How did the Romans use lupines?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

August 2, 2004

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Major cultivation of lupins or lupines (probably Lupinus albus subsp. termis (Forsskål) Ponert) began around 4,000 years ago in Egypt. Lupines grew so well on sandy soils, they received the unfortunate name, lupinus "of wolves", along with a reputation of impoverishing soil. The name stuck even though by the first century, Pliny the Elder knew better, "...fields and vineyards are enriched by a crop of lupines; and thus it has...little need for manure...."

Blue spikes of lupine flowers
Blue spikes of lupine flowers Framed Art Print
Bill Curtsinger Buy at AllPosters.com

Romans cultivated both a white (Lupinus albus) and a blue lupine (L. hirsutus). According to Pliny, "The next most extensively used plant is the lupine, as it is shared by men and hoofed quadrupeds in common...it blooms three times and buds [sets seed] three times...it is the only seed that is sown without the ground being ploughed." and "it requires most of all a gravelly and dry and even sandy soil...."

Lupines had two problems. The seed pods shatter when ready for harvest. Pliny stated, "To prevent its escaping the reapers by jumping out of the pod the best remedy is to gather it immediately after rain." Although the seeds were nutritious—high in proteins and oils—they contain a bitter alkaloid, lupanine, "it can be left just lying on the ground with impunity, as it is protected from all animals by its bitter flavour...."

This bitterness was both unpalatable and toxic. "It is used as a food for mankind...after being steeped in hot water." (Pliny's Natural History, Book XVIII, trans. H. Rackham, Harvard University Press, 1997)

Pliny recorded numerous uses for lupines. "Taken frequently as food they freshen the human complexion; bitter lupins are an antidote for the wound of the asp. Dried lupins, peeled and pounded, make new flesh on black ulcers if applied in a linen cloth. Boiled in vinegar they disperse scrofulous swellings and parotid abscesses (swollen lymphatic glands often due to tuberculosis). A decoction with rue and pepper is
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Close view of a wild lupine
Close view of a wild lupine Framed Art Print
Phil Schermeister Buy at AllPosters.com

given...to drive out intestinal worms....

"Their meal kneaded with vinegar and applied in the bath removes pimples and pruritis (itching with dry skin)...It heals bruises and soothes....restores to scars the original white of the skin; if however they are thoroughly boiled in rain water, the decoction makes a detergent...."

And should Romans wish to sit outside without bothersome bugs, Pliny stated, "The smoke of burnt lupins kills gnats." (Pliny's Natural History, Book XXII, trans. W.H.S. Jones, Harvard University Press, 1999)

The fao.org has posted a close-up of Lupinus albus on their website of grassland plants. To view their photograph, click on the link:

http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Gallery/pictures/lupalb/lupinusal.htm

Shigenobu AOKI has posted photographs of Lupinus hirsutus. To view the photographs, click on the link:

http://aoki2.si.gunma-u.ac.jp/BotanicalGarden/HTMLs/kasazaki-lupinus.html

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