While hardly known outside its native Mediterranean region and not promoted commercially, the
medicinal plant Inula viscosa has been regarded for thousand of years as one of the most
important medicinal plant in Israel and in its native range around the Mediterranean basin, an
amazing plant of many medicinal uses.
The medicinal plant Inula viscosa (Ait.) L. (Compositae), is a sturdy perennial shrub that grows
in the wild around the Mediterranean basin. It is an aromatic plant that disperses a strong smell
of camphor. The leaves and stems of the plant are coated with a sticky resin, from September
through the winter months, the plant blooms with clusters of small yellow flowers, providing one
of the few food sources available to honey bees during winter.
The local Israeli phenotype of Inula viscosa is considered the most potent in bio-active resin
production, being located in the most southern latitude of its natural habitat range, it is believed
to possess higher biological activity compared to its European relatives, In Israel, the species is
exposed to warmer climate, more and longer sunshine exposure days and lack of summer
rainfall that can wash off some of the resin and the longer hot Israeli summer that causes the
plant to secret more defensive resin to fend off attacks from fungi bacteria and insects.
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