Althaea officinalis boiled and fried. The root extract (halawa extract) is sometimes used as flavoring in the making of a Middle Eastern snack called "halva". The later French version of the recipe, called ' (or ' for short), included an egg white meringue and was often flavored with rose water. "" more closely resembles contemporary commercially available marshmallows, which no longer contain "Althaea officinalis". Chemical constituents include altheahexacosanyl lactone ("n"-hexacos-2-enyl-1,5-olide), 2β-hydroxycalamene (altheacalamene) and altheacoumarin glucoside (5,6-dihydroxycoumarin-5-dodecanoate-6β--glucopyranoside), along with the known phytoconstituents lauric acid, β-sitosterol and lanosterol. Althaea officinalis Althaea officinalis, or marsh-mallow, is a perennial species indigenous to Europe, Western Asia, and
Althaea officinalis the other mallows growing in Great Britain by the numerous divisions of the outer calyx (six to nine cleft), by the hoary down which thickly clothes the stems and foliage, and by the numerous panicles of blush-coloured flowers, paler than the common mallow. The roots are perennial, thick, long and tapering, very tough and pliant, whitish yellow outside, white and fibrous within. The generic name, "Althaea", is derived from the Greek (to cure), from its supposed healing properties. The name of the family, Malvaceae, is derived from the Latin "", a generic name for the mallows and the source of