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 (mythology) and Deianeira the progeny of Althaea and the god Dionysus. In some accounts, Ancaeus was called her son by the god Poseidon. Althaea is especially celebrated in ancient story about the fate of her son Meleager; they became the cause of each other's deaths. When Meleager was born, the Moirai (the Fates) predicted he would only live until a brand, burning in the family hearth, was consumed by fire. In Aeschylus' "Libation Bearers" Althaea is mentioned by the Chorus of captive slaves, serving women of Clytemnestra, in a recollection of 'hatreds that stopped at nothing'. Meleager grew to be a