Scrophularia nodosa (also called figwort, woodland figwort, and common figwort) is a perennial herbaceous plant found in temperate regions of the Northern hemisphere except western North America. It grows in moist and cultivated waste ground.
It grows upright, with thick, sharply square, succulent stems up to 150 cm tall from a horizontal rootstock. Its leaves are opposite, ovate at the base and lanceolate at the tip, all having toothed margins. The flowers are in loose cymes in oblong or pyramidal panicles.
Three acylated iridoid glycosides (E)-6-O-(2", 4"-diacetyl-3" -O-p-methoxycinnamoyl)-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl catalpol (scopolioside A) (1), (E)-6-O-(2"-acetyl-3", 4"-di-O,O-p-methoxycinnamoyl)-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl catalpol (scrophuloside A(4)) (2) and (E)-6-O-(2",3"-diacetyl-4"-O-p-methoxycinnamoyl)-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl catalpol (scrovalentinoside) (3) have been isolated from the dried seed pods of Scrophularia nodosa by HPLC.