Salep, whose scientific name is Orchis, is used to stimulate patients during their recovery. The beverage produced acts against dysentery and dry cough with inflammations.

It is made from the roots of a plant, known for many centuries in Greece and the wider Eastern Mediterranean region, by the name Orchis (Orchis mascula, of the Orchidaceae family). It was attributed aphrodisiac properties, which is why it entered popular tradition as "sernikovótano".