Health News and Information

The discovery of the so-called ‘heart hormones’ was made accidentally. A Hungarian professor was conducting experiments that involved injecting an old sheep over a long period of time with an extract derived from the heart of a young lamb. As a result of this treatment, the vitality of the old sheep increased; its heart rhythm gained in strength and it was once again able to climb around the hills as if it had been rejuvenated. When the old sheep was killed, the assumption that a rejuvenation had taken place was proved correct by the presence of new heart cells and cells which showed the nucleus to be in the process of dividing. Yet this dividing process is normally only found in young sheep during their growth period. The heart of a young animal is therefore somehow able to cause the nucleus of the heart cells to divide and form new cells. However, this process ceases to occur once the animal has reached maturity.

*263/28/1*

Here is a recipe for candying the young stems, to produce those bits of sugary green to top that special-occasion cake.

Crystallized Angelica Stems

Boil short (4-inch) lengths of fresh green stems, picked during the second year of growth, in water until just tender. Remove, and strip off outer skin, then return to the water and boil until green and not too soft Drain and weigh the stems. Using 1 lb. of sugar to 1 lb. of fruit, cover with this sugar and let stand for 24 hours. Then boil the stems in the syrup until it is clear. Drain, dust with sugar, and dry on greaseproof paper in a cool oven. Cool, and store in glass screw-topped jars.

Rhubarb Pie

Here is a recipe for those who dislike the sharp taste of rhubarb, but appreciate all its iron.

Pastry for a 9-inch pie shell (wholemeal flour is delightful in this) 3 1\2 to 4 cups sliced raw rhubarb

1 lemon (skin and pith removed) sliced Several young stems of angelica sliced very thin 1 1\4 cups brown or raw sugar

2 tablespoons wholemeal flour mixed with the sugar

Line a pie-plate with the rolled-out pastry. Sprinkle one-third of the flour-sugar mixture over the crust. Arrange a layer of rhubarb and angelica, scatter lemon slices over, sprinkle with the flour-sugar mix. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used. Cover with pastry lattice (it makes a juicy pie), and bake at 375 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.

*43\181\8*

In answering questions put to me by those wishing to grow herbs in their garden, I have found the commonest problems come under the headings below:

Where is it best to grow herbs?

What special conditions do they require?

How can herbs best be raised from seed?

How else can I propagate them?

What are the best herbs to grow, and how can I use them? How are fresh herbs different from the dried ones, and how can I dry my own? Can herbs be grown indoors?

What is the best way to control insect pests and disease?

Each of these questions has a different answer, depending on your soil and climatic conditions and the seasonal conditions in your part of the world. So I have tried to make the information as general as possible, leaving some adjustment to be made to your own particular circumstances.

Where Is It Best to Grow Herbs

“Where to grow” of course depends entirely on the size and type of your garden, and whether you wish to grow the plants for horticultural interest or for health or culinary use.

My own garden has herbs in the most unlikely places— under the rose bushes, spreading wild in my gravel driveway and creeping right up to the bricks of the barbecue where they get singed every so often. Let me hasten to say (lest you think I’m a “plant and pray” gardener) that they also grow in a series of formal circular beds, some with brick stepping-stones so I can move easily amongst them; many more in a long, thin, crescent-shaped bed; and a few, especially the mints, confined to large containers (14- to 18-inch pots or tubs). I have in my kitchen courtyard a strawberry pot with some culinary standbys, marjoram, sage, lemon-scented and garden thyme, and a small basil; and on a wide sunny shelf in my laundry I have most of the year small punnets or seed-boxes with young seedlings or newly sown seeds, or some quick-growing mustard and cress sprouts for salads.

So the questions seems best answered “Herbs will grow wherever you*want them to!” But the plants have their individual likes and dislikes, as set out in the chapters on each particular herb, and it would be best to find out what these are before choosing plants for a special place in your garden.

Here are a few suggestions for formal beds. THE LADDER. This should be a long rectangular bed with narrow pathways across for “rungs”, to enable you to tend and pick the plants. This pattern is best used for small-growing herbs such as marjoram, oregano, salad burnet, winter savory and all the varieties of thyme. It is also best if planted only with perennial evergreen herbs, so your “ladder” does not have a step missing for several months of the year.

*11\181\8*

Rumex acetosa POLYGONACEAE

French sorrel is-the best variety for the table. It is not so acid as the British native variety, and its sharp astringent taste will wake up a bland salad if a few small leaves are chopped and mixed through. Be a bit sparing with the vinegar or lemon juice in any dressing for such a salad, as sorrel has sufficient of its own oxalic acid.

It is a perennial pot-herb, similar to spinach (and it can be cooked like that vegetable), with bright, glossy-green spade-shaped leaves with a reddish touch to their stems. Growing in a small clump, it does not take up very much space and two or three plants should provide you with ample leaves for salads and soups. It is a relative of buckwheat, and of the dock family of “weeds”, and is often mistakenly classed in with the other sorrels, of which oxalis is the most notorious member. Some of these other varieties can infiltrate pasturelands and become a real nuisance to the farmer, and they need no introduction to the home gardener, either. French Sorrel has no such propensity, keeping itself to itself in any sunny well-fed corner of the herb or vegetable garden.

Sorrel is easy to raise from seed in the spring, or from root divisions taken in the autumn. The seed keeps its germinating power well, and the young plants should break through the soil in about 7 to 10 days. They are sturdy-stemmed and easy to handle, and can be set out in the garden quite soon after the first two leaves are shooting. Guard them well from snails and slugs right from the first day, and give plenty of water to keep the leaves large and juicy. Cut off any flower heads that form, unless you need some fresh seed. Juice from the leaves of sorrel can be used like rennet for setting junket. Add drops to a cup of warm milk until it sours and sets, or make a strong “brew”—a handful of the herb in half a cup of water, and use this liquid when cool to set the junket in the same way. Juice from the leaves can also be used as a bleach for stains on linen, particularly for iron, rust or mould stains.

Sorrel is a strong internal antiseptic, and a much-loved soup-base in France.

*134\181\8*

English Lavender is the variety from which the strongest oil is obtained. As a girl, I was told the Mitcham Lavender products were the best; and on recent inquiry I found that the old plantations of lavender at Mitcham, in Surrey (now unfortunately entirely built over by housing settlements) produced not only good quality oil, but a product priced six times higher than the French oil on the world market.

The chalky soils of Surrey provided lavender with one of its requirements, alkaline conditions. In this country, it is necessary to put plenty of dolomite or lime into the soil in preparation for planting a lavender bush. Work one or two handfuls well into the soil under the roots, and also sprinkle it through the topsoil around the plant, forking it in lightly. Lavender bushes will last and thrive if given this alkaline environment and plenty of water, with good drainage away from the roots.

Plant a bush near your laundry door and, on a sunny still day, dry your prettiest handkerchiefs and underclothes spread out on the bush. English lavender is a compact, low-growing shrub, with long-stemmed heads of loosely-set deep-mauve flowers. The stems and silvery foliage are also used in the extraction of the oil. The flowers can be dried very easily if picked when the sun has evaporated any dew, and hung in small bunches head downwards for a couple of weeks. Humid weather will, of course, mean a longer drying time.

French Lavender grows to a hardy 3 to 4 feet high, with strong woody branches topped with short-stemmed soft mauve flower-heads above the greyish-green foliage. This variety is also very easy to dry.

My own French Lavender bushes remain vigorously growing and in flower for the greater part of the year. They live close to a rather decrepit piece of down-piping, which overflows at every heavy rain. Drainage is rapid, though, and the lavender bushes are fit and well, and covered with the long-stemmed spikes.

*104\181\8*

You can use chives on or in almost every savoury dish. When I serve out the meal each evening, my last stop before the dining-table is always the chives or parsley bed. Just chop up a few leaves and sprinkle on. If your spouse or your family objects to the aroma, chew a few parsley sprigs after eating chives. This will remove the after-effects. A few drops of aniseed oil on the tongue will do the same thing.

If you are a percolated-coffee drinker, tip the grounds on the chives bed. They seem to relish them. Well-fed soil is essential for chives, for the plants take nitrogen and potassium out of the ground. Grow comfrey near by if possible, and you will have huge, healthy chive plants. (Comfrey roots are a rich source of nitrogen in readily available form.) Yellowing of the tips of the spear-shaped leaves means the chives are underfed, and are crying out for nutriment.

Garlic Chives are a little different. Their leaves are strap-shaped, and they have a white, starry head of flowers. Their flavour is of true garlic, but in a much milder form. Again, use them raw”, in salads, sauces and all savoury dishes. They have good antiseptic properties, and help to check the spread of contagious diseases when on the breath. Like garlic itself, they have a deterrent action on the T.B. bacillus, but are not harmful or injurious to the body in any way.

Garlic chives and roses seem to be companion plants. As well as increasing the perfume of the roses, the chives have a repellent effect on certain insects, notably aphis and when they are planted amongst roses the incidence of disease seems to be considerably less. One large rose nursery I know now gives plants of garlic chives with each order.

Use the herb freely; you cannot have too much of it. Use it wherever onion taste is required if this is too strong for you.

Chives can be quick-frozen very successfully if you need them right through the year; but, of course, some of their health-giving properties are lost in so doing. They can also be dried on screens, but tend to go yellow and lose their appetizing colour. Fresh chives grow so abundantly that you should have plenty for one household with only several plants.

*73\181\8*

Nausea and Vomiting

4 parts Spearmint leaves

4 parts Chamomile flowers

4 parts Skullcap herb

4 parts Cinnamon bark (cut or powdered)

1 part Clove buds (crushed or powdered)

Infusion: 1/2 cup every 30 minutes for acute conditions, otherwise up to 3 cups per day

Cinnamon bark (cut or powdered)

Infusion: 1/2 cup every 30 minutes for acute conditions, not to exceed 3 cups per day

2 parts Spearmint leaves

2 parts Lemon Balm leaves

2 parts Fennel seed

1 part Ginger root

Infusion: as required

Travel Sickness

Ginger root (powdered)

Cinnamon bark (powdered)

Mix equal parts of the above with a small amount of honey to form a paste-like consistency: 1/2-1 teaspoon as required

1 part Chamomile flowers

1 part Lemon Balm leaves

1 part Skullcap herb

1 part Valerian root

1 part Alfalfa herb

1 part Ginger root

Infusion: 1/2-1 ñèð as required, not to exceed 4 cups per day

Ulcers, Gastric and Duodenal

The following herbs, taken for an extended period, are used as a specific treatment for both gastric and duodenal ulcers.

10 parts Marshmallow root

2 parts Marigold flowers

2 parts Meadowsweet herb

1 part Lemon Balm leaves

Infusion: 3 cups per day

3 parts Marshmallow root

1 part Marigold flowers

Infusion: 3 cups per day

Weight Reduction

The following formula contains herbs with diuretic, laxative and alterative properties, the combined action of which appears to produce weight loss in many cases:

4 parts Chickweed herb

1 part Cinnamon bark

4 parts Cleavers herb

6 parts Dandelion root

4 parts Fennel seed

1 part Vervain leaves

Infusion: 3 cups daily, before meals

While the use of herbs may help with weight reduction, it should be noted that the most successful and lasting approach to weight loss is based on fairly frequent (i.e. at least 3 or 4 times a week) aerobic exercise and a well-balanced diet. Dieting and inactivity, because of their metabolic consequences, tend ultimately only to compound the problem, and there seems little sense in eagerly pursuing any form of treatment while at the same time ignoring the body’s natural function of movement and activity.

*71/66/5*

Urtica dioica, U. urens

Action: Alterative, haemostatic, diuretic, astringent, galactagogue.

Systems Affected: Lungs, liver, kidneys, bladder, blood.

Preparation and Dosage (thrice daily): Dried flowering plant, dose 2-5 grams by infusion.

The term Stinging Nettle is often used of three distinct species: the Greater Nettle (Urtica dioica), the Lesser or Smaller Nettle (U. urens) and the Roman Nettle (U. pilulifera). The former is a tall perennial whereas the latter two are shorter annuals, but all have similar properties.

These species of Nettle are native to Eurasia but have been introduced and naturalized elsewhere, especially on moist fertile wasteland. The botanist J. H. Willis states that U. urens is common in Australia but U. dioica is rare or non-existent as a naturalized plant (examples of the plant supplied for botanical identification usually turn out to be U. urens, more vigorous in growth because of the warmer climate).

Nettle is valued for its haemostatic properties, regular doses of the infusion being used as a treatment for frequent nose bleeds and for haemorrhaging from the nose, lungs, stomach, uterus and haemorrhoids. To stop nose bleeds the dried powdered leaf is used as a snuff or a piece of cotton wool soaked with the expressed juice of the plant is inserted in the nostril.

Rich in chlorophyll, containing vitamins A and C, mineral salts such as calcium, potassium, silicon, iron, manganese and sulphur, plus other substances, Nettle is sometimes used in anaemia and for its alterative or tonic effects on the blood and, especially when combined with Burdock, is of great benefit in skin eruptions and eczema, being specific for eczema of nervous origin.

Nettle is considered of some benefit as an anti-asthmatic: the juice of the plant, mixed with honey or sugar, is used to relieve bronchial and asthmatic troubles and the dried leaves are smoked as a cigarette to the same effect.

The plant is sometimes used to treat rheumatism and gout, internally as a tonic and externally as an application where the affected parts are beaten with the fresh plant! (This painful form of treatment, used by the ancient Romans and by many others since, is regarded by those who employ it as being highly effective in relieving chronic rheumatism.)

Nettle is used for its galactagogue properties and as a treatment for bedwetting in children. It is reported to have hypoglycaemic properties (i.e. to lower the blood sugar level). The infusion provides a soothing and healing lotion for burns.

It is a highly-esteemed tonic for the hair and scalp. To stimulate hair growth, rendering it soft and glossy, and to prevent falling hair and eliminate dandruff, a strong decoction of the plant is used every other day as a shampoo or Nettle juice is combed through the hair daily.

Nettle has been variously used in cloth and paper manufacture, as a food, a medicine, a dyestuff and livestock feed. Nettle fibre, similar to flax, was used at different times, particularly in northern Europe, to make sheets, tablecloths and linen, sailcloth, sacking, ropes and nets. (The fine cloth resembles silky linen in feel and appearance.)

Cut and dried, Nettle is given as a supplementary feed to livestock: it increases milk production in cows and egg production in poultry, and imparts condition and sleek coats to run-down horses.

A decoction of the plant yields a permanent green dye and the roots, boiled with salt or alum, produce a beautiful yellow colour.

The young plants, 15 to 20 centimeters high, are eaten as a cooked vegetable in many cultures. A strong decoction of the plant can be used as a substitute for rennet. Strained, cooled and added to warm milk, it will curdle it without imparting any strong flavour.

Flies have a distaste for the plant and a fresh bunch of Stinging Nettles helps to keep a kitchen or pantry free of them.

The whole plant is downy and covered with stinging hairs that cause severe pain on even slight contact. The carbonic and formic acids that cause the stinging are broken down into harmless compounds within a few days when the plant is cut and dried, and are immediately rendered inactive when exposed to heat. Thus the dried herb may be safely handled and consumed, and the fresh plant is readily used when cooked or boiled. The expressed juice is made by bruising the leaves and subjecting them to low heat for thirty minutes, then wringing them out in a cloth.

Cautionary Notes: Gloves should always be worn when handling the fresh plant. The recommended antidote to Nettle rash is fresh Aloe Vera, Yellow Dock or Plantain leaves bruised and rubbed on the affected area. Rosemary, Mint or Sage leaves, and the juice of the Nettle itself, will also provide relief.

*54/66/5*

Calendula officinalis

Action: Vulnerary, antiseptic, haemostatic, cholagogue, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, emmenagogue, mild diaphoretic.

Systems Affected: Blood, lymphatic system, stomach, intestines, liver, gall-bladder, skin, uterus.

Preparation and Dosage (thrice daily): Dried flower-heads, dose 1-5 grams by infusion.

Native to the Mediterranean region, Marigold is now distributed throughout the world as a garden plant. The common name Marigold comes from the name Mary and from the flower’s golden yellow colour, once used as a dye. The botanical name is derived from the Latin calendulae, meaning ‘throughout the months’, a reference to the plant’s long flowering period. It was used as a healing herb by the ancient Greeks and was known to Arabic and Indian cultures.

Marigold has several medicinal properties which render it valuable in the treatment of many complaints.

It is a specific treatment for enlarged or inflamed lymphatic; nodes, duodenal ulcer, eruptive diseases such as measles and chicken pox, and acute or chronic skin problems such as boils and abscesses (for which it may be used both internally and externally).

More generally: it is used for its diaphoretic action in flu, fever, rheumatic pain and gout; its vulnerary and anti-inflammatory properties prevent inflammation and promote healing in gastritis, enteritis and ulcers of the stomach and intestines; its cholagogue action is useful in liver and gall-bladder complaints; its emmenagogue and antispasmodic action is used to treat painful or irregular menstruation and menopausal disorders.

Externally, the action of Marigold flowers is used to cleanse and disinfect cuts and wounds, to stop bleeding, to soothe pain and irritation, to reduce inflammation and to promote healing. They are recommended as a poultice, compress or ointment for the treatment of indolent leg ulcers and other poorly-healing wounds, for varicose veins, haemorrhoids, chilblains and burns.

The infusion is recommended as an eye lotion for conjunctivitis; applied on cotton wool to the nostrils, it is used to check nose-bleeds. The fresh crushed leaves (or their sap) are effective against warts and have the advantage of not being toxic. Applied morning and evening, they will also remove corns and callouses. The fresh flower, rubbed on the affected area, relieves the pain and inflammation of a wasp or bee sting.

The herb makes a good first aid remedy and is much used in treating children.

*37/66/5*

Cinnamomum zeylanicum

Action: Stimulant, carminative, stomachic, aromatic, anti-emetic, astringent, haemostatic, antispasmodic, antiseptic, analgesic.

Systems Affected: Stomach, intestines, uterus, heart, circulation, nerves.

Preparation and Dosage (thrice daily): Dried bark (cut or powdered), dose 1-5 grams by infusion.

Cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka but is now cultivated commercially in various tropical countries. First referred to by the Arabs in the thirteenth century, it later became an important item of the spice trade for the Portuguese and then the Dutch.

Cinnamon comes from the Arabic qaneh, meaning cane or reed, a reference to the reed-like shoots and the dried bark or ‘quills’ of the commercially-coppiced tree.

Cinnamon stimulates the digestion, warms the whole body, strengthens the heart and tones the nervous system.

It stops nausea and vomiting, and is particularly useful for treating vomiting during pregnancy.

It relieves flatulence, colic and heartburn, and is recommended in cases of chronic diarrhoea. Its warming and antispasmodic properties are also useful in cramps and spasms, heart and abdominal pains, coughing, wheezing and lower back pain.

Effective in treating hemorrhaging from the uterus, a dose is given every fifteen minutes or so until the bleeding is checked (the tincture being preferred because of its quicker effects).

Simmered in milk (and sweetened with honey if desired), Cinnamon provides a simple effective remedy for indigestion, flatulence and diarrhoea.

*20/66/5*