SNAPDRAGONS, SYMBOLS OF PRESUMPTION: HISTORY AND HEALTH BENEFITS OF ANTIRRHINUMS

SNAPDRAGONS, ANTIRRHINUM MAJUS

Snapdragons have been cultivated in Britain for centuries and they have now become naturalized in some parts of Britain, having long ago escaped form gardens. We had them in the gardens of my childhood and I loved the name and the fact that they actually could look like Chinese dragons (so I thought). In India they are called dog’s mouth which doesn’t have the same ring to it. I used to love waiting for a bee to come to the flowers and push its way into one to get at the pollen. Of course I also enjoyed opening the mouths of the dragons by pinching the back of the flowers between my thumb and fingers. We had yellow and orange ones as well as maroon and yellow ones and red, which were probably the original wild snapdragons which are thought to have come from the Mediterranean region.

  As members of the Scrophulariaceae or figwort, family they are related to toadflax, water figwort which is sometimes called water betony, foxgloves, eyebright, brahmi or water hyssop and mullein. In the 17^th century Nicholas Culpeper uses the term snapdragon for toadflax and the name calves’ snout, both of which are also used for snapdragons.

   In the Victorian Language of Flowers, the snapdragon represented presumption. In the distant past in various countries the snapdragon was thought to be powerful enough to ward off spells and curses. Toadflax was also valued for similar reasons.

  A snapdragon growing in a garden will usually only grow to around two feet tall, but in its wild state it could reach heights of six feet. They flower in Britain between July and September and seed between August and October. It has been reported that they have been cultivated for their seed oil, although the seeds in the garden snapdragons are so small as to make this seem unlikely- perhaps those cultivated for their oil have larger seeds.

  The flowers and leaves are the main parts of the snapdragon to be used in traditional systems of medicine, and they have been employed in Europe and Asia for much the same purposes. In Iraqi traditional medicine the whole plant has been used in a decoction for its astringent, detergent properties, for wound cleaning and healing. It has also been used as a diuretic and treatment for liver diseases.

  In Europe the plant’s leaves and flowers have been gathered in summer and dried for alter use, to be used in poultices in the treatment of tumours, abscesses and sores. This has also been used for piles and a decoction or infusion has been used to reduce fevers and inflammation.

  In Asia the leaves and flowers have been used for pain relief and to reduce inflammation wile poultices are used for burns, scalds, piles and skin eruptions.

  Snapdragons are attractive ornamentals which have health benefits too.

PEARLWORTS OF CULPEPER: HISTORY, USES AND HEALTH BENEFITS OF UPRIGHT CHICKWEED AND (BIRDEYE) PEARLWORT

Sagina procumbens, birdeye pearlwort

UPRIGHT CHICKWEED, MOENCHIA ERECTA AND (BIRDEYE) PEARLWORT, SAGINA PROCUMBENS 

 In Nicholas Culpeper’s time, the 17^th century, these plants were both in the Sagina genus. Now, however the upright chickweed or pearlwort as he called it has been moved to the Moenchia genus. Sagina procumbens lies along the ground and trails, annoying gardeners who want to have immaculate lawns without tufts of this plant in them. This plant is difficult to distinguish in its natural state as it doesn’t grow very tall – around two centimeters high.

  Upright chickweed, on the other hand can grow to the dizzying height of ten centimeters, although it is usually smaller. Its green sepals and white petals make it an unusually pretty plant.

Upright chickweed

   Both plants belong to the Carophyllaceae family and so are related to carnations, cloves, common sand spurry, the now rare corn cockle and wallflowers. The pearlwort is found all over the Northern hemisphere although the upright chickweed is native to Europe, including the British Isles and was introduced to North America and Australia. It is not yet classed as one of the invasive weeds in those countries however. Sagina procumbens is native to North America and can also be found in parts of the South American continent.

  It has been reported that the upright chickweed was at one time hung over doorways in one of the Inner Hebridean islands off the coast of Scotland, as it was believed to ward off evil and bring good luck.

  The 17^th century herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper had this to say of both plants which he called Pearlworts in the same Sagina genus: -

upright chickweed

  “Government and virtues. The Moon governs these little plants, but the knowledge of their virtues is not supported upon the authority of experience, but very considerable ones are attributed to them. They are said to be powerful diuretics, and good against the gravel and stone, taken in the form of an expressed juice, or in a strong infusion. The opinion of dissolvents of the stone, is at this time over: but while it remained in credit, and the several kinds of saxifrage were supposed to possess it, these plants had their share in character.”

  Of course, these days they are not used for their health benefits, perhaps because they are so easily overlooked.

MELILOT OR SWEET CLOVER - HERB WITH MANY USES:HISTORY AND HEALTH BENEFITS OF MELILOT

 MELILOT,  SWEET CLOVER, MELILOTUS OFFICINALIS          

Melilot is known as sweet clover and was once in the trefoil family along with red and white clover. However it is now in the Fabaceae or Leguminoseae family of plants making it a relative of the Burmese Rosewood tree, the European laburnum, jhand, dhak, alfalfa, Borneo or Pacific teak, field restharrow, the ashoka tree (Saraca indica), lupins, indigo, the Monkey Pod tree, gum Tragacanth or gond katira and the Butterfly pea, the Indian coral tree, lentils, soya beans, choliya and chickpeas, peas, green beans, carob, to name just a few.

  It has been known by many names in English such as King’s Clover, Sweet Lucerne, Wild laburnum and Hart’s tree, as deer browsed on it. Its genus synonym is Melilotus arvensis, and although it grows wild in the UK now, it was introduced from Europe and was cultivated as a fodder plant. Melilotus comes from the Greek word for honey, meli and lotus, so the plant is known as the honey lotus. It actually smells a lot like new-mown hay due to its coumarin content. It is useful in potpourris as it retains its fragrance when dried. It has also been used to stuff pillows to banish nightmares.

 According to John Gerard, the 16^th century herbalist and apothecary to the King, it was a common sight in fields in his day. He also used it for medicinal purposes and says this of it: “Melilote boiled in sweet wine untile it be soft, if you adde thereto the yolke of a rosted egge, the meale of Linseed, the roots of Marsh Mallowes and hogs greeace stamped together, and used as a pultis or cataplasma, plaisterwise, doth asswge and soften all manner of swellings.”

  This herb comes from Europe and was extolled by Pliny for its ability to soften “hot-tempered” sores of the eyes, anus externally and internally he prescribed it for stomach ache, gastric problems as well as uterine and liver problems. Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, also used the flowers for septic ulcers.

  Fuchs (1543) recommended melilot mixed with honey for facial spots and wrote that taken orally the chopped herb was good for bladder problems. It has been used in European folk medicine for so long that it has been approved for use for the treatment of problems associated with varicose veins, such as swelling and pain in the legs, night cramps of the legs, phlebitis and thrombosis, piles and lymphoedema by the German Commission E. If a medicinal herb has been used for more than thirty years with no health problems reported, it can gain the approval of the European Medical Agency.

  The use of melilot over the long-term has been found to help with the problems associated with melilot mentioned above, but it should be noted that the use of the herb is not a quick fix.

  Nicholas Culpeper, writing in the 17^th century has this to say about melilot:

“ Government and virtues. Mellilot, boiled in wine, and applied, mollifies all hard tumours and inflammations that happen in the eyes, or other parts of the body, and sometimes the yolk of a roasted egg, or fine flour, or poppy seed, or endive, is added unto it. It helps the spreading ulcers in the head, it being washed with a lye made thereof. It helps the pains of the stomach, being applied fresh, or boiled with any of the aforenamed things; also, the pains of the ears, being dropped into them; and steeped in vinegar, or rose water, it mitigates the head-ache. The flowers of Mellilot or Camomile are much used to be put together in clysters to expel wind, and ease pains; and also in poultices for the same purpose, and to assuage swelling tumours in the spleen or other parts, and helps inflammations in any part of the body. The juice dropped into the eyes, is a singularly good medicine to take away the film or skin that clouds or dims the eye-sight. The head often washed with the distilled water of the herb and flower, or a lye made therewith, is effectual for those that suddenly lose their senses; as also to strength.”

   The young shoots can be eaten cooked like asparagus, and the leaves and seed pods can be cooked as a vegetable as well as being used as flavouring. The leaves can be added to desserts as a vanilla substitute. The crushed dried leaves really do have a vanilla flavor, but should be used with caution as they contain coumarin, so only use a few if you use them. The dried leaves like those of the neem tree make good moth repellants.

  A tisane can be flavoured with the fresh or dried flowers, and in Switzerland the leaves are used to make cheese, Schabzieger, as in German the herb is known as zieger kraut.

  This ‘recipe’ is for a bath to ease varicose veins and so on and was taken from the Fairfax still-room book of 1651.If you want to try it remember that a quart is two gallons.

“To make a bath for Melancholy take Mallowes, pellitory-of-the-wall, of each three handfulls. Camomile flowers, Mellilot flowers of each one handfull senerick seed one ounce and boil them in nine gallons of water untill they come to three, then put in a quart of newe milk and go and go into it bloud warme or something even warmer.”

  It can be used as an ointment for rheumatic pains and for varicose veins, and the infusion has in the past been used for conjunctivitis, although this use as eye drops has not been officially approved in Europe. The tisane of the dried or fresh flowers and leaves has been used for painful menstruation and intestinal problems, including flatulence.

  Melilot has a long tradition of use and is also a good sleep herb. As it can grow up to around four feet tall it is easy to spot in June and July when it is usually in full flower.

MEDLARS;EAT WHEN DECAYING:: HISTORY, USES AND HEALTH BENEFITS OF MEDLARS

MEDLAR TREE AND MEDLAR FRUIT, MESPILUS GERMANICA  

The medlar is a member of the rose, Rosaceae family and until 1990 was thought to be the only medlar tree in existence. However, a wild variety of medlar, Mespilus canescens was found in Arkansas in the US. However, this is “critically imperiled” or “at high risk of extinction due to extreme rarity” according to the IUCN Red List. These medlars are close relatives of the hawthorn and pear, and are also related to loquats, apricots, plums, peaches, Alpine Lady’s Mantle, Lady’s Mantle, parsley-piert, avens, cinquefoil, silverweed, apples, dog roses and blackthorn, to name but a few of its relatives.                                                         

  Eating a medlar is not usually a question of eating it straight from the tree as it has to be bletted, which means that it has to begin to decay before it is palatable. If there has been a frost then this bletting can occur naturally and some people let their medlars blet on the tree. However they can be harvested while still green and then laid in a bed of sawdust or bran in a cool dark place, to decay. The brown flesh can then be scooped out and eaten, or cooked. The seeds contain hydrocyanic acid, however, and so must not be eaten. There is a recipe on this site for medlar jelly, which goes well with pheasant. The pulp is a mild laxative, so you shouldn’t eat too much of this fruit.

  It is believed that medlar trees are indigenous to south west Asia and possibly also to south east Europe. They grew along the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria and Turkey, and were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who had them in the second century BC. They were popular in the Middle Ages but fell out of favour when other fruits were introduced.

  Medlars look a little like a crab apple crossed with a rosehip, and were very popular with the Victorians. They stewed them and ate them with cream, and a dessert was made with them as you would make lemon curd.

  The medlar bark was once used, although not very successfully, as a quinine substitute. The fruit, leaves and bark have all been used in medicine. Nicholas Culpeper, the English herbalist, writing his Herball in the 17^th century has this to say about them:-

“Government and virtues. The fruit is old Saturn's, and sure a better medicine he hardly hath to strengthen the retentive faculty; therefore it stays women's longings. The good old man cannot endure women's minds should run a gadding. Also a plaister made of the fruit dried before they are rotten, and other convenient things, and applied to the reins of the back, stops miscarriage in women with child. They are powerful to stay any fluxes of blood or humours in men or women; the leaves also have this quality. The decoction of them is good to gargle and wash the mouth, throat and teeth, when there is any defluxions of blood to stay it, or of humours, which causes the pains and swellings. It is a good bath for women, that have their courses flow too abundant: or for the piles when they bleed too much. If a poultice or plaister be made with dried medlars, beaten and mixed with the juice of red roses, whereunto a few cloves and nutmegs may be added, and a little red coral also, and applied to the stomach that is given to casting or loathing of meat, it effectually helps. The dried leaves in powder strewed on fresh bleeding wounds restrains the blood, and heals up the wound quickly. The medlar-stones made into powder, and drank in wine, wherein some Parsley-roots have lain infused all night, or a little boiled, do break the stone in the kidneys, helping to expel it.”

  The medlar is also mentioned in European literature, with Cervantes referring to them in “Don Quixote”; the eponymous hero and Sancho Panza “stretch themselves out in a field and stuff themselves with acorns or medlars.”

   Shakespeare also mentions the medlar disparagingly in his plays, notably in “Romeo and Juliet” Act 2 scene i, when Mercutio laughs at Romeo’s unrequited love for Rosaline :-

   Now will he sit under a medlar tree

   And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit

   As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.

   O Romeo, that she were, O that she were

   An open-arse and though a poperin pear.”

(“Open-arse “was a common name for the medlar fruit because of the way the top of it looks.)

Again he mentions the medlar in “Measure for Measure” Act 4 scene iii, when Lucio excuses his denial of his past sexual exploits, saying, “they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.”

 Geoffrey Chaucer also mentions the medlar in the “Prologue to the Reeve’s Tale”

   “This white top advertises my old years,

    Mt heart, too, is as mouldy as my hairs,

    Unless I fare like medlar, all perverse,

    For that fruit’s never ripe until it’s worse,

    And falls among the refuse or in straw,

    We ancient men, I fear, obey this law,

    Until we’re rotten we cannot be ripe.”

John Gerard, writing in the 16^th century clearly enjoyed eating medlars as he wrote, that they were “often perfumed with sugar or honey and so being prepared are pleasant and delightfull.”

This is doubtless because of the smell of the fruit which can be off-putting as it is musty. However when cooked it loses some of this smell.

MEDLAR JELLY RECIPE

MEDLAR JELLY

For this recipe you need to use bletted medlars, ones which have started to decay. (Read the medlar post.) You will also need to have sterilized glass jars which are warm to pour the jelly into. Medlar jelly does not need pectin as the fruit contains enough to set it. It goes well with rich meat such as pheasant.

MEDLAR JELLY                                                            

Ingredients

3lbs or 1½ kgs bletted medlars, halved

400gr. firm medlars (unbletted) halved

3 large lemons, halved

2 tart (sharp) apples, halved

2 litres water

800 gr sugar

METHOD

Remove any rotten bits of the medlars. Then put all the fruit in a large, deep saucepan and cover it with water.

Bring the mixture to the boil and then turn the heat down and simmer the mixture for an hour, partially covered with the saucepan lid.

After an hour, pour the fruit mixture into a jelly bag or large piece of muslin and tie to a tap with a jug or bowl underneath to catch the strained liquid. Squeeze occasionally to help speed up the process.

When all the juice has been extracted from the bag or cloth, pour it back into the cleaned saucepan and boil it hard for about six minutes. Next add the sugar.(If you have four cups of liquid, you need to add four cups of sugar and so on.)

When the sugar has dissolved, continue boiling for another two minutes, then ladle the liquid into the jars, seal and leaves to cool.

After twelve hours or so check the jelly to see if it is firm; if it isn’t pour it back into the saucepan and boil for just under ten minutes. Pour it back into the jars and it will set. 

WATER FIGWORT OR WATER BETONY: HEALTH BENEFITS AND USES OF WATER FIGWORT

WATER BETONY, WATER FIGWORT, SCROPHULARIA UMBROSA AND SCROPHULARIA AURICULATA 

These plants are actually, it would appear, not the same, as the genus names are both accepted. The plant was called water betony because the leaves were very similar to those of wood betony, although the two plants are not related. Water figwort and water betony are in the figwort family of plants, the Scrophulariaceae and seem to have been used for the same purposes in medicine. Water Betony S. umbrosa, can be found in Europe, and temperate Asia as well as some parts of North Africa, while it would appear that S. auriculata is not a native of temperate Asia. It is however native to the British Isles and Ireland. Both plants have other synonyms but the names here are the accepted ones.

  Water figwort and water betony, then, have much the same properties as the common figwort, although it would seem that Nicholas Culpeper writing in his herbal of the 17^th century, thought that they had different properties. He doesn’t write as much about the water betony as he does about the common figwort, and ends his description of it with a small diatribe regarding distilled waters:-

  “Government and virtues. Water betony is an herb of Jupiter in Cancer, and is appropriated more to wounds and hurts in the breast than wood-betony, which follows; it is an excellent remedy for sick hogs. It is of a cleansing quality: the leaves bruised and applied are effectual for all old and filthy ulcers: and especially if the juice of the leaves be boiled with a little honey, and dipped therein, and the sores dressed therewith; as also for bruises or hurts, whether inward or outward; the distilled water of the leaves is used for the same purpose; as also to bathe the face and hands spotted or blemished, or discoloured by sun burning.

I confess I do not much fancy distilled waters, I mean such waters as are distilled cold; some virtues of the herb they may haply have (it were a strange thing else;) but this I am confident of, that being distilled in a pewter still, as the vulgar and apish fashion is, both chemical oil and salt is left behind, unless you burn them, and then all is spoiled, water and all, which was good for as little as can be, by such a distillation in my translation of the London dispensatory.”

Culpeper also calls this plant brownwort and says that in Yorkshire it was called Bishop’s leaves.

  The plants are attractive to wasps and bees, and grow in shady places along river banks and close to water. It was used as Culpeper mentions for cosmetic purposes by the old herbalists and also as a vulnerary and detergent for old sores and wounds. For skin problems a decoction or infusion was made and taken orally; this was used to cure eczema, psoriasis and other skin ailments.

  The root of this plant was used in a decoction to rid the intestines of worms. The leaves can be harvested in June and July when they reach their peak and dried for later use. They can be applied fresh to wounds and skin rashes or cuts, or used in an ointment. For this purpose they used to be boiled with fat, usually lard.

  Scrophularia auriculata has proved in tests to have anti-inflammatory properties and to contain iridoid glycosides which promote wound healing, so the ancient herbalists once again seem to have known what they were doing.

 The plant should not be used by people with heart conditions as it affects the pulse rate, and is a relation of the foxglove, eyebright, mullein, snap dragon, brahmi and toadflax, to name just a few of its relatives.

COMMON MILKWEED - KAPOK SUBSTITUTE: HEALTH BENEFITS AND USES OF COMMON MILKWEED

COMMON MILKWEED, ASCLEPIAS SYRIACA 

The common milkweed is native to North America, and has been introduced to Europe, where it was cultivated as a bee plant. It certainly has very fragrant flowers, to attract these insects. It was formerly class in the Asclepiadaceae family, with relatives which included Indian sarsaparilla and aak, although not it is in the Apocynaceae or dogbane family along with the devil tree and bitter oleander, among others. A synonym for this species is Aslcepias cornutti.

  It has been used for medicinal purposes by Native American tribes, and the root, combined with cuckoo pint, was used by Mohawk women for temporary infertility. The leaves and stem contain latex which was applied to rheumatic joints to bring pain relief. This latex was also used for cancer and tumour treatments. In the past the edible seeds were used to treat asthma, to disperse kidney stones and to treat STDs among other diseases. The root possesses diuretic properties too and can also promote sweat during bouts of fever.

  The Cherokee used the plant for backache, stones and gravel in the body’s organs and for STDs.

  In the US and Canada the plant is well-known as it provides sustenance for the Monarch butterfly’s caterpillars, but we can eat it too. The flower buds, unopened, can be cooked and eaten like kachnar buds, (these are said to taste like garden peas or broccoli) and the open flower clusters can also be eaten in the same way as elder flowers. The tender young shoots are considered a delicacy by some and are used as an asparagus substitute, while young leaves and shoots can also be cooked as spinach. However it is best to use a plant for culinary purposes that is under 20 cms. tall. The flower clusters can also be boiled down to brown sugar, and should be harvested for best results in the early morning when dew is still clinging to them.

  The young tender seed pods (around 3 centimetres long) can also be cooked and are said to taste like okra. The seeds themselves can be eaten raw or cooked but are best used before the floss forms on them, although this is also edible. The latex in the stem and leaves can also be chewed like gum.

  You can also eat sprouted seeds and oil for culinary purposes may be obtained from them.

  The common milkweed also has other uses: a gum may be made from the latex and can be used to adhere gemstones to settings in jewellery. It is also possible to make rubber from the latex.

  The seed floss has been used as a substitute for kapok, which was not available during the Second World War. Schoolchildren all over the Midwest were recruited to gather thousands of pounds of this floss so that it could be used as stuffing for life-preservers for the armed forces. Today it is used instead of down for insulating jackets and comforters by a firm in Nebraska, and it is said to be much better than down for insulating purposes, of course it is cheaper too as down is imported.

  The plant was studies in the 1990s as a possible source of biofuel, and scientists are renewing their interest in the common milkweed now that technology has further advanced, as production methods are becoming more cost-effective that they were in the past.