MARSH SAMPHIRE - SALTY SUCCULENT: HEALTH BENEFITS, USES AND HOW TO COOK MARSH SAMPHIRE

MARSH SAMPHIRE, SALICORNIA EUROPAEA

Marsh samphire abounds along the Welsh coastline and Welsh lambs fed on this plant are highly sought-after and sold by “high-class” butchers. In previous times fish and chip shops offered special customers marsh samphire to go with their fish, and not surprisingly it goes well with this. Marsh samphire grows on muddy sea flats and coastal areas and in estuaries and small creek beds. It is indigenous to northern Europe including the British Isles and to North America.

  In the past it was known as glasswort and glasswede. The latter is the name given to it by the 16^th century herbalist William Turner who described the plant but then had to name it. Nicholas Culpeper, writing his Complete Herbal in the following century calls it Saltwort too and says:- “All sorts of saltwort, or glasswort, are under the dominion of Mars, and are of a cleansing quality, without any great or manifest heat; the powder of any of them, or the juice, which is much better, taken in drink, purges downwards phlegmatic, waterish,

 melancholy, and adust humours, and is therefore very effectual for the dropsy, to

 provoke urine, and expel the dead child. It opens stoppings of the liver and spleen, and wastes the hardness thereof; but it must be used with discretion, as a great quantity is hurtful and dangerous.”

He continues to comment on the ashes, which, when mixed with sand produced glass, hence the name glasswort or glasswede for the plant.

“The ashes are very sharp and biting, like a caustic, and the lye that is made thereof is so strong that it will fetch off the skin from the hands, or any part of the body; but ay be mixed with other more moderate medicines, to take any scabs, leprosy, and to cleanse the skin.”

 Sir Thomas More, who wrote during the Renaissance, listed the useful native plants that would improve “many a poor knave's pottage” if he were skilled in their properties, says that “Glasswort might afford him a pickle for his mouthful of salt meat.”

 John Parkinson, (1567-1650) relates a theory in connection with Glasswort in his days:

“If the soap that is made of the lye of the ashes be spread upon a piece of thicke coarse brown paper cut into the forme of their shoe sole that are casually taken speechless and bound to the soles of their feete, it will bring again the speech and that within a little time after the applying thereof if there be any hope of being restored while they live: this hath been tried to be effectuall upon diverse persons.”

 So apart from being recognized by gourmets, in the past this modest plant, which looks a little like a sea coral, and on its first appearance like asparagus, has been used medicinally. It grows between June and September, but if you harvest it, please don’t uproot the whole plant, just snip off the tops and leaves the roots so that it can grow the folloing year. It is a protected species in the UK, so it is illegal to uproot it.

 Like other sea plants such as laver bread, it is rich in iodine and is full of phytochemicals that protect the liver, heart and cellular DNA. It is also rich in vitamins A, C, and some B-complex ones, and the minerals, iron, calcium and magnesium phosphorus, calcium, silica, zinc, manganese and vitamin D. Because of this nutritional value it was used by sailors on long ocean voyages to combat scurvy. We now know that it also has a good balance of amino acids and the levels of linoleic acid in the plant are similar to those found in safflower oil. Its flavonoids include quercetin and isorhamnetin as well as certain glycosides which may have anti-cancer effects, but studies are still in an early stage. It is a healthy plant to eat although it does contain sodium, but 100gr of marsh samphire contain 100 calories and no cholesterol.

  Despite the name marsh samphire is not related to rock samphire (pronounced ‘samfire’) as it is a member of the goosefoot family as is stinking goosefoot and fat hen or Chenopodium album. There are several types of Marsh samphire (pronounced ‘samfur’) in Britain and Salicornia bigelovii which grows around the coasts of the Americas has been the subject of a trial in Saudi Arabia as the marsh samphire is so rich in oil and after extracting the oil from the plant the resulting ‘cake’ can be used as livestock feed (Arthur Clark, Nov-Dec 1994, in Saudi Aramco World magazine). There are high hopes in Saudi Arabia that the plant can be a commercial success and the basis for new cities around the Saudi coastal desert areas.

  You can cook marsh samphire easily once it has been thoroughly cleaned and washed then rinsed to remove any grit or sand that clings to it. It looks a little like chong (Caralluma fimbriata), but it is a succulent without any spines. You can eat the young shoots raw, but the saponins make the plant a little bitter so it is best to cook them for about eight minutes in boiling salted water. Try this recipe and add the marsh samphire to a creamy pasta dish with smoked salmon for a delicious dish.

BOILED MARSH SAMPHIRE

Ingredients

200 gr marsh samphire, cleaned and washed as above and in 3 inch pieces

freshly ground black pepper

tsp butter

olive oil

lemon wedges to serve

Method

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and drop the marsh samphire in.

Cook for about 4 minutes for a crunchy texture, longer if you need to.

Drain, and toss in olive oil and the butter.

Serve with grilled fish and garnish with lemon wedges or pieces.

This has Taste and is a Treat.

 

HOPS FOR BEER - HERBS FOR ALE: HISTORY, USES AND HEALTH BENEFITS OF HOPS HERB

HOPS, HUMULUS LUPULUS

Today hops are synonymous with the brewing of beer, but that has not always been the case. They are members of the Cannabinaceae family and so are distant relatives of Cannabis sativa, and also of stinging nettles. Wild hops are indigenous to Europe, including mainland Britain, although there is some debate as to where they originated, with some claiming they spread from Asia. The hop gardens in Kent were the biggest in Britain, although hops were also grown in Hampshire, Sussex and Surrey in southern England and in Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

   The Romans grew hops in gardens according to Pliny (61-113 AD) and their young shoots were eaten as a vegetable in the same way that we eat asparagus. This practice continued into the 20^th century in Britain when they were cooked and chopped, then covered with butter or cream, salt and black pepper.

   Hops can grow to around 18 feet and the poles in hop gardens in England were made from Spanish chestnut trees or ash. The name lupulus comes from the Latin lupus for wolf and is said to have been given to the hop plant because the vine strangles any plants it climbs around just as the Romans thought a wolf killed a sheep by embracing it.

   The Dutch used hops to brew beer in the 14^th century but the Britons were still brewing ale flavoured with traditional herbs such as chamomile, yarrow, meadowsweet, agrimony, betony and dandelion as well as malt from rye. Ale was an Anglo-Saxon drink and its brewing traditions were firmly upheld in the reign of Henry VIII when parliament described the hop as a “wicked weed that would spoil the taste of the drink and endanger the people.” As with other new things from continental Europe and the New World (the tomato and potato for example) the hop, although indigenous to Britain was looked upon as the work of the devil. It was thought to bring on melancholic thoughts and perhaps lead to suicide. Henry Vii in 1524 forbade the addition of both hops and sulphur in ale. However in the reign of Edward VI in 1536 the hop was described as “notable, healthy and temperate”- so it is quite surprising how things changed over a short period of time.

  The craft guild of brewers making beer with hops was established in Britain in 1493, separating itself from the older guild of ale makers. The Abbess Hildegarde of St. Ruprechtsberg wrote “If one intends to make beer from oats, it is prepared with hops.”  She would have known as beer and ale were brewed by members of monastic orders and hops were grown in monastery gardens in Europe.

  One of the detractors of the new-fangled hop was John Evelyn who wrote in his Pomona of 1670,

 “Hops transmuted our wholesome ale into beer, which doubtless much alters its constitution. This one ingredient, by some suspected not unworthily, preserves the drink indeed, but repays the pleasure in tormenting diseases and a shorter life.”

  The hop vine has been used to make paper and a coarse cloth, and more recently it has been suggested that it would make good pulp or biomass as do flax shives, soybean and cotton stalks. The volatile oil from hops is used in the food industry in baked products as well as in sweets, frozen desserts, mineral water and also in the tobacco and the perfume industries. The stems are used to make filler material for corrugated paper and board products. Like flax, the hop vine has a high lignan content.

  Traditionally hops have been used against insomnia and still are used to fill sleep pillows. They have a sedative action and calm hysteria and anxiety, especially when combined in a tisane with valerian and lemon balm, two other herbs with sedative properties. Half an ounce of hops to one pint of water are the usual measurements for a tisane which should be drunk for anxiety and nervous disorders, or to ease indigestion, or even, traditionally, for heart problems jaundice other liver and stomach problems. It has also been used for urinary tract problems such as cystitis and delirium tremens. Used externally it can reduce bruising and poultices of hops can reduce inflammatory swellings, although I think mallow is better for this. Hops allay pain only for a short time, being classed as anodyne rather than analgesic. A pillow stuffed with warm hops can be useful for neuralgia pains, earache and toothache. The Delaware tribe of Amerindians used sachets of hops for similar purposes. It was thought that the hop juice cleaned the blood and could remove the calculus from the joints thus easing arthritic and rheumatic pains. The infusion sometimes has poppy heads and/or chamomile added to it.

  In China and alcohol extract of hops is used for a number of diseases in their traditional medicine system, such as for leprosy, pulmonary tuberculosis and amoebic dysentery.

  In European medicine systems the hop flowers have been used in decoctions to soften a hardened uterus and to reduce swellings, while the dried hops have been used in poultices for painful tumours. Some believe that they are an aphrodisiac like cannabis.

   It is thought that the antimicrobial actions of hops are because of lupulene and humulone which are bitter acids. In Germany hops are added to sausages to preserve them from bacteria.

  In in vitro experiments it was found that xanthohumol, a constituent of hops, exerted some cancer cell killing activity, but research is still in its early stages.

  It could be that this “wicked weed” has some very beneficial properties for our future health.

 

  

INDIGO IS A HEALTH-GIVING PLANT: HISTORY AND USES OF TRUE INDIGO

INDIGO OR TRUE INDIGO, INDIGOFERA TINCTORIA

Indigo has been used as a dye for millennia as have woad (Isatis tincotria) and madder, (Rubia tinctoria). Indigo is native to Asia and was the blue dye used there, while woad was used in Europe. In India indigo has been used in Ayurveda and other traditional medicine systems to cure a number of ailments, despite the fact that the whole plant contains indican, which is a carcinogenic glucoside. The plant also contains rotenoids which are effective insecticides against mosquito larvae.

  Because of its use in traditional medicine there have been studies to attempt to support these uses. Indigotin, the substance responsible for the blue of the dye is thought to have antiseptic and astringent properties, and there are studies currently underway on indirubin, also found in woad, to discover if it has anti-cancer properties. Early studies have shown that the alcohol extracts of indigo’s stems and leaves protect the liver from damage by chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride, found in cleaning agents, refrigerants and aerosols and the leaves can help to lower blood pressure. One study reported in the International Journal of Pharmacology vol 7 (3) pages 356-63 2011 by Renukadevi, K.P. and Suhani Sultana, S. suggests that the plant’s extracts from the leaves have potent antioxidant actions and antibacterial and anti-cancer ones. However the studies were carried out on animals and in vitro, no tests have been done on human subjects in any of the research quoted here.

  In the same study the leaves were analyzed and found to contain flavonoids, saponins, tannins, steroidal terpenes, phenols and anthroquinone, and were found to be effective against lung cancer cells in vitro. The report concludes with this sentence “This study suggests that ethanol extract (sic) of Indigofera tinctoria have profound antibacterial, antioxidant and cytotoxic effect. (sic)”

  In another study, “Anti-hyperglycaemic activity of ethanol extract and chloroform extract of Indigofera tinctoria leaves in streptozotocin induced diabetic mice (Family Papilionaceae)” published in the  Research Journal of Pharmaceutical. Biological and Chemical Sciences Jan-March 2011, Bangar, A.V. and Saralaya M.G. conclude “…from the present study that Indigofera tinctoria leaves alcoholic extract long-term treatment may be beneficial in the management of type-1, type-2 diabetes.”                            

Yet another study looked at the traditional use of the plant in treating epilepsy and in the Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical  Research published 2010 vol9 (2) pages 149-56, it is concluded that extracts from the whole plant were “useful in controlling lithium/pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus in albino rats.”

  Indigofera tinctoria means dyer’s indigo-bearing plant (tinctoria means dyer and indigofera means indigo bearing). There are many plants in the genus; it is thought that there are around 700, which is of the Fabaceae family, making indigo a relative of the pea. Marco Polo wrote about the indigo dying industry in the 13^th century on his travels around what is now Quilon in the Indian state of Kerala in 1298. However we know that indigo was used as a dye by the people of the Indus Valley Civilization between the 4^th and 2^nd millennia BC. In the Industrial Revolution the dye was used for European military uniforms and of course has been used in the US to dye blue jeans their distinctive colour. However imported indigo was banned in many countries in Europe in the 17^th century so that it did not compete with woad, as dyers and cultivators of this native European plant protested against the importing of indigo. Later indigo and woad were used together to strengthen the colour of the dye.

  In India indigo has been used to colour paper used for writing letters as well as for ink and oil-based paints for artists. A Persian rug dating back to the 5^th century BC has been found to have indigo-dyed fibres and at Thebes Egyptian mummies were found to have indigo-dyed cloth with them. The Greek historian Herodotus (who wrote rather fancifully of the collection of cinnamon bark, claiming it was from the nest of the fabled bird, the phoenix), writing circa 450 BC described the use of indigo in the Mediterranean region at that time, and we know that ancient Greeks and Romans used indigo imported from India in “cakes”. The ancient Egyptians and Romans applied it to wounds and ulcerous sores.

  In traditional Chinese medicine indigo has been used as a pain reliever, for fever, inflammation and to purify the liver and blood. In Indian traditional medicine it has been used to promote hair growth and is used as a hair dye for black hair, just as henna is used for red hair. It has been used for centuries in Ayurveda to treat depression, for cancer, bronchitis and other respiratory problems such as asthma, hemorrhaging, as well as problems with the spleen, lungs and kidneys. Some research suggests that it has liver protective properties. In other traditional medicine systems in the Indian subcontinent it has also been used for cardio-vascular problems, urinary tract problems and the paste made with the leaves is applied to sores, ulcers and piles and a decoction of the leaves was applied to the stings and bites of venomous creatures as well as to relieve pain and aid fast healing of burns and scalds. At one time in India it was used to cure bites from rabid dogs and the resulting hydrophobia.

  Indigo is sometimes used as ground cover in tea, coffee and rubber plantations and often food crops such as potatoes are interspersed with cultivated indigo.

  It is likely that many of these treatments will be the basis for future research into Indigofera tinctoria and other related indigo bearing plants.

WOAD - NOT ONLY FOR DYING: HEALTH BENEFITS AND USES OF WOAD

WOAD, ISATIS TINCTORIA

Woad is native to south-eastern Europe or to the grasslands of south-western Russia. In prehistory it spread throughout Europe and was used by ancient Britons as body paint used by warriors going into battle. As the woad plant has antiseptic properties this may have been why the tribes wore it – to heal battle wounds. In films the Picts are shown wearing woad- think about the film “Braveheart”- the Scots wore woad. However, the tribe of the Iceni whose one-time queen was Boudicca, used woad as body paint in East Anglia in Britain. This would explain why Julius Caesar wrote in his history books that British tribes (not Scots) used woad as body paint which he noted during his campaign of 55 BC. Woad may have been prolific in Britain then, but may have been over-harvested for use as body paint and dye by our ancestors.

Colour of woad dye

  Woad is also known as Dyer’s woad as it was used to dye textiles blue. In Asia indigo (Indigofera tinctoria) was used for this purpose (the two plants are not related). In the 16^th century Queen Elizabeth I issued a “Proclamation against the sowing of woade” (14^th October 1585) because a lot of arable land was being turned over to woad production at a time when there was a shortage of food in Britain. With the introduction of synthetic dyes woad cultivation virtually ceased in Europe. However there has been a resurgence of interest in the plant and in 2004 the European Sustainable Production of Indigo (SPINDIGO) and it is once again being cultivated in Toulouse, France and around Norfolk in East Anglia UK.

  Woad was also used as a blue ink by the monks who illuminated the Lindisfarne Gospels in the 7^th or 8^th century AD. Blue inks made with woad are also being manufactured once again.

  In Britain woad has been found in an Iron Age pit at Dragonby in South Humberside, dating back to the first century AD. Woad has been used as a shape-shifter and to investigate past lives in magic and shamanic rituals through the ages.

  The Anglo-Saxon name for this plant was wad, which shows how the word came to be woad; and wad has been incorporated into place names, presumably showing where woad was cultivated or where it grew wild in the distant past. Such names are Wadland Furlong in Warwickshire (my favourite of these names), Wadborough in Worcestershire and Wadden in Dorset and Surrey but this list is not complete by any means.

  Writing in the 16^th century the herbalist John Gerard has this to say about the plant:-  

 “Garden Woad is dry but not sharp, Wild Woad is drier and sharper and biting. The decoction made of Woad is good for hardness of the spleen, also good for wounds and ulcers to those of strong constitution and those accustomed to much physical labour and coarse fare. It is used as a dye, profitable to some, hurtful to many.”

  Culpeper, writing a century later concurs, but also says that woad is beneficial when used in ointments for ulcers, and to staunch bleeding. Because of these old herbalists it was accepted for centuries in the western world that woad should not be taken internally. However times have changed and we now know that woad leaves are edible if they have been soaked for a very long time in water to remove some of their astringency and bitterness. (It isn’t worth your while bothering – it takes too long and you may not like the taste.)

  Woad is a Brassica and so related to cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and broccoli. Research has shown that woad is rich in the compound glucobrassicin and has 20 times more of it than is found in broccoli. Foods rich in glucosinolates are known to have a beneficial effect on smoking-related lung cancers, and glucobrassicin in particular has shown itself to have anti-tumour properties being especially effective against breast cancer. This substance is released by woad when its leaves are damaged, so it is easier to obtain from this source than from broccoli. (University of Bologna research published 2006 and reported by the BBC.) This also kills pests which try to eat the leaves - it’s a good defence mechanism.

  Earlier research, published in the Alternative Medicine Review, vol. 7 (6) 2000 states that the root and leaves have anti-microbial actions although exactly what is responsible for these is still not known. Extracts from the Chinese woad plant root have anti-microbial, antiviral and antiparasitic actions. The indole compounds found in the Brassica plants have anti-cancer effects, and tryptanthrin in the European woad root has anti-inflammatory properties.

  Woad is therefore a useful plant for our health and has properties the older Western herbalists could not have dreamed about!

Woad seeds

  The first year’s leaves look like those of spinach and it is these that are harvested for their dye. The plant flowers between June and August and the black tongue-shaped seeds ripen between August and the end of September. Oil can be extracted from these and used to make soap. The seeds produce an olive-coloured dye too.

  It would appear to be a good thing that woad is making a comeback.