FIELD PENNY-CRESS, ANCIENT WEED WITH BIOFUEL POTENTIAL: HISTORY, USES AND HEALTH BENEFITS OF FIELD PENNY-CRESS

FIELD PENNY-CRESS, THLASPI ARVENSE  

Field penny-cress likes to live in cultivated fields and farmers heartily dislike it as it depletes the nutrients in the soil. However researchers in Illinois believe that it could be a biodiesel and animal fodder crop as its seeds have a high oil yield. This would help scientists in their search for biofuel which comes from a crop which is not a traditional food one, such as soy beans or maize.

  Field pennycress is a native of Europe and was introduced to North America. They also grow in parts of North Africa and Asia. It grows to heights of between eight and sixteen inches (20-40 cms.) and has “winger” seed pods which are round and flattened. This is how it gets its genus name, Thlapsi which is the ancient Greek for “to crush.” Arvense means “of the fields” meaning fields used for crops. Field penny-cress cannot survive in areas of dense vegetation but adores tilled land.                                                   

  It is a member of the Brassicaceae or Cruciferae family of plants making it a relation of mustard, savoy cabbage and others, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, watercress, swede,  turnips, horseradish, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, shepherd’s purse, scurvy-grass and flixweed to name but a few of its relations. Its leaves are high in protein and vitamin C, and they are said to taste like mustard and onions. In fact the ground seeds have been used as a mustard substitute.

  It has been a notorious weed for centuries and one Finnish law dating from 1734 illustrates this. The law says “Let he who throws wild oats, field penny-cress, or any other weed into his neighbour’s field lose his honour and be fined…and pay compensation for damage.”  This seems a steep penalty for such an action! Clearly field penny-cress was and is a particularly unpleasant weed.

   Indeed, it has a rather unpleasant smell, according to some. However its leaves are edible but slightly bitter when young. These can be added to salads or used as a potherb or added to soups. When the plant comes into flower the leaves are very bitter and unpalatable though. They can also cause gastric problems, so beware.                                       

   The sprouted seed can be added to salads and contains an oil which was used in the past for lighting.

  Other English names for this plant are fanweed, stinkweed and Mithradate mustard. It has been used for the treatment of carbuncles and internal ulcers too, as well as acute appendicitis, as a diaphoretic (promoting sweat in fevers), a diuretic, for rheumatism, as an expectorant, and for liver problems, kidney inflammation, as a blood purifier and an expectorant. It has been found to have antibacterial properties against some bacteria. However, large doses can decrease white blood cell count, so if you use it treat it with care and under the supervision of a physician.

  Perhaps field pennywort will prove a good animal feed/biofuel crop and lose its negative reputation in the near future.

  

  

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.