LADY'S SMOCKS, CUCKOO-FLOWERS:SUPERSTITIONS, HEALTH BENEFITS AND HISTORY OF CUCKOO FLOWERS

LADY’S SMOCK, CUCKOO FLOWERS, CARDAMINE PRATENSIS

These flowers are a welcome sight as they herald the class of the first cuckoo in Britain where they are natives. They are indigenous to Europe, North America and parts of Asia.

They are also called Meadow cress (the leaves and flowers to some extent taste like cress and watercress), May Flower, Pigeon’s Eye and a number of other names- I used to call them Milkmaids, although this is also the name of another British native flower.

  Like scurvy-grass, they are rich in vitamin C and minerals and were used against scurvy in the past. The tender young leaves and shoots may be eaten in salads or cooked like spinach and you can add the buds and flowers to your salad too. The leaves and flowers taste very much like cress, although they are perhaps more bitter and pungent.                                                                                                    

  These plants have not had a good press in some parts of the world, and in most of Europe it would seem that ill-fate will be visited on anyone who picks them. In Germany it was believed that if you picked them your house would be struck by lightning. In France they were thought to be the favourite flower of the adder (a snake) and that if you picked them to include in a May garland, you would be bitten by an adder before the following May Day. In Britain they were not picked or included in May Day garlands because they were considered to be generally unlucky.

  In Ireland it was believed that an animal or person born on May Day had the Evil Eye and to avert it the baby’s eyes had to be washed with the juice of these cuckoo flowers.

  They get a mention in Shakespeare’s plays too, as he would have been familiar with them. This is from Love’s Labour’s Lost Act V scene ii:-

   “And Lady’s-smocks all silver-white

    And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue

    Do paint the meadows with delight.”

  Lady’s smocks are members of the Brassicaceae or Cruciferae family of plants so are related to the savoy cabbage, red cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kale, turnips, swede, horseradish, kohlrabi, field penny-cress, mustard and spring greens, so it is no wonder that they were useful antiscorbutics. 

 Apart from this use the English herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper, writing in the 17^th century, has this to say of their efficacy:-

“Government and virtues. They are under the dominion of the Moon, and very little inferior to Water Cresses in all their operations; they are excellently good for the scurvy, they provoke urine, and break the stone, and excellently warm a cold and weak stomach, restoring lost appetite, and help digestion.”

  The plant is best used fresh as it loses its potency on drying, and one ounce of herb – leaves and flowers to a cup of boiling water is said to be helpful for skin problems, rheumatism, as a stimulant and diuretic and for the uses Culpeper mentions. You should leave the mixture to steep for 18 minutes and then strain. Add honey to taste.

BUCKBEAN OR BOGBEAN, USED FOR RHEUMATISM IN THE PAST: - HEALTH BENEFITS AND USES OF BOGBEAN OR BUCKBEAN

BUCKBEAN OR BOG BEAN, MENYANTHOS TRIFOLIATA

This plant has attractive white flowers with hairs on their petals. As its names suggest, it lives in marshy of boggy places and is native to Europe, including the UK, and also to north and Central Asia and to Morocco in North Africa. It is also called bog myrtle, marsh trefoil, water shamrock, bitter trefoil, marsh clover, bitterworm, brook bean, bean trefoil and moonflower. It is now a member of the Menyanthaceae family although formerly it was classed as one of the Gentianaceae.

   It is one of those plants which is a single species in its genus, and these include the Yellow bird’s nest, rock samphire, the wood apple and the Monkey Hand Tree.

The plant contains flavonoids, such as kaempferol, quercetin, hyperin and rutin, flavonoid glycosides, and anthraquinone derivatives including emodin, aloe-emodin and chrysophanol, among other substances and compounds.

   In the past this bogbean or buckbean was used for a variety of ailments, including as a tonic after a wasting or debilitating disease, and was administered in cases of rheumatism and arthritis, for glandular swellings, and as a diuretic. The caffeic and ferrulic acids contained in this plant may make it a bile stimulator and this would explain its use as a digestive herb and the effect it has of helping to put on weight.  However it has been most used in the treatment of rheumatism and arthritis.

 It has been found to be have anti-inflammatory properties and seems to have a beneficial effect on the kidneys “Anti-inflammatory studies of Menyanthes trifoliata related to the effect shown against renal failure in rats” H Tunớn and L. Bohler in Phytomedicine Vol 2 (2) pp.105-112. Extracts of the pant have also shown some antibacterial properties. It may also make for a good analgesic (mild pain-killer).

 It has been used in combination with other herbs in an infusion for rheumatism, combined with black cohosh and celery seeds. The tisane can be used alone, and is made with one ounce of the dried herb to a pint of boiling water. Leave this to steep for 15 minutes before straining and drinking in small, wineglass full doses. For one cup use 1-2 teaspoons of the dried herb and remember it is a diuretic. Externally this tisane can be applied to glandular swellings. The finely powdered leaves have been used as a remedy for fevers, and the expressed juice from fresh leaves has been used for skin problems. Mixed with whey from milk, it has been used as a cure for gout.

  Large doses of this can be a purgative, but small doses make it a useful laxative. However it should not be used if you have colitis or diarrhea because of this property. The dried leaves have been an ingredient of British Herbal tobacco.                                                              

  John Gerard remarked that “taken with mead or honied water it is of use against a cough.” He further explained the bean part of the name in this way saying that the leaves are “like to those of the garden beane.”

  The genus name, “Menyanthos” comes from the Greek for month- meeni and anthos meaning flower. However the plant is in flower from May through to the end of July, so flowers are not seen only for one month as its name suggests. “Trifoliata” means three leaved.

  Another herbal remedy, said to stimulate the liver to function properly and used in cases of jaundice in the past is buckbean tisane with the leaves being combined with common wormwood, centaury, or sage.

Yet another remedy, this time for ophthalmia – red or sore eyes- was a remedy from the American herbalist, Dr. John R Christopher (1909-1983) .You combine ½ ounce of raspberry leaves, agrimony, eyebright, and buckbean or bogbean leaves in two pints of water and simmer the herbs for 20 minutes in a pan with a lid covering it.  Then strain the decoction, sweeten it with honey and take 2 fluid ounces 4 times a day.

  In Devon in the 19^th century, children would sing the following rhyme, as a plea to Puck or Robin Goodfellow, a mischievous imp who delighted in turning the milk sour and got up to all kinds of tricks ( Puck in “Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Shakespeare) not to tease or torment them. As they were going through alleyways in the dark they would sing or recite the following rhyme:-                                                                         

   “Buckee, Buckee, biddy Bene

     Is the way now fair and clean?                                                          

     Is the goosey gone to nest,

     And the foxy gone to rest?

     Shall I come away?”

It was once believed that “Buckee” and “biddy Bene” referred to the Buck bean, but in fact it doesn’t. Buckee was Puck and bidden was Anglo-Saxon for ask or pray. It was an imprecation to Puck and not to the bogbean or buck bean.
  Cats like this plant, as they do catnip and Greek Valerian- so watch out for feline visitors if you plant this in your garden.

    The root from this bitter herb is edible, but only as famine food, as it has to be leached before it is edible, and it still tastes bitter.

  Because of the lack of scientific evidence, it is not advisable to use this herb, especially if you are pregnant or breast-feeding.

JACOB'S LADDER, GREEK VALERIAN - LITTLE USED HERB TODAY: HISTORY OF USES OF JACOB'S LADDER, POLEMONIUM CAERULEUM

JACOB’S LADDER, GREEK VALERIAN, CHARITY, POLEMONIUM CAERULEUM  

 This plant was called Greek valerian in Culpeper’s time – he wrote his herbal in the 17^th century. Despite the name it was a native of the British Isles and the rest of Europe and parts of Asia. The flower also known as Jacob’s ladder which is native to America is Polemonium reptans also known as Abscess root. Both ate members of the Polemoniaceae family of plants, or the phlox family.

   This plant has sky-blue (caeruleum) flowers or white and is called Jacob’s ladder because the leaves, which are in pairs, rise in steps like the rungs of a ladder. The genus name Polemonium comes from the ancient Greek, polemonium meaning plant. Despite the name Greek Valerian it is not related to the true valerian (Valeriana officinalis).                                                                 

  Jacob’s ladder is rare these days in Britain and there are conservation efforts underway to save it from extinction. In Culpeper’s day it was confined, he says to the mountain regions and Yorkshire. Since then it has been browsed by cattle and has suffered other setbacks due to human activity.

  The plant can grow to heights of around three feet (approximately 90 centimetres) but is more normally seen growing to two feet. It sends out its leaves in April and flowers between June and September and can be harvested when in flower and dried to use in potpourris. In some countries the flower heads are boiled in olive oil and this oil is used as black hair dye.

  Cats are attracted to this plant as they are to catnip, so if you grow it in your garden, beware of the feline attention it will bring.

   The ancient Greeks used this plant to treat dysentery, toothache and animal bites. The part used was the root. You can make a tisane with the leaves and flowers and this was given to relieve nervousness and agitation. However the main part of the plant used in medicine was the root which was made into a tincture with whiskey.

  The plant has astringent and diaphoretic properties (it promotes sweating), and has in the past been used to treat a variety of diseases which include fevers, headaches and epilepsy.                

  Today it is little used- even in homeopathic treatments. However it was used to treat syphilis and rabies in 19^th century Europe, although there is no mention of its efficacy

   Nicholas Culpeper, the English herbalist writing in the 17^th century has this to say about it:-

“Government and virtues. It is under Mercury, and is alexipharmic, sudorific, and cephalic, and accounted useful in malignent fevers, and pestilential distempers: it helps in nervous complaints, head-achs, trembling, palpitations of the heart, vapours, and all that train of miserable disorders, included under the name of nervous. It is also good in hysteric cases; and epilepsies have been cured by the use only of this herb.”

BUR MARIGOLD OR WATER AGRIMONY - SMALL PLANT WITH POTENTIAL: HEALTH BENEFITS AND USES OF BUR MARIGOLDS

BUR MARIGOLD, WATER AGRIMONY, BIDENS TRIPARTITA  

In the 17^th century, when Culpeper was writing his great Herbal this plant was known as water agrimony, but it is now more frequently called the bur marigold or beggarticks, this is because of the burs which are the fruit of the plant and which stick to things very easily. Culpeper says that in some countries it was called “water-hemp, bastard hemp, and bastard-agrimony; also eupatorium and hepatorium, because it strengthens the liver.” He says that the flowers have a substance in their middles which smells “like rosin, or cedar when it is burnt.”                                             

  The bur marigold is native to Europe including the British Isles, and also West Asia. It is a member of the Asteraceae or Compositae family which is the daisy family of plants and so it is related to the ox-eye daisy, costmary, tansy, feverfew, chamomile, elecampane, purple and yellow goat’s beard, black salsify, Mouse Ear Hawkweed, pellitory, Holy thistle, marigolds, sunflowers, yarrow, groundsel, fleabane and horseweed to name but a few of its many relatives. It has leaves which are edible when cooked like spinach.

  The bur marigold flowers in August- September and then the bur-fruit appear. The flower heads yield a pale yellow dye, and other parts of the plant a black one. In China it has been used in traditional medicine for centuries for chronic dysentery and it is called longbacao, which means ‘wolf’s grasp weed’.

Nicholas Culpeper has this to say about its medicinal benefits:-

“Government and virtues. It is a plant of Jupiter, as well as the other agrimony; only this belongs to the celestial sign Cancer. It healeth and dryeth, cutteth and cleanseth, thick and tough tumours of the breast; and for this I hold it inferior to but few herbs that grow. It helps the cachexia, or evil disposition of the body; also the dropsy and yellow jaundice. It opens obstructions of the liver, mollifies the hardness of the spleen; being applied outwardly, it breaks imposthumes; taken inwardly, it is an excellent remedy for the third-day ague; it provokes urine and the terms; it kills worms, and cleanseth the body of sharp humours, which are the cause of itch, scabs &e. The smoke of the herb, being burnt, drives away flies, wasps, &c. It strengthens the lungs exceedingly. Country people give it to their cattle when they are troubled with the cough, or brokenwinded.”                                                    

  It was used as a styptic, which contracts blood vessels and so was used to stop bleeding both externally and internally and was thought to be excellent for dispersing stones and gravel in the internal organs. It was effective for uterine haemorrhages and was said to be effective for stomach problems such as ulcerative colitis and peptic ulcers. It was sometimes combined with ginger root in a tisane for digestive problems.

  The whole plant has been used to increase the milk flow in breast-feeding mothers, as a narcotic, an astringent, antiseptic and to reduce fevers. It is harvested as the plant comes into flower.

  The flowers have strong antioxidant properties and these may be used in the “pharmaceutical or food industry” according to one study by Wolniach, M. et al. “Antioxidant activity of extracts and flavonoids from Bidens tripartita” (2007). Having potent antioxidant properties mean that they have anti-cancer potential as antioxidants fight the scavenging free-radicals which cause damage to healthy cells.                                                                                                         

   “The oil exhibited a strong antifungal activity” according to another study: “Composition of the Essential Oil of Bidens tripartita L. Roots and its Antibacterial and Antifungal Activities.” Monika Tomczykowa et al. in the Journal of Medicinal Food Vol14 March 2011.

  Bur marigolds have been used for centuries in traditional Polish medicine as diuretics, anti-inflammatory agents and to boost the immune system.

  Other studies have shown that the methylene chloride extract inhibits the growth of cancer cell lines and there is evidence for its antimicrobial and antibacterial use in skin diseases and other Polish studies have also shown that extracts of this plant have anti-inflammatory actions.

        This is another small plant which is clearly of value to us for the health benefits it can give.