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Herbs & Plants

Sage, Vervain

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Botanical Name: Salvia Verbenaca
Family: N.O. Labiatae
Synonyms: Wild English Clary. Christ’s Eye. Oculus Christi.
Common Name: Wild clary
Parts Used: Leaves, seeds.

Habitat and Possible Locations: In Britain it is found wild in only one place on sand dunes at Vazon Bay in Guernsey. In Europe it is found in dry grassland, avoiding acid soils and shade.Meadow, Cultivated Beds.

Description:
Perennial growing to 0.6m. It is hardy to zone 6. It is in flower from June to September, and the seeds ripen from July to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees and Cleistogomy (self-pollinating without flowers ever opening). The plant is self-fertile. It is noted for attracting wildlife. We rate it 2 out of 5 for usefulness.

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The plant prefers light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil and can tolerate drought. The plant can tolerates strong winds but not maritime exposure.
The Wild English Clary, or Vervain Sage, is a native of all parts of Europe and not uncommon in England in dry pastures and on roadsides, banks and waste ground, especially near the sea, or on chalky soil. It is a smaller plant than the Garden Clary, but its medicinal virtues are rather more powerful.

Description: The perennial root is woody, thicky and long, the stem 1 to 2 feet high, erect with the leaves in distinct pairs, the lower shortly stalked, and the upper ones stalkless. The radical leaves lie in a rosette and have foot-stalks 1 1/2 to 4 inches long, their blades about the same length, oblong in shape, blunt at their ends and heart-shaped at the base, wavy at the margins, which are generally indented by five or six shallow, blunt lobes on each side, their surfaces much wrinkled. The whole plant is aromatic, especially when rubbed, and is rendered conspicuous by its long spike of purplish-blue flowers, first dense, afterwards becoming rather lax. The whorls of the spike are sixflowered, and at the base of each flower are two heart-shaped, fringed, pointed bracts. The calyx is much larger than the corolla. The plant is in bloom from June to August. The seeds are smooth, and like the Garden Clary, produce a great quantity of soft, tasteless mucilage, when moistened. If put under the eyelids for a few moments the tears dissolve this mucilage, which envelops any dust and brings it out safely. Old writers called this plant ‘Oculus Christi,’ or ‘Christ’s Eye.’

Cultivation details
Requires a very well-drained light sandy soil in a sunny position. Prefers a rich soil. Plants can be killed by excessive winter wet.
This species is well suited to the wild garden, growing well in the summer meadow. A good bee plant.
Members of this genus are rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer.
Propagation
Seed – sow March/April in a greenhouse. Germination usually takes place within 2 weeks. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and plant them out in early summer. In areas where the plant is towards the limits of its hardiness, it is best to grow the plants on in a greenhouse for their first winter and plant them out in late spring of the following year.

Edible Uses:
Condiment; Flowers; Leaves; Tea.
Leaves – raw or cooked. They are most often used as a flavouring in cooked foods. They are aromatic. The young leaves can be eaten fried or candied[183].

A herb tea is made from the leaves, it is said to improve the digestion.

Flowers – raw. A flavouring in salads

Medicinal Action and Uses: ‘A decoction of the leaves,’ says Culpepper, ‘being drank, warms the stomach, also it helps digestion and scatters congealed blood in any part of the body.’

This Clary was thought to be more efficacious to the eye than the Garden variety.

‘The distilled water strengthening the eyesight, especially of old people,’ says Culpepper, ‘cleaneth the eyes of redness waterishness and heat: it is a gallant remedy fordimness of sight, to take one of the seeds of it and put it into the eyes, and there let it remain till it drops out of itself, the pain will be nothing to speak on: it will cleanse the eyes of all filthy and putrid matter; and repeating it will take off a film which covereth the sight.’

The seed forms a thick mucilage when it is soaked for a few minutes in water. This is efficacious in removing small particles of dust from the eyes.

Other Species:
Salvia pratensis, the MEADOW SAGE – our other native Sage – is a very rare plant, found only in a few localities in Cornwall, Kent and Oxfordshire, and by some authorities is considered hardly a true native.

It is common in some parts of Italy and the Ionian Islands.

It has the habit of S. Verbenaca, but is larger. The flowers are very showy, large and bright blue, arranged on a long spike, four flowers in each whorl, the corolla (about four times as long as the calyx) having the prominent upper lip much arched and compressed and often glutinous. The stem bears very few leaves.

Several plants, though not true Sages, have been popularly called ‘Sage’: Phlomis fruticosa, a hardy garden shrub, 2 to 4 feet high, with flowers either yellow or dusky yellow, was known as Jerusalem Sage; Turner (1548) terms it so and he is followed in this by Green (1832), whereas Lyte (1578) gives this name to Pulmonaria officinalis, the Common Lungwort, and Gerard (1597), describing Phlomis fruticosa, gives it another name, saying, ‘The leaves are in shape like the leaves of Sage, whereupon the vulgar people call it French Sage.’ Gerard gives the name of ‘Sage of Bethlem’ to Pulmonaria officinalis; in localities of North Lincolnshire, the name has been given to the Garden Mint, Mentha viridis. ‘Garlick Sage’ is one of the names quoted by Gerard for Teucrium scorodonia, which we find variously termed by old writers, Mountain Sage, Wild Sage and Wood Sage.

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Salvia+verbenaca

http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/s/sages-05.html

Categories
Herbs & Plants

Sage, Clary

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Botanical Name : Salvia sclarea
Family: N.O. Labiatae
Synonyms: Clary. Horminum. Gallitricum. Clear Eye. See Bright.
(German) Muskateller Salbei.
Parts Used: Herb, leaves, seeds.Parts Used—The herb and leaves, used both fresh and dry, dried in the same manner as the Garden Sage. Formerly the root was used, dry, in domestic medicine, and also the seeds.
Habitat: The Common Clary, like the Garden Sage, is not a native of Great Britain, having first been introduced into English cultivation in the year 1562. It is a native of Syria, Italy, southern France and Switzerland, but will thrive well upon almost any soil that is not too wet, though it will frequently rot upon moist ground in the winter.
Gerard describes and figures several varieties of Clary, under the names of Horminum and Gallitricum. He describes it as growing ‘in divers barren places almost in every country, especially in the fields of Holborne neare unto Grayes Inne . . . and at the end of Chelsea.’

Salmon, in 1710, in The English Herbal, gives a number of varieties of the Garden Clary, which he calls Horminum hortense, in distinction to H. Sylvestre, the Wild Clary, subdividing it into the Common Clary (H. commune), the True Garden Clary of Dioscorides (H. sativum verum Dioscorides), the Yellow Clary (Calus Jovis), and the Small or German Clary (H. humile Germanicum or Gallitricum alterum Gerardi). This last variety being termed Gerardi, indicates that Gerard classified this species when it was first brought over from the Continent, evidently taking great pains to trace its history, giving in his Herbal its Greek name and its various Latin ones. That the Clary was known in ancient times is shown by the second variety, the True Garden Clary, being termed Dioscoridis.

Another variety of Horminum is given in The Treasury of Botany, called H. pyrenaicum, and described as ‘a tufted perennial herb, with numerous root-leaves, simple almost leafless stems and purplish-blue flowers which grow in whorls of six, all turned the same way. It is a native of the temperate parts of Europe, on the mountains.’

Description: The Common Garden Clary, is a biennial or short-lived perennial herb in the genus Salvia, native to Europe east to central Asia. It grows to 1 m tall, with opposite leaves 10-20 cm long and 6-12 cm broad, with a thick woolly texture. The flowers are white to pink or pale purple. Its strong and unusual odour is considered unpleasant by some, while others find it very attractive.its square, brownish stems growing 2 to 3 feet high, hairy and with few branches. The leaves are arranged in pairs, almost stalkless and are almost as large as the hand, oblong and heart-shaped, wrinkled, irregularly toothed at the margins and covered with velvety hairs. The flowers are in a long, loose, terminal spike, on which they are set in whorls. The lipped corollas, similar to the Garden Sage, but smaller, are of a pale blue or white. The flowers are interspersed with large coloured, membraneous bracts, longer than the spiny calyx. Both corollas and bracts are generally variegated with pale purple and yellowish-white. The seeds are blackish brown, ‘contained in long, toothed husks,’ as an old writer describes the calyx. The whole plant possesses a very strong, aromatic scent, somewhat resembling that of Tolu while thck to see the picturee taste is also aromatic, warm and sightly bitter.

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According to Ettmueller, this herb was first brought into use by the wine merchants of Germany, who employed it as an adulterant, infusing it with Elder flowers, and then adding the liquid to the Rhenish wine, which converted it into the likeness of Muscatel. It is still called in Germany Muskateller Salbei (Muscatel Sage).

Waller (1822) states it was also employed in this country as a substitute for Hops, for sophisticating beer, communicating considerable bitterness and intoxicating property, which produced an effect of insane exhilaration of spirits, succeeded by severe headache. Lobel says:
‘Some brewers of Ale and Beere doe put it into their drinke to make it more heady, fit to please drunkards, who thereby, according to their several dispositions, become either dead drunke, or foolish drunke, or madde drunke.’
In some parts of the country a wine has been made from the herb in flower, boiled with sugar, which has a flavour not unlike Frontiniac.
The English name Clary originates in the Latin name sclarea, a word derived from clarus (clear). Clary was gradually modified into ‘Clear Eye,’ one of its popular names, and from the fact that the seeds have been used for clearing the sight.

Sometimes we find the plant not only called ‘Clear Eye,’ but also ‘See Bright’ and even ‘Eyebright,’ though this name belongs to another plant – Euphrasia officinalis.

Cultivation: Clary is propagated by seed, which should be sown in spring. When fit to move, the seedlings should be transplanted to an open spot of ground, a foot apart each way, if required in large quantities. After the plants have taken root, they will require no further care but to keep them free of weeds. The winter and spring following, the leaves will be in perfection. As the plant is a biennial only, dying off the second summer, after it has ripened seeds, there should be young plants annually raised for use.

Constituents—Salvia sclarea yields an oil with a highly aromatic odour, resembling that of ambergris. It is known commercially as Clary oil, or Muscatel Sage, and is largely used as a fixer of perfumes. Pinene, cineol and linalol have been isolated from this oil.

French oil of Clary has a specific gravity of 0.895 to 0.930, and is soluble in two volumes of 80 per cent alcohol. German oil of Clary has a specific gravity of 0.910 to 0.960, and is soluble in two volumes of 90 per cent alcohol.

Medicinal Action and Uses:
Antispasmodic, balsamic, carminative, tonic, aromatic, aperitive, astringent, and pectoral.
The plant has been used, both fresh and dry, either alone or with other herbs, as an infusion or a tincture. It has mostly been employed in disordered states of the digestion, as a stomachic, and has also proved useful in kidney diseases.

For violent cases of hysteria or wind colic, a spirituous tincture has been found of use, made by macerating in warm water for 14 days, 2 OZ. of dried Clary leaves and flowers, 1 OZ. of Chamomile flowers, 1/2 ox. bruised Avens root, 2 drachms of bruised Caraway and Coriander seeds, and 3 drachms of bruised Burdock seeds, adding 2 pints of proof spirit, then filtering and diluting with double quantity of water – a wineglassful being the dose.

Culpepper says:

‘For tumours, swellings, etc., make a mucilage of the seeds and apply to the spot. This will also draw splinters and thorns out of the flesh…. For hot inflammation and boils before they rupture, use a salve made of the leaves boiled with hot vinegar, honey being added later till the required consistency is obtained.’ He recommends a powder of the dry roots taken as snuff to relieve headache, and ‘the fresh leaves, fried in butter, first dipped in a batter of flour, egges, and a little milke, serve as a dish to the table that is not unpleasant to any and exceedingly profitable.’
The juice of the herb drunk in ale and beer, as well as the ordinary infusion, has been recommended as very helpful in all women’s diseases and ailments.
In Jamaica, where the plant is found, it was much in use among the negroes, who considered it cooling and cleansing for ulcers, and also used it for inflammations of the eyes. A decoction of the leaves boiled in coco-nut oil was used by them to cure the stings of scorpions. Clary and a Jamaican species of Vervain form two of the ingredients of an aromatic warm bath sometimes prescribed there with benefit.

The distilled essential oil is occasionally found in specialty stores such as natural food stores and “scent shops”. The odour is sometimes described as “sweaty”, spicy or “hay-like”. Clary seeds have a mucilaginous coat, and so old herbals recommended putting a seed into the eye of someone with a foreign object in it, to adhere to the object and make it easy to remove.

The leaves have been used as a vegetable in cookery. Clary was used as a flavouring in ales before the use of hops became common, and also in wine, notably muscatel. It is also used as a flavouring in some tobacco products. Clary can be used as a tea or in aromatherapy, and is supposed to have a calming effect.

It is also the primary ingredient in Norambrolide, an ingredient claimed by the herbal-supplement industry to promote fat catabolism and therefore weight loss.

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:

http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/s/sages-05.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia_sclarea

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