Calendula
Also known as- Calendula officinalis, pot marigold, Garden Marigold, Gold-Bloom, Holligold, Marigold, Marybud, Zergul. Introduction The calendula is an annual flower native to the northern Mediterranean countries. Its name refers to its tendency to bloom with the calendar, usually once a month or every new moon. The term "marigold" refers to the Virgin Mary, and marigolds are used in Catholic events honoring the Virgin Mary.
The calendula was originally used as food rather than as an herb. It adds flavor and color to cereals, rice, and soups. The petals can be added to salads.
As recently as 70 years ago, American physicians used calendula to treat amenorrhea, conjunctivitis, fevers, cuts, scrapes, bruises, and burns, as well as minor infections of the skin. Constituents Calendulin, beta-carotene and other carotenoids, isoquercitrin, narcissin, rutin, amyrin, lupeol, sterols, and volatile oils. The flowers also contain complex polysaccharides with immunostimulant properties. Parts Used Dried flowers. Typical Preparations Creams, teas, tinctures, infusions, compresses, and washes. Summary Calendula creams and washes are still used to disinfect minor wounds and to treat infections of the skin. The antibacterial and immunostimulant properties of the plant make it extremely useful in treating slow-healing cuts and cuts in people who have compromised immune systems. The herb stimulates the production of collagen at wound sites and minimizes scarring. Gargling calendula water may ease sore throat.
An often overlooked application of this herb is the treatment of post-mastectomy lymphedema. The herb will not reduce swelling, but it will reduce pain. Precautions None.
Information provided by Mountain Rose Herbs.
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Comfrey Leaf Comfrey (Symphytum Uplandica)
has the folk name of Knitbone and it does that so well! The high allantoin content of the leaf infusion supports cell proliferation in the healing process of bones.
During WWI medics used allantoin for healing war injuries. The infusion can have a slippery feel to it, that's the allantoin. Some people like to add a little dried peppermint. Comfrey leaf infusion also helps heal lung tissues; many a longterm case of bronchitis has responded to consistent use. It has a long history of use to promote the healing of bones and wounds, as well as internal use to treat a wide variety of ailments from arthritis to ulcers. Its use in Chinese traditional medicine spans over 2000 years.
Comfrey is widely known as "one of nature's greatest medicinal herbs", and has appeared in the U.S. Pharmacopeia, as well as in herbals and compendiums around the world.
One of the most common uses of comfrey leaf is in an ointment or a poultice applied to sprains, broken bones and other wounds, where it promotes rapid healing of both skin lesions and bone breaks.
Constituents
tannin, rosmarinic acid, allantoin, steroidal saponins, mucilage, inulin, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, Gum, Carotene, Glycosides, Sugars, Beta-sitosterol, Triterpenoids, Vitamin B-12, Protein, Zinc.
The main healing ingredient in comfrey leaf appears to be a substance called allantoin, which encourages the rapid growth of cells.
 Parts Used
Leaf
Typical Preparations
Paste, ointment, tincture, decoction, poultice and in cosmetics.
Summary
Research seems to bear out the claims for the healing properties of comfrey leaf. In one major European study, an ointment based on comfrey root proved more effective at relieving both pain and swelling in 142 patients with sprained ankles. In another study with over 300 participants showed that comfrey leaf treatments of varying types (ointments, salves, compresses and other topical applications), were very effective in treating eczema, dermatitis, viral skin infections and ulcers of the lower leg. More recent research in the United States has shown that allantoin, one of comfrey's main constituents, breaks down red blood cells, which could account for its ability to help heal bruises and contusions.
With regards to the warnings that comfrey can cause cancer and liver disease, most herbal practitioners point out that those results were from studies that isolated the pyrrolizidine alkaloids and fed or injected them into animal subjects in doses far higher than any typical usage of comfrey leaf, and that comfrey leaf has been regularly ingested by thousands of people around the world without reported ill effects.
Precautions
Not recommended for internal use. Not to be used while pregnant. Not to be applied to broken or abraided skin.
Comfrey was widely used and recommended until the mid-1980s, when reports began to surface about the possibility of liver damage from the pyrrolizidine alkaloids that some plants contain. In 2001, the FTC and FDA combined to issue an injunction against products containing comfrey that were meant for internal use.
This view has been countered by herbalists, who state that common comfrey, the plant most often used for medicinal purposes, contains only negligible amounts of those alkaloids. In fact, one laboratory study of three different sources of comfrey found no pyrrolizidine in one sample, and only negligible amounts in the other two. Still, many herbalists recommend that comfrey preparations should not be taken internally because of the possibility of liver disease and damage. Comfrey should also not be used by pregnant or nursing women.
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 Hops: A Brief History
The hop: Without it, where would we be? Perhaps sipping a beer with "just a kiss of the gruit," an herbal mix popular before the hop's ascendancy.
Gruit blended herbs and spices like bog myrtle, yarrow, St. John's wort, coriander, rosemary or wormwood, and was added to the boil to make gruit beer. But even a beer so lushly fortified spoiled quickly.
Without the hop's preservative qualities, beer could not keep. Without the hop, there could be no beer stored for the summer when heat and pollen made fermentation unreliable. Even highly alcoholic ales -- sweet, thick and sticky -- were prone to spoilage, especially if subjected to the motion of travel. They needed to be drunk quickly and close to home.
So without the hop, brewing could not be pursued successfully on a large scale. No legendary brands, no huge breweries, no big advertising bucks, no ESPN, no Women's Pro Beach Volleyball.
As you can see, the hop changed more than flavor; it changed history. It was the addition of hops to beer that enabled brewers to ship their beers, to taste their first real commercial success and to relegate the homebrewer and pubbrewer to the status of novelties for several centuries.
The hop cones used in the beer brewing were not the only part of the plant that the farmers found useful. It was a common vine in the settler's kitchen garden. The young shoots in the spring were eaten as a special treat in salads... a wax extracted from the tendrils was used as a reddish-brown vegetable dye, the fibers were used in textiles as a substitute for flax, the stalks were used for basket and wicker-work, and the leaves and spent hops were an especially excellent food for sheep."
Sources: A History of Brewing by H.S. Corran (1975), Brewed in America by Stanley Baron (1972), One Hundred Years of Brewing, published by The Western Brewer magazine (1903), The Brewing Industry in England, 1700-1830 by Peter Mathias (1959), New World Guide to Beer by Michael Jackson (1988), Wines and Beers of Old New England by Sanborn C. Brown (1978).
This article first appeared in a special issue of Zymurgy, 1990.
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Horsetail Botanical name:Equisetum arvense Common Name: scouring rush, shave grass This herb is an extraordinary remineralizer of the skin and hair. It has haemostatic properties and provides natural silica to the skin and hair. The flavonoids and saponins in horsetail have great cell rejuvenating and regenerating properties and also has a stabilizing effect on the connective tissue, thereby increasing the firmness and elasticity of the skin and adding to the structural strength of hair. Its extraordinary effect on the skin even prompted the Commission E to approve it, as treatment for wounds. The flavonoids are responsible for its unique wound healing and tissue repair. Horsetail, also known as shavegrass, grows throughout most of the world. Supports the skin and connective tissue.
• Strengthens hair and nails.
• Is rich in minerals, especially organic silica and selenium.
Today, horsetail continues to have medicinal value. The plant's stems are rich in silica and silicic acids, which help mend broken bones and form collagen, an important protein found in connective tissue, skin, bone, cartilage, and ligaments. Horsetail is also used to treat infections of the urinary tract, kidney and bladder stones, and as topical therapy for burns and wounds. In addition to silicon, horsetail contains large amounts of potassium, aconitic acid, equiaitinee, starch and many fatty acids, which may offer additional nutritional benefits.
Supporting Research Blumenthal M, Goldberg A, Brinckmann J, eds. Herbal Medicine: Expanded Commission E Monographs. Newton, MA: Integrative Medicine Communications; 2000:208-211. Bradley P, ed. British Herbal Compendium. Vol. I. Dorset (Great Britain): British Herbal Medicine Association; 1992: 92-94. Brinker F. Herb Contraindications and Drug Interactions. 2nd ed. Sandy, Ore: Eclectic Medical; 1998:85. Foster S, Tyler VE. Tyler's Honest Herbal. 4th ed. New York: The Haworth Herbal Press; 1999:219-220. Gruenwald J, Brendler T, Christof J. PDR for Herbal Medicines. 2nd ed. Montvale, NJ: Medical Economics Company; 2000: 409-410.
White L, Mavor S. Kids, Herbs, Health. Loveland, Colo: Interweave Press; 1998:22, 33.
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 Nettles Also known as- Also Known As- Urtica dioica, Stinging Nettle, Common Nettle, Gerrais, Isirgan, Kazink, Ortiga, Grande Ortie, Ortie, Urtiga, Chichicaste, and Brennessel
A detailed description of this familiar plant is hardly necessary; its heart-shaped, finely toothed leaves tapering to a point, and its green flowers in long, branched clusters springing from the axils of the leaves are known to everyone. The flowers are incomplete: the male or barren flowers have stamens only, and the female or fertile flowers have only pistil or seed-producing organs. Sometimes these different kinds of flowers are to be found on one plant; but usually a plant will bear either male or female flowers throughout, hence the specific name of the plant, dioica, which means 'two houses.' Constituents---The analysis of the fresh Nettle shows the presence of formic acid, mucilage, mineral salts, ammonia, carbonic acid and water. It is the formic acid in the Nettle, with the phosphates and a trace of iron, which constitute it such a valuable food medicinally. Action and Uses---Although not prescribed by the British Pharmacopceia, the Nettle has still a reputation in herbal medicine, and is regarded in homoeopathy as a useful remedy. Preparations of the herb have astringent properties and act also as a stimulating tonic.
Nettle is anti-asthmatic: the juice of the roots or leaves, mixed with honey or sugar, will relieve bronchial and asthmatic troubles and the dried leaves, burnt and inhaled, will have the same effect. The seeds have also been used in consumption, the infusion of herb or seeds being taken in wine glass full doses. The seeds and flowers used to be given in wine as a remedy for ague. The powdered seeds have been considered a cure for goiter and efficacious in reducing excessive corpulency. In old Herbals the seeds, taken inwardly, were recommended for the stings or bites of venomous creatures and mad dogs, and as an antidote to poisoning by Hemlock, Henbane and Nightshade. A quaint old superstition existed that a fever could be dispelled by plucking a Nettle up by the roots, reciting thereby the names of the sick man and also the names of his parents. Preparations of Nettle are said to act well upon the kidneys, but it is a doubtful diuretic, though it has been claimed that incipient dropsy may be remedied by tea made from the roots. A novel treatment for diabetes was reported by a sufferer from that disease in the daily press of April, 1926, it being affirmed that a diet of young Nettles (following a two days' fast) and drinking the brew of them had been the means of reducing his weight by 6 stone in three days and had vastly improved his condition. An efficient Hair Tonic can be prepared from the Nettle: Simmer a handful of young Nettles in a quart of water for 2 hours, strain and bottle when cold. Well saturate the scalp with the lotion every other night. This prevents the hair falling and renders it soft and glossy. A good Nettle Hair Lotion is also prepared by boiling the entire plant in vinegar and water, straining and adding Eau de Cologne. For stimulating hair growth, the old herbalists recommended combing the hair daily with expressed Nettle juice. information provided by: http://www.botanical.com/ |
| Rosemary
Botanical name: Rosmarinus officinalis
This herb has two important properties – it is an outstanding free radical scavenger and therefore has amazing antioxidant properties, and secondly has a remarkable stimulating effect on the skin.
Apart from this, it has good antiseptic properties and is traditionally used for hair and scalp stimulation, as well as anti-aging products.
It has rubefacient properties and is therefore most useful when an increase of blood flow is required or when below-par circulation needs to be rectified.
When used in fair concentrations in hair products, it not only has a stimulating effect, but also results in forming an extraordinary hair and scalp conditioning product.
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| Lavender
Botanical name:L.officinalis
It is mainly used for its antiseptic and anti-dandruff properties, but also has antibacterial, spasmolytic (relieving spasms) and local pain killing actions.
It contains ursolic acid, which is not only antibacterial, but also active against lipid oxidation and inhibits elastase (elastase results in tissue degeneration, inflammatory processes as well as tissue degradation, such as psoriasis and eczemas).
The rosmarinic acid and polyphenolic derivatives have good antioxidant properties, which is helpful in countering aging. |
For educational purposes only
This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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