Hypericum (St. John's Wort)

Hypericum is a genus of about 450 species of trees, shrubs and herbs that occurs in all temperate part of the world but has only in species in southern South America and two species in Australia and New Zealand.

It is a perennial herbaceous plant with mature stems and branches that are smooth without hairs.

St. John’s Wort was first mentioned in Roman times by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD. Around the same times, Diascorides, a Roman army doctor born in Greece recommended the imbibition of St. John’s Wort with special liquids ‘to expel many choleric excrements’.

Hypericum belongs to the family Clusiaceae and shares with all or most of the other genera of that family opposite simple entire exstipulate leaves, the presence of glandular secretions, free petals, fascicles of stamens and seeds lacking endosperm.

Hypericum perforatum (devil’s scourage, goat weed, rosin rose, St. John’s Wort, Tipton weed, witch’s herb) contains the naphthodianthrones hypericin, and pseudohypericin, flavonoids, such as hyperoside, isoquercitin and rutin, and phloroglucinols, such as adhyperforin and hyperforin. It is effective in mild to moderate depression.
Hypericum (St. John's Wort)

Chickweed

Chickweed is one of the most common weeds worldwide. It has been used since ancient times to treat external inflammatory conditions and is also consumed as a tasty and nutritious vegetable.

Chickweed or Stellaria media is a small herbaceous annual. Occasionally the plant can be found standing upright, but more often it is seen prostrated, rooting at stem nodes.

The newer leaves are normally stemless; mature leaves have petioles, are opposite and ovate in shape. Stellaria media is a common plant. Owing to its European origin, it can be found in lawns, gardens, fields and other moist and disturbed soils.

It can be mixed with a pot of stronger-flavored greens, adding the chickweed to the pot in the last minute or two of cooking.

Chickweed can be eaten raw in salads, served as cooked greens, juiced or infused as a tea. It has also been used as a mild laxative and diuretic substance. Chickweed contains moderate amounts of vitamin C and iron.

In traditional medicine, chickweed is used as a diuretic, cardioactvie, and anti-inflammatory agent and is applied externally to treat patients with wounds, rheumatism, arthritis, dermatitis and some other skin disease.

Chickweed essential oil has been found to contain several well-known contact allergens: borneol, menthol, linalool, 1,8-cineole, and other terpenes such as epoxy-dehydro-caryophyllene, monoterpene alcohol-ester and caryophyllene.
Chickweed

Black dates

Fully ripe Chinese dates are selected, blanched, then dried and fumes at 60 to 70 ° C for 20 to 24 hours until they are black and wrinkled.

About the size of an olive, the black date has a pungent, slightly smoky fragrance, sweet flavor not dissimilar to that of a truffle.

Dried black dates are about ¾ inch long and ½ inch in diameter with a small pit inside.

Used in Chinese cooking, black dates are used in savory dishes that may include sticky rice, smoked sausage, lotus leaves or poultry.

The stone must be removed before use. Black dates should not be confused with red dates, which are not smoked and are used in sweet rather than savory preparations.

The black date is the most medicinal compared to red and honey dates. It is included in prescriptions and almost invariably accompanies angelica, completing and enhancing that herb’s actions.
Black dates

The uses of cinnamon

Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of the cinnamon tree, and its value can scarcely be estimated. Cinnamon and cassia have been uses as spices and medicines since ancient times and have long been held in high esteem as aromatics as well as ingredients of oils and perfumes.

The bark has aromatic and sweet taste with a spicy fragrance, due to the presence of essential oil. From sprinkling in buttered toast to a cinnamon stick swirled in cider, the possibilities for using this spice are practically limitless.

The major use of cinnamon bark is for flavoring processed food, the aromatic ingredient of the bark improving the overall flavour of the food item. It is used equally in savory dishes and desserts. It is important for pickling and it is difficult to imagine rice pudding without it.

Cinnamon forms an ingredient of curry powder used in the preparation of meat, fish and vegetable dishes. Meat may be lightly sprinkled with cinnamon to bring out a new flavor, especially lamb chops.

Meat stews and boiled smoked shoulders are more than delicious when cinnamon is added while they are cooking.

One of the most delicious uses of cinnamon is in the flavoring ice-cream.

In medicine, it is frequently added to other substances; as to the bitter infusions, to improve their flavour and to purgatives, to check their griping qualities.
The uses of cinnamon

Bay leaves for flavoring food

The aromatic, green elongated bay leaf comes from the evergreen sweet bay tree native to the Mediterranean.

Bay leaves are most often seen in their dried form, but can be used fresh. The bay leaves favored for culinary use is from the Grecian laurel tree botanically known as Laurus nobilis.

Bay leaves are bitter and sweet in taste. Used since Roman times, when it symbolize victory and greatness and was used to crown emperors, poets, and writers, the bay leaves is a compulsory ingredient in all European and Mediterranean cooking for flavoring stocks, sauces, soups , pickles , preserves, meats and vegetables.

It is also an essential part of a bouquet gami, the classic herb combination of bay leaf, thyme and parsley.

In England there is a tradition of using bay leaves to flavor custard and rice puddings. Bay adds a subtle, spicy taste.

Bay leaves are also regarded as an appetite stimulant with digestive qualities. Bay leaves contain the oils rutin and furocoumarin, which are stimulants for the skin.
Bay leaves from Mediterranean

A traditional tea of bay leaves known as ‘Italian Grandmother’s Cure’ was used to calm colicky babies and was thought to be good for anyone who had a gassy or upset stomach.
Bay leaves for flavoring food

Clove and Health Benefits

Clove and Health Benefits
The clove is an evergreen tree with pointed leaves that is native to the Molucca Islands and cultivated in Madagascar, Indonesia and Zanzibar. Oil of cloves is extracted from the leaf and/or flowers, and is the principal form of clove used medicinally.

Oil of cloves is anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, analgesic, and antifungal. Benefits of clove oil for specific health conditions include the following:

• Food poisoning. Clove oil kills some types of bacteria, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Shigella, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumonia, all of which can be involved in food poisoning.

• Peptic ulcer. Oil of clove reduces the sensation of gas pressure within the stomach that is frequently troubling for people with the peptic ulcers. The eugenol is clove oil depresses the transmission of nerve impulses that convey a felling of bloating and gas and although it does not directly stop the production of gas. This herb also protects against stomach cancer.

• Periodontal disease and toothache. Clove blossoms and clove oil have been used around the world for generations to relieve pain form toothache and dental treatment. Oil of clove is combined with zinc oxide to make an analgesic paste. Clove oil should be avoided, however, in treating pain due to root canal work, since it may cause inflammation.

Clove and Health Benefits