Herb remedies that stand the test of thyme
Mint to ward off mice and tobacco leaves as a cure for migraines? Tim Richardson looks at the 17th-century treatments that are due a comeback
Faced with a new virus and uncertainty among the mainstream medical profession as to how to deal with it, it seems that more people have been turning to “the old ways” – with nurseries reporting an uptick in sales of “healing herbs” in 2020.
One person who is not surprised at this turn of events is Christina Stapley, a herbalist who has been practising for more than three decades and currently teaches on the six-year diploma course at the School of Herbal Medicine. A keen gardener, with a strong belief in the benefits of growing your own plants for healing purposes (as opposed to buying them dried), she has published a string of respected books filled with remedies garnered from plants grown in the garden or found in the hedgerow (see box).
“Teaching students face to face and physically handling the growing herbs is an important part of the training,” she explains, “because the act of picking the herb yourself and then preparing the medicine means you know the quality and importantly the date of harvest. You are putting attention and care into it at every stage.”
Indeed, Stapley reports that generally speaking she has detected “a big shift” over the years. “People no longer roll their eyes at the idea of herbal medicine, as they sometimes did when I started out giving talks to garden clubs in the mid 1980s,” she says. “Nowadays, people are much more likely to go home and take up what I am saying.”
And the age range has changed. “We do get more younger ones (at the workshops) on herbs for health,” she reports.
‘Rosemary essential oil is antibacterial and antiviral and was used through all the plagues’
“People in their 20s and 30s – though we haven’t lost the older ones.”
The challenge of Covid-19 has only accelerated this trend. “I’m now giving talks online about compassionate herbs for stress and the protective nature of certain plants,” she adds. Stapley cites the scent of rosemary and lavender as particularly efficacious in this regard. “Lavender helps you to breathe more deeply,” she explains, “though if I made a tea of lavender I would only use a pinch. Rosemary essential oil is powerfully antibacterial and antiviral, and was used through all of the plagues.” As a calming influence and an aid to circulation, Stapley recommends freshly picked and dried lime blossom as “probably the best” – two teaspoons per cup of hot water.
But her number-one recommendation for a garden plant with calming properties is the pretty but resilient clove pink, Dianthus caryophyllus.
“I think every gardener should have clove pinks, as they are just a joy,” she enthuses. “Mine were still in flower in mid-November this year.
“I just started with a packet of seed and that’s it. I’ve made clove pink syrup from the petals over a number of years, and it just makes you smile. It’s extremely soothing.”
Stapley says that to make a good flower syrup (which you later dilute with water, to drink), the practice is to cut across the lower part of the petals to remove the bitter white heel. The petals can then be covered in boiling water in a covered jug or other receptacle, and left to stew for 24 hours. (Note: you do not “boil” the petals.) The water can then be strained off and sugar or honey added, to taste.
Herbal medicine has a long history, of course, and a new book entitled The Domestic Herbal, by Margaret Willes, proves to be an elegant and eloquent compendium of the wisdom contained in the 17th-century herbals and household manuals. This delightful book covers growing for food, and medicinal plants, but it also has chapters on sweetmaking, brewing, herbs for the care of clothes, homemade cosmetics and the importance of strewing herbs – that is, plants brought in from the fields and hedgerows and strewn across the stone or wooden floors to create a pleasant
A kitchen garden could also be of use for other rooms in any house, even the bathroom scent, much as we might use a bottled room diffuser today.
The author explains how rushes and sedges were used as a basic “carpet” in 17th-century houses (they were brought in to the cities by the cartload for the purpose) and quotes from a book published in 1891 which reports on strewing herbs that were still in use in cottages at that time. The chief scented strewing herb was meadowsweet (Elizabeth I’s favourite), while other “sweet” herbs included woodruff and sweet flag (Acorus calamus), the last with a scent akin to orange peel.
Gardeners still know that rue is strong stuff, and it was used in the house to deter fleas, but did you know that tansy was used to combat flies, and mint to ward off mice? Other herbal lore perhaps worthy of revival includes the habit of polishing oak furniture with the crushed flower heads of sweet cicely, made into an oil, producing a fragrance reminiscent of liquorice.
The herb alecost (also used in brewing) was sometimes known as bible leaf, as it would be put inside books to scent the otherwise musty pages. But if you were really serious about fumigation, then the only answer was a “fumitory”: a herbal concoction made on a coal shovel and placed over the fire, then wafted around the house to smoke out the bugs.
The chapter on plants used for homemade medicine, or “kitchen physic”, has a pleasing emphasis on the powers of familiar garden herbs (known as “simples”, as they were used singly). The great herbalist John Gerard, for example, says fennel is “very good for the lungs, the liver, and the kidneis, for it openeth the obstructions or stoppings of the same, and comforteth the inward parts”. Nicotiana (tobacco plant), meanwhile, emerges as something of a miracle worker, with a myriad of uses including the use of its leaves as a cure for migraine.
Baths were a rarity or even an impossibility for most people, but recipes for bathing decoctions, such as this one taken from John Shirley’s The Accomplished Ladies Rich Closet of Rarities, published in 1687, is surely ripe for a revival: “To make a Sweet Bath: Take the flowers or peels of Cittrons, the flowers of Oranges and Gessamine ( jasmine), Lavender, Hyssop, Bay-leaves; the flowers of Rosemary, Comfry, and the seeds of Coriander, Endive, and sweet Marjorum; the berries of Myrtle and Juniper: boil them in Spring-water, after they are bruised, till a third part of the liquid matter is consumed, and enter it in a Bathing-tub, or wash yourby Margaret Willes (Bodleian Library Publishing, £25). Buy for £19.99 at books. telegraph.co.uk or call 0844 871 1514
Rushes and sedges were used as a basic ‘carpet’ and were brought in to the cities by the cartload
self with it warm, as you see occasion, and it will indifferently serve for Beauty and Health.”
Such recipes often suggest that the bather should not eat meat for a couple of hours after emerging from the tub – which still sounds like sound advice today.