Sisters in crime
Everybody knows herbs like basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, salvia (common sage), and lemon balm. They are used to spice up dishes, giving them a Mediterranean taste, as that is the region where all of them originally come from and the cuisine they helped shaping.
But did you know that these six common kitchen herbs all belong to the same family of plants – the mint family, or alternatively called sage family? They are all sisters. And besides smelling lovely and tasting great, these sisters come with a third punch of awesome: Like almost everything that grows under God’s gracious sun, they are utterly useful for men as healing plants with noteworthy medicinal effects.
Recommended by Saint Hildegard of Bingen
All of them found favor with Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179), the Benedictine nun who is famous for her contributions in gathering and expanding the medical knowledge of the Middle Ages – except for an explicit endorsement of rosemary, as her work Physica contains no reference to it. Did she not know rosemary?
I mention this fact because as I read her book, comparing it with a modern-day encyclopedia on healing plants, it surprised me at times to see that Saint Hildegard rejected certain plants as “not useful“ or “not healthy“ for us which are widely known, accepted and used today for their medicinal benefits.
Of course, even an authority like Saint Hildegard, Doctor of the Church, can be wrong at times. She judged matters according to a completely different understanding of human physiology and metabolism than the one we follow today, and it might have led her to misjudgments. On the other hand, she must have had her reasons for advising to use or to rather not use certain plants and foods. She was an experienced healer after all.
It is remarkable, then, that she utters no concern when it comes to the mint sisters introduced above. Without restraints she describes their medicinal application. And she speaks strikingly favorably of common sage and lemon balm.
In my own free and rough translation of her words from the German version published by Ortrun Riha in 2012, it reads like this:
“Sage is of a warm and dry nature, and thrives more through the warmth of the sun than through the humidity of the soil, and she is useful against the sickening humors because she is dry. Whether raw or cooked, it is well to eat of her for everyone who is plagued by harmful humors, as she combats them.“
my own free and rough translation into English of passages taken from Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Physica, Beuroner Kunstverlag 2012
“Lemon balm is warm, and the man who eats her loves to laugh, because her warmth touches his spleen and the heart is gladdened thereby.“
It feels like she was really into some of the plants and foods originating in the Mediterranean region. This palpable bias toward Mediterranean plants in Saint Hildegard‘s Physica, while at the same time warning of certain plants often highly esteemed and used in Germanic pagan thinking and practices, or at least discarding them as “not useful“, is able to remind us that she was firmly rooted in the Judeo-Christian faith, worldview, and religious path, and was ladling from the wells of antiquity, of the traditions of Greco-Roman medicine.
Her work was part of this utterly fruitful cross-breeding of Judeo-Christian roots and Greco-Roman sources accomplished by all the great polymaths of the Golden Days of medieval times from the 11th to the 13th century – by Saint Hildegard as well as by her most famous successor as one of the “Doctors of the Church“, Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Let us now fully turn our attention toward the treasures hidden inside the six sisterly “sages“… The sources for all the information that follows are a modern-day encyclopedia on healing plants in view of their pharmaceutical application, which I found “by chance“ in my parent‘s house, just after I had unsuccessfully been looking for a book exactly like this for weeks, and Saint Hildegard‘s Physica.
Which substances cause the medicinal effects?
Plants may look very simple at times, yet they are a truly complex set-up of different biochemical substances. The most important ones you should know about in the context of the medicinal benefits of the common kitchen herbs discussed here are the components of essential oils and tanning agents.
We find essential oils in all mint plants. They are responsible for the plant’s unique and pleasant smell, and they can be distilled. Essential oils are made up of various components. One essential oil can contain up to one hundred single substances. All drugs that come with essential oils exhibit the following physiological and biochemical effects: They combat inflammation and germs, have antispasmodic qualities, are tonics for the gastro-intestinal organs, and function as diuretics.
All of the six sisters contain tanning agents as well. In the pharmaceutical sense, tanning agents are substances which are able to bind proteins of the skin and the mucosa, thereby detracting the very nutriments bacteria live off. Such drugs function in three main spheres of operation: They can be used as a gargle, when the mucosa of mouth and throat is inflamed; they can serve as dressings for wounds; and they can be helpful with stopping diarrhea.
To make a long story short: The sagely sisters are very healthy, besides being extremely tasty, and should be used as spices in your kitchen every day. You cannot really “overdose“ them. There is just one little exception to the rule: Pregnant women should consume rosemary and common sage with much caution or not at all, at least as long as they have not yet reached the time period of delivery.
Basilica herba
Granted, this one is not originally from the coastlines of the Mediterranean Sea. Instead its origins most likely lead us to India. But from there it must have made its way into the cuisine of Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and West Asia at some point a long time ago. At least we know now why adding basil to a Thai Curry dish makes so much sense.
You can use Basilica herba tea against flatulence, indigestion, diminished appetite, nervousness, and sleeplessness. Gargle with it when your throat is sore, or put it on an ulcerous wound. Saint Hildegard recommends heated wine with basil and honey as a remedy for fever.
Origanum vulgare
The tea brewed from this herb will be helpful with gastro-intestinal ailments and as a gargle in case of a sore throat. But its main usage in folk medicine is as tea or in the form of a warm bath against cough, asthma, and bronchitis.
Thymus vulgaris
Thyme helps with digestion. So add it to your dishes often. As tea it can soothe ailments of the gastro-intestinal system and the lungs due to its disinfectant and antispasmodic qualities, and in the latter case of aiming to cure the lungs you can also use a hot thyme bath, of course. Additionally, folk medicine has been applying thyme to help with acne, headache, and as a general tonic. You can make your own thyme spirit for disinfecting wounds.
Rosmarinus officinalis
Rosemary is a melodious name for a very beautiful plant. Etymologically it derives from the Latin words for “dew of the sea“: ros marinus. Rosemary strengthens circulation and has a balancing effect on our nervous system. It can be helpful with colics, rheumatism, gout, general weakness, and low blood pressure. You can drink rosemary tea, take a rosemary bath, or you can brew rosemary wine, and distill rosemary oil / spirit as special weapons with extra force. Besides, folk medicine recommends it in case of spasms and paralysis, as a diuretic against dropsy, and – in the form of rosemary wine – as an aphrodisiac.
Salvia officinalis
Saint Hildegard describes several fields of application for the plant called common sage and different forms of application: as tea, as an additive to wine, as one among other components in medicinal spice dips.
So we can use salvia both inside and outside: when we have a cold (sore throat or cough); when we have trouble with our gastro-intestinal tract; as a disinfectant; as a tonic; as a sedative.
Melissa officinalis
Just like salvia, lemon balm has sedative qualities, which makes it usable as a tea for sleeping. It can calm down our stomach and bile, and reduce spasms. In folk tradition it is also used as a remedy for cardiac flutter.
Summing it up
As you can see, the mint sisters are truly sisters: They consist of similar active substances and thus feature similar physiological and biochemical effects. But just as each of these six plants has a very uniqe appearance, smell and taste, we should also be able to distinguish them in their medicinal application.
I would like to try to sum it up like this: If you have trouble sleeping or feel a general need for calming down, you can make yourself a tea of basil, salvia, and lemon balm, or burn a candle or an incense stick containing their essential oil.
When you have a cough, inhale a hot bath of oregano and thyme, and when you have a soar throat, gargle with the “pizza squad“ of basil, oregano, thyme and salvia.
In case you need to disinfect a wound, count on basil, thyme, and salvia to fight off the germs.
And whenever you just need to be vitalized, strengthened in your vigor and spirit as if from a fresh “dew of the sea“: go to Mother Rosemary.
And never forget to spice up your meals! These wonderful herbs make every dish better, and a bit more like Spain, Portugal, or Israel: a bit more lively, and a bit more tasty.