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Page 27
| gastric and gallbladder inflammations and as a cleansing remedy for inflamed lymph glands. |
| The infusion can also be used as an antiseptic wash to bathe cuts and scrapes. For conjunctivitis, styes, and other eye inflammations, use a well-strained and cooled decoction (made from 1 tablespoon of petals with 2 cups of water and simmered for twenty minutes) for a sterile eyewash. |
| A cold infused oil (p. 54) can easily be made at home using the fresh or dried flowers, and this makes a good alternative to commercial ointments or can be used as a base for essential oils. A strongly antifungal lotion for athlete's foot can be made by adding 5 drops of tea tree oil to a tablespoon of infused marigold oil. The infused oil can also be used directly on dry skin, or a tablespoon can be added to the bath water to ease irritant eczema. It also makes an antiseptic lotion for minor cuts and scrapes. The cream is helpful for soothing sore nipples in breast-feeding, an old-fashioned remedy which many maternity wards have now revived. |
| Meadowsweet (Filipendula Ulmaria) |
| Meadowsweet's best known claim to fame is as the herb which gave us the name "aspirin." In the 1830s chemists first identified salicylic acid, extracted from willow bark, as an anti-inflammatory and analgesic. Over the following years they worked to produce a synthetic drug. By the 1890s, the German drug company Bayer had finally patented the result and, since salicylates extracted from meadowsweet had been involved in the development work, they named the drug "aspirin" after the old botanical name for meadowsweet, Spiraea ulmaria. |
| Description: A hardy perennial growing to around 4 feet in height and generally found in damp ditches and hedgerows. The plant has irregular pinnate leaves and large, fluffy, creamy flower heads that appear from midsummer to early autumn which smell slightly of aspirin. |
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