Calendula

Botanical Name: Calendula officinalis L.

Family: Asteraceae (Aster/Daisy family)

Other Names: Pot Marigold · Garden Marigold · Marigold · Golds

Parts Used: Flower heads, whole or as petals

Quick Look

Calendula is the bright orange garden flower that herbalists reach for first when skin is hot, red, swollen and slow to heal. It is used on cuts, scrapes, burns, rashes and chapped skin, as a rinse for a sore mouth or throat, and as a tea to help move sluggish lymph. Its folk use and its official use match almost exactly.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Wounds & skin. Its chief use, then and now: cuts, scrapes, burns, sunburn, chapped skin, diaper rash, cracked nipples and sores that are slow to heal. This is still its official traditional use in Europe. Several human trials, including on skin irritated by radiation treatment, have shown promising but mixed results.

Mouth & throat. The tea is a gargle and mouth rinse for a sore throat, sore gums and mouth sores.

Lymph & glands. Taken as tea or tincture for swollen glands, sore breasts in nursing mothers, and the puffiness around a wound that is slow to drain.

Calendula or Comfrey? Both are great wound herbs. Think Calendula when tissue is hot, red and swollen. Think Comfrey when tissue is torn, cracked or dry and needs soothing and rebuilding.

Stings & sprains. A fresh flower was rubbed on a bee or wasp sting for pain and swelling, and a Calendula wash was used on sprains.

Fevers. The warm tea was given to bring on a gentle sweat and to bring out the rash in measles.

Other old uses. Varicose veins and chronic leg ulcers, sore eyes, jaundice, headache and toothache. The flowers were also put in broths to comfort the heart.

Food. The petals went into soups and stews, colored cheese yellow, and stood in for saffron.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Tea · Gargle · Compress · Oil Infusion · Salve · Wash · Tincture

• Tea: 1–2 teaspoons dried flowers to a cup of boiling water. Cover and steep 10–15 minutes. Up to 3 cups a day.
• Gargle: The same tea, cooled, as a gargle or mouth rinse 2–4 times a day.
• Compress: Soak a clean cloth in the cooled tea and lay it on for 30–60 minutes, 2–4 times a day.
• Oil infusion or salve: 1 part dried flowers to 5 parts oil, about 1 ounce of flowers to ⅔ cup of oil. Apply a thin layer 2–4 times a day.
• Wash: Stir 1 teaspoon of tincture into ¼ cup of water and use it to wash a wound.
• Tincture: A 1:5 tincture, ½ to ¾ teaspoon, three times a day.
• Choosing flowers: Good Calendula is bright orange-yellow and smells faintly resinous. Pale, straw-colored flowers have lost much of their strength.

Cautions

• Avoid it if you are allergic to the daisy family. Skin reactions have been reported.
• It has not been studied in pregnancy or nursing. Herbalists generally consider skin use safe. Talk with a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider before taking it internally.
• No drug interactions are reported.
• Use internal doses with care if you have gallstones or a blocked bile duct.
• It is a mild antiseptic, not a cure for infection. A deep wound, spreading redness, pus or fever needs medical attention, as does anything no better after a week.

Know the Plant

Calendula is a low, bushy garden annual with pale green leaves and golden-yellow to deep orange, daisy-like flowers. The flowers open at sunrise and close at sunset, and the plant blooms for months. It is native to the Mediterranean region, is grown in gardens everywhere, and has escaped into the wild in a few states.

Calendula is not the common bedding marigold. True marigolds are Tagetes, a different plant that is not used the same way.

A Little History

Maud Grieve explained the name Calendula from the Latin calends, because the plant was said to bloom on the first day of every month. It was a kitchen herb as much as a medicine; Thomas Fuller called it in 1655 "the Herbe Generalle in all pottage." In America the flowers were listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia, and King's American Dispensatory (1898) said that as a dressing after surgery it had no equal.

California Poppy

Botanical Name: Eschscholzia californica Cham.

Family: Papaveraceae (Poppy family)

Other Names: Golden Poppy · Copa de Oro (Cup of Gold) · Dedal de Oro (Thimble of Gold)

Parts Used: The whole flowering plant above ground. The root was also used.

Quick Look

California Poppy is a gentle, calming herb for sleep, nerves and stress. It belongs to the poppy family but is not a narcotic and is not habit-forming. Reach for it when someone is anxious, restless or can't settle to sleep, especially when pain or tension is part of the trouble. It works best blended with other calming herbs.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Sleep. Taken in the evening for trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, without leaving a heavy, flattened feeling the next morning.

Nerves & stress. Used for anxiety, nervousness and the strain of stress. Relief of mild mental stress and help with sleep are its official traditional uses in Europe. A small dose calms; a larger one brings sleep.

Pain. A mild pain reliever for headaches, nerve pain and the aches that come with tension or poor sleep. Native peoples of California used the root for toothache and as a wash for headache.

California Poppy or Passionflower? Both calm the mind for sleep. Think Passionflower when circling, repeating thoughts keep someone awake. Think California Poppy as the gentle, all-purpose calming base when the picture is less clear.

Children & elders. It has a reputation as a gentle herb for restless children and for older people.

Nervous stomach. Small doses were used as a mild bitter to settle a stomach upset by nerves.

Research. In the laboratory its alkaloids act on the brain's calming receptors. Human studies have tested it only in blends. In one trial of 264 people with anxiety, a blend with hawthorn and magnesium worked better than a dummy pill.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Tea · Tincture

• Tea: 1 teaspoon dried herb to a cup of boiling water. Cover and steep 10 minutes. Drink 1 cup at bedtime. It is bitter.
• Tincture: ¼ to 1 teaspoon as needed. For sleep, take it half an hour to an hour before bed.
• In a blend: It pairs well with passionflower, valerian, skullcap and chamomile.

Cautions

• It can cause drowsiness. Don't drive or use machinery after taking it.
• It adds to the effect of alcohol, sleeping pills and other sedating medicines, and may interact with antidepressants.
• Its safety in pregnancy and nursing has not been established. Talk with a knowledgeable herbalist or care provider before using it.
• Large doses may cause nausea or a groggy morning.
• Sleeplessness or anxiety lasting more than two weeks needs medical attention.

Know the Plant

California Poppy grows half a foot to two feet tall, as an annual or a deep-rooted perennial. It has blue-green, finely divided, feathery leaves and flowers of four satiny petals, bright orange to light yellow. The flowers close at night and on cloudy days. The slender seed capsules burst open when ripe and throw seed up to six feet.

It is native to the western United States, from southern Washington to Baja California and east into the Great Basin and the Sonoran Desert, and it is grown in gardens around the world. It is not the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), which is a different plant.

A Little History

The Luiseño, Cahuilla, Costanoan and Pomo peoples of California used the plant as both food and medicine. It received its scientific name in 1816 from Adelbert von Chamisso, naturalist aboard the Russian ship Rurik, who named it for the ship's surgeon, J. F. Eschscholtz, and accidentally left the "t" out. The Spanish called it copa de oro, cup of gold, and California made it the state flower in 1903. In the late 1800s it was promoted to doctors as "a powerful soporific and analgesic, which is free from the disadvantages of opium," though the 1918 United States Dispensatory found it much weaker than claimed.

Comfrey

Botanical Name: Symphytum officinale L.

Family: Boraginaceae (Borage family)

Other Names: Knitbone · Knitback · Bruisewort · Blackwort · Consound

Parts Used: Leaves and root, used externally

Quick Look

Comfrey is the old "knitbone," the herb for mending tissue. Reach for it, on the outside of the body, for sprains, strains, bruises, sore joints and bones that are healing. It soothes and it speeds repair. It was once taken internally as well, but it contains alkaloids that can harm the liver, so today it is an external herb.

Actions, Energetics & Taste

How It's Been Used

Sprains, bruises & bones. Its great use, old and new. A poultice or salve is laid over sprains, strains, bruises, swellings, sore joints and, once a break has been set, healing bones. Relief of minor sprains and bruises is its official traditional use in Europe. Several human trials of Comfrey root ointment for ankle sprains, back pain and knee arthritis found it worked better than a dummy ointment over the short term.

Skin & shallow wounds. Used on scrapes, shallow cuts, chapped and cracked skin, boils, sore breasts and slow-healing sores. It closes the surface quickly, which is why it is kept off deep or dirty wounds.

Comfrey or Calendula? Both are great wound herbs. Think Comfrey when tissue is torn, cracked or dry and needs soothing and rebuilding. Think Calendula when tissue is hot, red and swollen.

Traditional internal use. For centuries Comfrey was also a soothing internal remedy for coughs and lung complaints, bleeding from the lungs or bowels, diarrhea and dysentery, and stomach ulcers. The root was boiled in water or wine or made into a syrup, and the young leaves were eaten as greens. Internal use is given here as a traditional way of using the herb, not as a recommendation. In that tradition it is kept very short term, no more than a month, used only when Comfrey cannot be applied where it is needed, and only when no liver trouble is present. The FDA advises against taking Comfrey by mouth at all.

How to Make & Take It

Preparations: Poultice · Compress · Oil Infusion · Salve

• Poultice: Mash fresh leaves or grated root, or moisten the dried herb with just enough hot water to make a paste. Spread it on a cloth and lay it over the area. Change it every few hours.
• Compress: Boil ½ to 1 ounce of crushed root in a quart of water, cool, soak a cloth and apply.
• Oil infusion or salve: Rub a thin layer into unbroken skin two or three times a day.
• How long: Use it for about ten days at a time.

Cautions

• Comfrey contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which can damage the liver when taken by mouth. The root holds far more than the leaf. Reported cases of liver injury from Comfrey are few, and most followed months or years of heavy use.
• In 2001 the FDA advised that Comfrey products for internal use be taken off the market, and most countries ban or restrict them.
• On the skin, keep it to unbroken skin. Do not use it on deep, dirty or open wounds.
• Do not use it during pregnancy or nursing.
• Do not take it at all with liver disease.
• A possible broken bone needs to be set by a doctor first.
• Be certain of the plant. Foxglove, which is poisonous, has similar leaves before it flowers, and people have been poisoned by mistaking it for Comfrey.

Know the Plant

Comfrey is a sturdy perennial, two to four feet tall, with stout, hollow, bristly stems and large, rough, hairy leaves up to ten inches long. Drooping clusters of bell-shaped flowers, creamy yellow, white, rose or purple, bloom from late spring through summer. The root is thick and fleshy, black outside and pale within.

It is native from Europe to western Siberia and has naturalized in moist ground in North America. Russian Comfrey (S. × uplandicum), the kind generally sold in garden centers, and Prickly Comfrey (S. asperum) are close relatives. All contain these alkaloids, and Russian Comfrey has a higher share of the more toxic kind.

A Little History

Maud Grieve traced Symphytum to the Greek symphyo, "to unite," and Comfrey to the Latin con firma, both for its reputation for knitting bones. The herbalist John Gerard recommended a salve of the fresh herb for bruised and broken parts. King's American Dispensatory (1898) called the root soothing and slightly astringent. In the early 1900s its healing power was traced to allantoin, a substance that helps new tissue form.