Wealden Times | WT183 | May 2017 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

Plants that Heal
Garden
Sue Whigham highlights the therapeutic properties of common countryside dwellers
The Chelsea Physic Garden has been tucked behind a wall
in the Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea, SW3 since it was
founded in 1673. It’s an ancient botanical garden with a
unique microclimate due to its proximity to the Thames which
enables plants from all over the world to thrive. Newly discovered
plants were brought up the river by barge to be delivered to the
garden. You can still see the remains of an ancient boat house there.
The Physic Garden was founded to train Apothecaries’
apprentices to collect and identify plants from the surrounding
area and to study their medicinal uses. 5,000 fascinating plants
from all over the world are housed here and the new layout
of the extended medicinal plants garden, opened recently,
has two ‘rooms’ just devoted to historic British plants. There
are also areas containing plants used world wide in modern
herbal remedies, modern pharmaceuticals and
also those which are being investigated for use
in future medicinal roles. If you have an interest
in medicinal plants, this is the place to go.
Closer to home, hundreds of medicinal plants
grow wild in the countryside and hedgerows and
the foraging movement is, hopefully, teaching
us about these plants and reminding us of the
knowledge that our forebears had before the days
of the NHS and conventional medicines. Thank goodness for
public footpaths which enable us to wander the countryside,
albeit in a controlled way, and to have access to their habitat.
I passed a derelict site just off Brixton Hill on Wednesday and
noticed, amongst the discarded debris, a wealth of plants doing
their own thing and amongst them were several which grow
almost everywhere and which we usually try to eradicate. So,
medicine for free – although I’m not sure that I’d want to harvest
this particular batch bearing in mind the dangerously high level
of pollution recorded in Brixton. However, amongst them were
nettles, docks, dandelions and elder. It seems to be a good year for
dandelions, they are shining away everywhere and I for one am
now looking at them in a different light.
Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum)
Alexanders were introduced to Britain as a food source by the
Romans and they are in full frothy lime green flower now,
lining road verges near the sea having a yen as they do for salty
conditions. A couple of years ago I decided to try cooking up
some stems having read that they tasted a ‘little like celery and
a little like parsley’ and found a slightly ropey patch outside
the fishmonger’s on the bridge down in Rye. I think they were
a little astonished when I went in and asked them if I could
borrow a knife! I think I’d left it a bit late as they were a bit
stringy but it was worth a try. Alexanders can often be found
on the sites of monastery gardens and were both a food source
and perhaps used as a medicinal ingredient by the monks.
Traditionally, the leaves were heated up and used as a poultice
“Hundreds of
medicinal plants
grow wild in
the countryside
and hedgerows”
on sores and skin ulcers to help the healing process. Another use
was in the treatment of the kidneys and the bladder.
Burdock (Arctium lappa)
The countryside is absolutely full of burdock and you can
recognise it by its huge, heart‐shaped leaves and its burrs. In its first
year you’ll only see a rosette of low growing leaves which can reach
about a metre wide on a mature plant. Eventually this develops
into a tall plant which has tall, large, purple thistle‐like flowers
from June onwards. A member of the daisy family, burdock was,
and still is, used combined with dandelions to make a cordial and
a medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine has used burdock for
combating colds and sore throats. It seems that researchers aren’t
really convinced as to which of many ingredients in burdock root
are responsible for its healing properties but it is
known that the plant is full of antioxidants and
extract of burdock root is used in homeopathic
remedies.
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
The first reference to the use of dandelion
medicinally was in the 10th and 11th centuries
when physicians in the Middle East discovered
some of the plant’s properties. Dandelions are chock full of
vitamins including A, B, C, D and K as well as minerals such as
iron, potassium and zinc. Think again before you decide to excise
them completely from your garden. Perhaps you can harness
some of their good qualities instead. Amongst their benefits you
can brew up dandelion tea to detox your liver and improve both
your stomach health and your skin. Gather some of the younger
leaves, blanch them and add them to salads and teas. And it seems
that the large quantity of Vitamin K in dandelion is now thought
to play a role in limiting neuron damage to the brain (leading to
Alzheimer’s disease).
163 wealdentimes.co.uk