Medicinal plants: lavender

Latin name: Lavandula officinalis (Lavandula angustifolia)

A perennial herb, 30 to 60 cm tall, with many upright branches and long, narrow, smooth leaves. Its fragrant, bitter-tasting blue flowers grow in spikes. It is native to the Atlantic coast and spread around the Mediterranean, and it grows wild in neglected fields and in almost any soil.

It is used sparingly as a seasoning, in very small amounts, mixed with other herbs for sauces, fish soup and poultry, to flavour butter, and with juniper to smoke meat. The young leaves and shoot tips are used until flowering. The flowers are picked and dried quickly so they keep their blue colour, and are used for scent and in bath water. Lavender is planted in gardens as a low border; it can be sown in pots in March and planted out in May, 20 cm apart, and should be covered with branches in winter to protect it from frost.

Parts used

The leaves and flower spikes, picked at the end of July and start of August. Plants two to six years old give richer flowers than young ones.

What it contains

An essential oil containing linalool, geraniol, caryophyllene and linalyl acetate, as well as tannins and calming substances.

Uses

Lavender oil massaged into the skin is used for nervous complaints and sprains. The whole plant is considered a tonic and antispasmodic, used for headaches and to calm the nerves. It also aids digestion and relieves bloating and indigestion.

Infusion: 3 teaspoons of flowers per cup of boiling water; 1 to 2 cups a day for stomach upsets, wind and nervous complaints such as nervous palpitations, headaches and irritability.
Lavender oil: fill a clear glass bottle with a handful of flowers, cover them with olive oil, seal it and leave it in the sun for two weeks, then strain, squeezing the flowers through gauze.
Externally: compresses of the infusion, or massage with the oil, for bruises, sprains, sciatica, rheumatism and nerve pain.

Caution: don't swallow lavender essential oil. Speech problems after a stroke need medical care and speech therapy, not herbal remedies.

Note: these are traditional uses, and most have not been proven by research. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist before using herbs as medicine, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a long-term illness or take other medicines.

By Dr Elias Jabbour