Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Parsley

Hey, y'all, welcome this week's show. Today we are going to talk about well, I would say it's probably the most common of herbs, and certainly there's no herb whose medicinal qualities are so often overlooked, and that's parsley. Now, parsley is actually a very important medicinal herb, and it's also an essential urb been cooking. Unfortunately, it's kind of fallen out of favor in cooking. You don't see it as much in recipes as you used to, and very very few people know just how powerfully medicinal parsley is. You know, when I was a kid, I was taught to eat everything in my plate, so I naturally ate any parsley that was served as a garnish when we ate at restaurants. I just developed a taste for parsley at an early age, even though people kept telling me parsley was just a garnish and I wasn't supposed to eat it. So even the eighties, people didn't know they were supposed to eat the parsley. But my instincts, my instincts proved of you. Correct. Tradition of serving part arsa with a meal is an ancient roady, to aid digestion and to fresh in breath. Over the years, my respect for parsley as a culinary or a grew, and I found that parsley enhances the flavors of food and other herbs. When my grandmother was nearing the end of her life and had very little appetite, I found that she would readily eat my cooking if if I included chopped, fresh or dried parsley in the dishes. Her taste, buds, and sense of smell had become dull, and the parsley was the simple, subtle ingredient that made meats, gravies, and vegetables more palatable. Even a little parsley served on cheese would make the cheese taste remarkably more complex and flavorable. Parsy was well known in ancient Greek medicine his simple water. Here it's traditionally believed to be one of the herbs that Homer described in the Odyssey, and interestingly, Homer seems to not only have been a poet, but an army doctor. It is also said that parsley was a favorite herb of a pot crates, being a veritable cure ale. But I cannot source this quote. However, his student Theophrastus mentioned Partisley and his inquiry into plants. He said, what he called mountain celery or Parsley exhibits even greater differences. Is okay, he describes it. He says it is given in dry wine for diseases of women. That's all he says about it. But Diascordes wrote of several plants of the Parsley family. But the one he called oreocellion I think is about the best I can pronounce. It is closest to the common garden parsy we know today. He said. Well, he describes it again. He says, taken as a drink in wine. But the seed and the root or urinary, and they also expel the menstrul flow. It is mixed with antidotes, diuretics and heating medicines. We must not be deceived in thinking oreocellion is that which grows on rocks. For petro selenium is a different. I don't know what he's talking about there. Pliny the Elder wrote about Parsley extensively in his Natural History. He said, Parsley is held in universal esteem, for we find sprigs of its swimming in the drafts of milk given to us to drinking country places. And we know that as a seasoning for sauces it is looked upon with peculiar flavor. Applied to the eyes with honey, which must also be fomented from time to time with a warm decoction of it. It has the most marvelous efficacy in cases of deflections of those organs or of other parts of the body, as also when beaten up and applied by itself, or in combination with bread or polenta. Fish, too, and found to be in an ailing state in the preserves, are greatly refreshed by giving them green parsley. They were fish farming in ancient Greece, by the way, as the opinions entertained upon it among the learned herbs. Among the learned, there is not a single production dug out of the earth in reference to which a greater diversity exists. Parsley is distinguished as male and female. According to Chipperis, the female plant has a hard leaf, more curl than the other, a thick stem, and a hot acrid taste. I never have encountered that. Let's see, we'll skip ahead here. See both of these writers, however, agree in saying that neither kind of partially should be admitted to the number of our ailments. Indeed, they look upon it as nothing less than a sacrilege to do so, seeing that Parsley is consecrated to funeral feasts in honor of the dead. So he was reading older writers, and apparently Parsley was used in funeral feasts for the dead. So he says that by this time they had found it to be a very very good remedy. I'll see if I can get down to Yeah, we'll get to more well. His remedies he gives. He says, the leaves of it, employed as a cataplasm, are used for dispersing hard tumors in the mammaliae lumps in the breast essentially, and when boiled in water, it makes it more agreeable to drink. The juice of the root more particularly mixed with wine, allays the panes of lumbago, and injected into the ears, it diminishes hardness of hearing. The seed of it acts as a diuretic, promotes the minstrel discharge, and brings away the after birth bruises and liver spots. If foamented with a decoction of parsley seed will resume their natural color. Applied topically with the white of an egg, or boiled in water and then drunk, it is remedial for affections of the kidneys, and beaten up in cold water is a cure for ulcers of the mouth. The seed mixed with wine or the root taken with old wine has the effect of breaking calculi in the bladder. And yes, parsley is one of the oldest known remedies for kidney and bladderstones, and still one with the very best. It is my go to whenever somebody asked me about stones, I say, well, first of all, you need to get some parsley. And yeah, the seed is especially good, but so is just eating fresh parsley. The seed too given him white wine to persons afflicted with jaundice. Yet it has a good effect on the liver too. The Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne commanded that parsley be grown in the empire and the capitular air, and it found much use in monastic medicine. Saint Hildegard van beingen rode a parsley. It is better and more useful for a person when it is raw rather than than cooked food. When it is eaten, it attenuates the fevers which slightly touch a person when they strike him. Nevertheless, it generates seriousness in a person's mind. But one who els in his heart spleen her side should cook parsley and wine with a little vinegar and honey. If he strains this through egg cloth and drinks it, it makes him well. But one whose stomach is the ol should take parsley and twice as much fenel and as much soap or it as parsley, and make a relish from them. To this, he should add butter or beef, fat and roasted salt, and eat it often cooked, and that will probably be quite tasty, actually. But one who has pain from eating garlic should soon eat parsley, and he will have less pain. Like if you've ever had raw garlic, and it causes some iningestion and burning and all that acid reflux. It can do that sometimes, and parsley is really good. One of the reasons it was included on tables in old times. Not only would clean the breath, but it's also just really good for indigestion. One who is in pain from a stone should take parsley and a third part saxafragh. He should cook this in wine and strang it through a cloth, and drink it in a sauna. Also, he should cook parsley and a third part sassafras in water and pour it with the water over the hot stones and the same sauna bath. If he does this often, he will be better. Also, one who is tortured by paralysis should take eight equal weights of parsley and fennel with a little less sage. He should grind these herbs together and moderate amounts and a mortar and add rose tinged oil to it. I'll oil to it. He should place this over the place where he's suffering and tie it with a cloth. And one who has so soft flesh and a limb troubled by gout from excessive drinking, should take parson four times as much roue and fry this in a small dish with olive oil. Where if he has no olive oil, he should fry them with goat talot. He should tie these warm herbs on the place where it hurts, and it will be better. You know, we got to get some cautions about using rue. Internally. It was actually a very popular culinary urban medicinal herb in ancient Greece and Rum. But it has been found to have some toxicity, but you know that's only concern like in large amounts what we might call medicinal dosages. Using it externally no problem at all. Brother Aloysius wrote that parsley was used for dropsy, that's adema essentially, stomach complaints, gravel, bladder spleen and liver complaints, john dyscropula, swollen glands, hematuria and inflammation of the prostate, renal and bladderstones, difficult urination, asthma, pain in the chest, and phlegm in the chest and stomach. So see how useful parsley is. And you've just been letting it sit on your steak or your plate at the steakhouts, right, don't do that. Parsley's really really could. And there are two varieties. I was trying to remember. There's flat leaf parsley and curly leaf parsley, And I think that's what the was it Pliny the Elder was talking about dear pretty much used interchangeably in herbal medicine. The flavor is a little different, I guess I would say the curly leaf is a little milder. Maybe I think so anyway, all right, So Igor Villevich Zeven tells us of the Russian tradition the Greeks brought parsley to Russia between the tenth and eleventh centuries. The Russian name Petrossilla petroscilla, I don't know, derived from petrasilinium, means Peter's strength strength, I don't know. The rbal Refreshing wind Town. The rbal Refreshing wind Town, published in sixteen seventy two, states without the petrocial herb stones no, states that with that makes a lot more sense. Let's try that sense a third time. The herbal Refreshing wind Town, published in sixteen seventy two, states that with petrical herb, that's parsley stones ran out of the bladder and kidneys take out weakness of the liver. Bellies and some bellies sometimes make hm. You know, sometimes old writing is kind of hard to take out the weakness of the liver. Bellies sometimes make I really don't know what that means. Weakness of liver I can get, but bellies sometimes make I'm not sure what. Bellies sometimes make meat. So, but Sophie heteroiks Nab tells us that the leaves and roots of parsley would be used in Poland in the sixteenth century for treatments of hernia. A plastic was made from parsley southern wood, that's a artemesia, and fat applied to the groin if one who suffered from a swollen abdomen. If one suffered from a swollen abdomen, an application of fresh leaves of parsley and a drink made from the leaves deuce swelling. Maybe that's what bellies sometimes make means. I don't know, so turned to the English tradition. Gerard fifteen hundred talks about garden parsley. I think that would be the curly leaf parsley in England. He says, the leaves are pleasant in sauce and broth, in which besides they give a pleasant taste, they'd be also singular good to take away stoppings and to provoke urine, which things the roots likewise do notably perform. If they be boiled in broth, they be also delightful to the taste and agreeable to the stomach. And it's a good thing. I got this translated, just took quite a while. Whenever you hear me read Gerard as to some extent Culpepper, you know it's Elizabethan English at Shakespeare's era. Shakespeare was actually Gerard's kind of neighbor. When Gerard was in charge of the Queen's Garden, probably read a lot of his plays right there in Gerard's garden. You know, the old s's look like F's. I mean, I have to literally write this down in modern spelling and everything. I try to keep the charm of the language, but I do change the I guess I don't know punctuation. There's another word for it. Or if I was reading this out loud, i'd probably say they'd be agreeable to the stomach. That's the s's look just like F's, right, and you can get a lot of trouble that way. The seeds or the feeds, as he would have written it, the seeds are more profitable for medicine, and they make thin open, provoke urine, dissolve stone, break away the waste, and away the wind. Are good for such as have the drop seed draw down. The mint. Seeds bring away the berth and after birth. They be commended also against the cough. If they be mixed and boiled with medicines made for that purpose. Lastly, they resist the poisons and therefore are mixed with treacles, treacles or desserts essentially, And he say it's good for food poison. Oh like's I think? Well, treacle is still somewhat used in English cooking. It's sort of a syrup. Treacle tarts are so fairly common. If you've ever had like golden syrup. It's not as strongly sweet as like molasses or something like that, but you know it's not half bad. The roots are the seeds of any of them boiled in ale and drunken cast forth strong venomum or poison, but the seed is the strongest part of the herb. They are also good putting clisters against the stones and torments of the guts. How About one hundred years later, Colepepper tells us that Galen found quite useful, found partially quite useful as well. Always, the vast majority of Galen's medical writings have been lost, and so when someone quotes Galen nine times out of ten, they're making it up. Okay, But in the sixteen hundreds, in Culpepper's time, he was a trained apothecist, and he may have had probably second hand writings of Galen. You know, someone wrote about a book they read about the book they read about what Galen wrote. I mean that kind of thing. So I do put a little more confidence behind Culpepper then when most people say Galen said this or Hippocrates said that, because I mean, I literally got in touch with history professors, ethnobotanists, classics professors at the University of Georgia. You know, they have a great program down there in at Uga that teaches Greek and Latin. They're kind of famous for it. Actually, the main textbooks on learning Latin were written by a professor there at Uga, and I went there. I attended UG so it was really easy for me to get in touch with them, and they recommended people for me to talk to, And I ended up talking with a ton of professors who'd written book boks on the history of medicine and the development of all this kind of stuff from the ancient Greek to now. And they all told me flat out, we have like basically one of Galen's medical books left when we got his books on autopsies and surgeries, but not his books of verbal remedies, not his apothecary books. They have been lost to time. We believe there was one that was translated into I can't remember the name of the languages. I think it was, well, it was a Syrian. Maybe a doctor from Syria translated it from I guess Greek or Latin at the time into whatever language they were speaking. Maybe it's Persia, but anyway, it was such an ancient form of that language that I think it said the University of Philadelphia. They've been going like page by page trying to translate it into a modern language. So when someone quotes, you know, Game and said this, they're making it up. Usually when someone quotes Hippocrates said this, they're usually making it up. Because I've read everything Hippocrates wrote on medicine, but you wouldn't believe how common that is in her books or in really more modern medical articles and such as that. I think people think it gives them credibility if they go back and say, well, Galen said and Hippocrates said, But they're making it up, and no one seems to be fact checking that. I mean, that's why I'm so very careful to give you sources. When I'm giving you this information, I don't want to make stuff up, you know, I want to give you actual factional information you can use. So anyway, cal Pepper says, it is very comfortable to the stomach. It helps to provoke urine and women's courses to break wind both in the stomach and bowels, and he means relieve flatulence and doth a little opened the body, but the root much more. It opens obstructions both of the liver and spleen, and is therefore counted one of the five opening roots. I agree. I'm still to this day I think you can barely find anything better than parsley for stones and opening the tubes, as Doc Jones used to say. Combine that with something like skull cap or Valerian that's going to relax and some mallow to help things slide through easily, and yeah, it's an excellent remedy for such issues. So he says, Galen committed it against the falling sickness and to provoke urine mightily. Okay, now let me explain this. The falling system sickness is, of course epilepsy. Apparently, at the time most epilepsy was called by retaining fluids. By retained fluids, so that diuretics were the go to remedy. Now that probably not how would I put it, probably not applicable to most forms of epilepsy in our time, but that seems to have been the most common remedy two thousand years ago. Says it provokes the urine mightily, especially if the roots be boiled and eaten like parsnips. If the seed is effectual to provoke urine and women's courses, to expel wind, to break the stone, to ease the pains and torments thereof. It is also effectual against venom of any poisonous creature and the danger that comes to them that have lethargy, and is good against the cough. The distilled water of parsley is a familiar medicine with nurses to give to their children when they are troubled with wind in the stomach or belly, which they call the frets. And it is also much available to them that are of great years. The leaves of parsley laid on the eyes that are in flame with heat or swollen, doth help much if it be used with bread or meal, and being fried with butter, and applied to women's breasts that are hard through the curdling of their milk. It abates the hardness quickly and also takes away black and blue marks coming from bruises or falls. The juice therefore dropped into the ears, where a little wine eases the pain. Tregus sits an excellent medicinal. An excellent medicine to help jaundice in falling sickness. To drop see the stones and kidneys in like manner. Take the seed of parsley fennel anis, and carraway of each and ounce of the roots of parsley Burnett's sexafrage, and carraway of each half each and ounce and a half. Let the seeds be bruised and the roots washed and cut small. Let them lie all night to steep in a bottle of white wine, and in the morning be boiled in a closed earthen vessel until a third part or more be wasted. I don't know how that works. If it's closed, I don't know which. Being strained and cleared, take four ounces thereof in the morning and evening first and last, abstaining from drink after it for three hours. This opens substructure the liver and the spleen and expels the dropsy and jaundice by Urine, summing up in the British erbal tradition, I'm giving a good bit of interesting. Lord, I'm not sure how much get into that, how much time I have, But miss Greeb wrote in a modern herbal there was an old superstition against transplanting parsley plants. The herb is said to have been dedicated to perciphony and to the funeral rites of the Greeks. It was afterwards consecrated to Saint Peter in his character of successor to Chahan. No idea what that means. In the sixteenth century, parsley was known as a hortense, but herb was retained the official name Petra Selenium. Linnaeus in seventeen sixty four named it a Petraceilenium. It's now assigned to the genus of Karum. It's changed again, I believe. Since the Greeks had parsley in high esteem, crowning the victors with chaplets of parsley at the Isthmian Games and making into reese for adorning the tombs of the dead, herb was never brought to the table of old, being too sacred to oblivion and to the dead. It was to have sprung from the blood of a Greek hero acer Morris, the forerunner of death and Homer relates to chariot. Horses were fed by warriors with the leaves. Greek gardens were often bordered with parsley and roue. She says, though the medicinal verses of parsi are so fully recognized, in former times it was considered a remedy for more disorders than it is now used for, for its imagined quality of destroying poisoned, which geographers was probably attributed to the plant from its remarkable power of overcoming strong sense. Even the odor of garlic, being rendered almost imperceptible, would be mingled with that of parsley, and all I guess sip of water, and then would medicinal actions and uses the use of parsley. The uses of parson there are many, and they are by no means restricted to the culinary sphere. The most familiar employment of the leaves in their fresh state is of course finely chopped as a flavoring, sauceage, soups, stuffings, risoles, minces, et cetera, and also sprinkled over vegetables. Or salads. The leaves are extensively cultivated, not only for sending fresh to market fresh, but also for the purpose of being dried and powdered as a culinary flavoring and winter when only a limited supply fresh parsley is obtainable. In addition to the leaves, the stems are dried and powdered, both as culinary and for dying purposes. There is a mark for the seeds, and yes, she mentions, there is one called the rooted variety of parsley, and it actually forms a much larger root, not as big as a turnip. But yeah, I can't remember the name of it now, Yeah, it's quite tasty. Anyway, Medically, she says, the two year old roots are employed. Now, Parsley is perennial. If you plant in your garden, it will come back every spring and it will sell steed and should spread depending on the soil. It is not like a very acidic soil though. Anyway, Medicinally the two year old roots are employed. Also, the leaves dried for making parsley tea, the seeds for extraction of an oil called apol, which is of considerable curative value. The best kind of seed from medicinal purposes is obtained from the curled variety. The wholesale drug trade generally obtains its seeds from farmers on the East coast is of England, which being sampled, each sample being tested separately before purchases are made. It has been the practice to buy the second year seeds, which are practically useless for growing purposes. It would probably hardly pay farmers to grow apol producing purposes only as the demand is not sufficiently great now modern use plants for future says. Parsley is a commonly grown culinary herb and medicinal herb that is often used as a domestic medicine. The leaves are highly nutritious and could be considered a natural vitamin a mineral supplement in their own right. Absolutely true. Parsley is one of the most nutritious plants that will grow in your garden, and if you get a taste for it, one of the best things to do is make a salad of like basically parsley and chives. Just a big bowl of parsley, use lemon, juice and olive oil, little salt and pepper. Absolutely delicious and one of the most medicinal nutritious things you can eat. Another great way to use parsley that I do a lot is with pasta. I just take a little parsley and chop it up, crush some garlic, put it in the pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper, pinch acruss red pepper. Just bring that together, stirring some cooked pasta al dente, you know, cooked pasta. Plate it up and top it with some Parmesan cheese. And it's fantastic, And it costs like hardly anything. And I mean you'd pay a lot for that in a restaurant. It's a very traditional Italian dish and it's delicious. But anyway says yes, the fresh leaves are highly nutritious and can be considered a natural vitamin a mineral supplement in their own right. The plant's prime uses as a diuretic, where it is effective in ridding the body of stones and in treating jaundice, dropsystietis, et cetera. It is also a good detoxifier, helping rid I'm gonna pause. I also add a little bit of white wine to that sauce for the pasta, so it's partially garlic. Olive oil, lemon juice, white wine, and did I mention the lemon juice. I may have left that out too. A little lemon zest is good. Lemon juice isn't necessary if you have a dry white wine. But anyway, Yeah, bring it together with your pasta. Top it with parmesan cheese. It's just a delicious stoom. Just just don't have the parmesan wht it's still in the pan, or it'll melt and stick in the pan. It needs to be done on the plate anyway. It is also a good detoxifier, helping the body to get rid of toxins via the urine and therefore helping in the treatment of a wide range of diseases such as rheumatism. The seed is a safe herbit. Normal dose has been excess, it can have toxic effects. Partially should not be used by pregnant women because it is used to stimulate minstrel flow and can therefore a miscarriage. And usually that's what we call medicallin dose, not just a little bit on your food. All parts of the plant can be used medically, and the root is the part most often used. That The seeds have a stronger action. Parsley is anti dandruff. Yes, parsley can actually help get rid of dandruff, antispasmodic, apparent, carminative, digestive, diuretica, minagogue, expectorate, galactiffuge. So what does galactifuge means. That means it actually increases mother's milk. Let's see the kidney stomatic and tonic and infusion of the roots is taken after childbirth to promote lactation and help contract the uterus. Parsley is also a mild laxative and is useful for treating being anemia and convalescence. Caution is advised on the internal use of the herb, especially in the form of central oil. Absolutely it could be quite toxic. Excessive dose can cause liver and kidney damage, nerve inflammation, and gastrointestral hemorrhage. I say don't take essential oils internally unless it only in very special cases when an experts really walked it through it all right, So it should not be prescribed for pregnant women or people with kidney disease. Poultice of the leaves has been applied externally to soothe bites and stings. Is also said to be a value in treating tumors of a cancerous nature. It has been used to treat eye infections, whilst a wide of cotton soaked in the juice will believe toothache or earache. It is said to prevent hair loss and make freckles disappear. If the leaves are kept close to the breast of a nursing mother for a few days, the milk flow will cease so externally it actually reduces. So really interesting. I mean, I think it's the history of parsley is fascinating. The medicinal uses of partially are fascinating. Easy to grow in the garden, Get some seeds, get them started, get them out there to take care of themselves in most places. Yeah, it's just really really good. I mean, I'll put it in with my eggs. I put it in all the gravies I make. Partially is probably the herb, you know, next to onions and garlic. I use partially probably more than anything in cooking. Yeah, really really good. Yeah, I'm just gonna tell you probably more recipes, but we're running out of time here, y'all have a great week. I will just say this, okay, so soften up. Some butter and mix some parsley into it. You got parsley butter, you can put on a steak fantastic. Next time you make a bloody Mary, put a pitch of parsley in there. It's gonna bring out those flavors like crazy pasta fillings, mac and cheese. Parsley and cheese goes so well together. Put your some parsley in your meat loaf and your meat balls. Parsley's fantastic with potatoes, baked potato, mashed potatoes, whatever way you like potatoes. You can even make a like a chimmy cherry or pestle like sauce. Grinding up parsley and you know, maybe a few walnuts and olive oil and garlic, and that's really delicious. Eat more parsley. It's really one of the healthiest things you can have. May take a little bit to get used to it if you're not. I mean, you know, it's a strong flavor. But once you get used to it, you're gonna love it and it will be one of the best things you've ever done for your health. All right, y'all, Now I'll say goodbye, have a great one, and I'll talk to you next week. The information of this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of verbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating herbless Therefore, I'm really just a guy who stuys IRBs. I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true. I can tell you what earths has been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience, and if I believe in HERB has helped me, I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use an herb anyone recommends you are treating yourself, you take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals, and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy of sensitivity and underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health by continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog you read it, be responsible for yourself to your own research make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever