Effect:
Stimulant of digestion, stimulating blood circulation, antiseptic, appetite stimulating, diaphoretic, antipyretic, sputum promoting, germicidal
Areas of application:
Ulcers, strained muscles after overexertion, eczema, rheumatism, headaches, back pain, lungs
Plant parts used:
Leaves, shoot tips, fruits
Collection time:
Summer
To find:
more of a garden plant
Ingredients:
Essential oils, fatty oils, tannins, bitter substances, catechins, flavonoids, caffeic acid derivatives, procyanidins, sesquiterpene lactones, eremanthine, chlorophyll
Other:
We know the laurel wreath from the Romans.
People burned the laurel leaves in the oracle at Delphi or wore them under the tongue to fall into a holy trance through the vapors. If you want to tell fortunes, you smoke laurel. The louder the leaves burn, the more luck the future promises.
Love oracle: On Valentine's Day (February 14th) you sleep on a bay leaf in order to see the face of your future lover in your dream.
The laurel is used as a spice for all meat soups, sauces, beef, game, fish, pickled sauerkraut, pickles or rice pudding. Be careful if the leaves crumble, they will then lose their flavor and healing properties.
Hildegard von Bingen: Take the bark from the tree and also the leaves and crush them and squeeze out their juice. Then make cakes with the juice and wheat flour. Then dry and grind them into powder. Then put honey in water and put some of the powder in it and drink it. This cleanses the stomach of all rubbish. Also boil the leaves, bark and roots of the tree in water and make porridge. Add fat and make an ointment from it.
And if you have a headache, or pain in your side or back, anoint yourself with it and you will feel better. The fruit is also useful for medicinal purposes. If you have a headache, crush the seeds in a mortar and add a little wine and anoint the crown and temples. Then go to bed and all the pain will go away.
But if you are so weak in the lungs that they even rot, then powder the berries and eat this powder often with bread and you will be healed.