It began with the Tansy cakes. I had to inquire myself ‘Why would anyone eat anything so utterly disgusting in taste’? Chrysanthemum Vulgare is a typical perennial in the British Isles and the name Tansy is said to be derived from the Greek ‘athansia’, meaning ‘immortal’. Reasons recommended for this include the fact that the dried flower lasts permanently or that it has a medicinal quality contributing to lengthy life. Searching back to Greek literature, Tansy was given by the Gods to Ganymede to make him immortal. In the language of flowers the gift of Tansy indicates ‘Rejected address’ – ” I am not interested in you”. Its strange taste, not unlike the smell of ‘mothballs’ may have something to do with this.

Tansy definitely had a status as a vermicide and vermifuge (killing and dispelling intestinal worms) in the center ages. John Gerard wrote in his seventeenth century Herball:

“In the Spring time are made with the leaves right here of recently sprung up, and with eggs, cakes of Tansies, which be pleasant to taste, and good for the stomacke. For if any bad humours cleave there unto, it doth completely concoct them and scoure them downewards”.

Tansy was a typical kitchen garden herb for medicinal and culinary use, in location of expensive foreign spices this kind of as nutmeg and cinnamon. It was used to flavour custard, cakes, milk puddings, omlettes and freshwater fish. In Ireland it was included in sausages called ‘Drisheens’. Its use as a springtime ‘cleanser’ became ritualised into a component of the Christian religious Easter traditions

“On Easter Sunday be the pudding observed, To which the Tansy lends her sober green.”

The consensus on this a lot created about herb is that it was used at Easter to purify the blood after lent. This consensus shows a issue although, in that in England the plant does not show leaves until the end of May – nicely after Easter. This is proof of the assimilation of organic ‘self-medicating’ herbalism into a managing religious patriarchy.

Observation of wild and domesticated animals shows that they frequently self-medicate with wild plants. Sick chimpanzees chew bitter leaves from a bush not usually component of their diet, and then recover. Research by Michael Hoffman shows that a specific nematode worm is typical in the monkey’s gut throughout the rainy season and that their chewing of the leaves coincided with the prevalence of this parasite, which it destroyed. This was the same bush that nearby tribes use to get rid of stomach parasites.

Dogs and cats self medicate by consuming couch grass or cleavers. Parrots, chickens, camels, snow geese, starlings – all have been noticed consuming substances usually alien to their diet to remedial impact. Bears particularly are venerated by North American Indian culture because they symbolise the powers of ‘regeneration’. North American Indians found the use of a root called Osha from bears. It is so effective as an all round painkiller, antiviral, antipeptic that it is now on the endangered species list.

The Woolly Bear caterpillar has also been noticed to change its diet in accordance to whether or not it is infected by a specific parasite. Normally a Lupin eater, the caterpillar increases its opportunity of surviving a specific fly parasite by changing to a diet of Poison Hemlock. Self-medicine is not therefore a ‘rational choice’ in other species, but a cautiously integrated component of a survival mechanism against an invisible predator – disease. Humans seem to have lost this sense of their own well being and are not generally knowledgeable as to the utilizes of plants growing about them.

Humans often self-medicate although – alcohol indulgence to deal with stress becoming an apparent example of this or the prepared availability of pharmaceutical or street medicines. We often consume substances this kind of as caffeine or sugar drinks for easy energy. The organic trait in the direction of self-medicating might nicely be at the basis of numerous of our unconscious ‘eating choices’. Potatoes include a type of opiate and all foods to some extent can act as ‘alteratives’ to a unique physiology. We talk about convenience foods and satisfying ourselves with treats to eat. Often we may have a favourite meals that can assist if we feel as well ill to eat, like scrambled egg. This is a unique meals because it consists of all of the amino acids we require to digest it. Chocolate is to numerous the ultimate convenience meals treat.

An extreme example of what we do is proven in ‘Pica’ exactly where a individual gets uncontrollable needs to eat particular edible (and inedible) substances. This situation is occurs in pregnant women and is believed to express the require for specific minerals. Simply because our meals sources are often restricted to processed meals, and because of the destruction of herbal people-lore and access to wild medicine, numerous of us have lost touch with our ‘health sense’ or ability to use meals or wild plants as preventative or curative self-medicine.

But lastly the wheel is turning and individuals want access to this much more holistic and mild sense of well being that is prevalent in other -related philosophies this kind of as Chinese or Tibetan. If you like the taste of mothballs you could even try Tansy cakes.

Article with many thanks to Roger Phillips and Michael Hoffman

The Wild Herbal at: http://www.simonthescribe.co.uk/wildflower.html

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