Mentha pulegium, commonly (European) pennyroyal, also called squaw mint, mosquito plant and pudding grass, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae native to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Crushed pennyroyal leaves exhibit a very strong fragrance similar to spearmint. Pennyroyal is a traditional culinary herb, folk remedy, and abortifacient. The essential oil of pennyroyal is used in aromatherapy, and is also high in pulegone, a highly toxic volatile organic compound affecting liver and uterine function.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses

Pennyroyal was commonly used as a cooking herb by the Greeks and Romans. The ancient Greeks often flavored their wine with pennyroyal. A large number of the recipes in the Roman cookbook of Apicius call for the use of pennyroyal, often along with such herbs as lovage, oregano and coriander. Although it was commonly used for cooking in the Middle Ages, it gradually fell out of use as a culinary herb and is seldom used as such today. The fresh or dried leaves of the plant were used to flavor pudding.

Even though pennyroyal oil is extremely poisonous, people have relied on the fresh and dried herb for centuries. Early settlers in colonial Virginia used dried pennyroyal to eradicate pests. Pennyroyal was such a popular herb that the Royal Society published an article on its use against rattlesnakes in the first volume of its Philosophical Transactions in 1665.

Pennyroyal is used to make herbal teas, which, although not proven to be dangerous to healthy adults in small doses, is not recommended, due to its known toxicity to the liver. Consumption can be fatal to infants and children. It has been traditionally employed as an emmenagogue (menstrual flow stimulant) or as an abortifacient. Pennyroyal is also used to settle an upset stomach and to relieve flatulence. The fresh or dried leaves of pennyroyal have also been used when treating colds, influenza, abdominal cramps, and to induce sweating, as well as in the treatment of diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis, and in promoting latent menstruation. Pennyroyal leaves, both fresh and dried, are especially noted for repelling insects. However, when treating infestations such as fleas, using the plant’s essential oil should be avoided due to its toxicity to both humans and animals, even at extremely low levels.

Wiccan

Pennyroyal is well known as a magical herb. In some traditions it’s associated with money, while in others Pennyroyal is connected to strength and protection. In Hoodoo and some forms of American folk magic, Pennyroyal is carried to ward off the “evil eye.” For some protection magic, make a sachet stuffed with Pennyroyal and tuck it in your purse. In a few traditions, Pennyroyal is associated with money magic. If you own a business, place a sprig over the door to draw in customers and prosperity. Try making a bar of Money Soap to wash your hands with, or use Pennyroyal to brew up some Prosperity Oil.

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Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth; also patchouly or pachouli) is a species of plant from the genus Pogostemon. It is a bushy herb of the mint family, with erect stems, reaching two or three feet (about 0.75 metre) in height and bearing small, pale pink-white flowers. The plant is native to tropical regions of Asia, and is now extensively cultivated in China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Perfume

The heavy and strong scent of patchouli has been used for centuries in perfumes and, more recently, in incense, insect repellents, and alternative medicines. The word derives from the Tamil patchai (green), ellai (leaf). In Assamese it is known as xukloti.

Pogostemon cablin, P. commosum, P. hortensis, P. heyneasus and P. plectranthoides are all cultivated for their essential oil, known as patchouli oil.

Extraction of Essential Oil

Extraction of patchouli’s essential oil is by steam distillation of the leaves, requiring rupture of its cell walls by steam scalding, light fermentation, or drying.

Leaves may be harvested several times a year and, when dried, may be exported for distillation. Some sources claim a highest quality oil is usually produced from fresh leaves distilled close to where they are harvested; others that baling the dried leaves and fermenting them for a period of time is best.

Uses

Perfume

Patchouli is used widely in modern perfumery, by individuals who create their own scents, and in modern scented industrial products such as paper towels, laundry detergents, and air fresheners. Two important components of its essential oil are patchoulol and norpatchoulenol.

Insect Repellent

One study suggests that patchouli oil may serve as an all-purpose insect repellent. More specifically, the patchouli plant is claimed to be a potent repellent against the Formosan subterranean termite.

During the 18th and 19th century, silk traders from China traveling to the Middle East packed their silk cloth with dried patchouli leaves to prevent moths from laying their eggs on the cloth. It has also been proven to effectively prevent female moths from adhering to males, and vice versa. Many historians speculate that this association with opulent Eastern goods is why patchouli was considered by Europeans of that era to be a luxurious scent. It is said that patchouli was used in the linen chests of Queen Victoria in this way.

Incense

Patchouli is an important ingredient in East Asian incense. Both patchouli oil and incense underwent a surge in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s in the US and Europe, mainly as a result of the hippie movement of those decades.

Culinary

Patchouli leaves have been used to make an herbal tea. In some cultures, Patchouli leaves are eaten as a vegetable.

Wiccan

Patchouli is a popular herb found in many modern Pagan rituals. Its exotic scent brings to mind far-off, magical places, and it’s often used in incense blends, potpourri, and ritual workings. Associated with love, wealth, and sexual power, patchouli can be used in a variety of magical workings. Place patchouli leaves in a sachet, and carry it in your pocket or wear around your neck. In some traditions of hoodoo and folk magic, a dollar sign is inscribed on a piece of paper using patchouli oil. The paper is then carried in your wallet, and this should draw money your way. There are some traditions of modern magic in which patchouli is valued for its repelling power.

The Lost Bearded White Brother

Mugwort is a common name for several species of aromatic plants in the genus Artemisia. In Europe, mugwort most often refers to the species Artemisia vulgaris, or common mugwort. While other species are sometimes referred to by more specific common names, they may be called simply “mugwort” in many contexts. For example, one species, Artemisia argyi, is often called “mugwort” in the context of traditional Asian medicine but may be also referred to by the more specific name “Chinese mugwort”.

Mugworts are used medicinally, especially in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean traditional medicine. Some mugworts have also found a use in modern medicine for their anti-herpetic effect. They are also used as an herb to flavor food. In Korea, mugworts were also used for plain, non-medicinal consumption; in South Korea, mugworts, called ssuk, are still used as a staple ingredient in many dishes including rice cakes and soup.

Medicinal

The mugwort plant contains essential oils (such as cineole, or wormwood oil, and thujone), flavonoids, triterpenes, and coumarin derivatives. It was also used as an anthelminthic, so it is sometimes confused with wormwood (Artemisia absinthium). The plant, called nagadamni in Sanskrit, is used in Ayurveda for cardiac complaints as well as feelings of unease, unwellness and general malaise.

In traditional Japanese, Korean and Chinese medicine, Chinese mugwort (Folium Artemisiae argyi) is used for moxibustion, for a wide variety of health issues. The herb can be placed directly on the skin, attached to acupuncture needles, or rolled into sticks and waved gently over the area to be treated. In all instances, the herb is ignited and releases heat. Not only is it the herb which is believed to have healing properties in this manner, but it is also the heat released from the herb in a precise area that heals. There is significant technique involved when the herb is rolled into tiny pieces the size of a rice grain and lit with an incense stick directly on the skin. The little herbal fire is extinguished just before the lit herb actually touches the skin.

In traditional Chinese medicine there is a belief that moxibustion of mugwort is effective at increasing the cephalic positioning of fetuses who were in a breech position before the intervention. A Cochrane review in 2012 found that moxibustion may be beneficial in reducing the need for ECV, but stressed a need for well-designed randomised controlled trials to evaluate this usage.

Medieval Europe

In the European Middle Ages, mugwort was used as a magical protective herb. Mugwort was used to repel insects, especially moths, from gardens. Mugwort has also been used from ancient times as a remedy against fatigue and to protect travelers against evil spirits and wild animals. Roman soldiers put mugwort in their sandals to protect their feet against fatigue. Mugwort is one of the nine herbs invoked in the pagan Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm, recorded in the 10th century in the Lacnunga.

Wiccan

Mugwort is an herb that is found fairly regularly in many modern Pagan magical practices. From its use as an incense, for smudging, or in spellwork, mugwort is a highly versatile – and easy to grow – herb. In some magical traditions, mugwort is associated with divination and dreaming. To bring about prophecy and divinatory success, make an incense of mugwort to burn at your workspace, or use it in smudge sticks around the area in which you are performing divination rituals.

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Lavender is a genus of 39 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found from Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, Europe across to northern and eastern Africa, the Mediterranean, southwest Asia to southeast India. Many members of the genus are cultivated extensively in temperate climates as ornamental plants for garden and landscape use, for use as culinary herbs, and also commercially for the extraction of essential oils. The most widely cultivated species, Lavandula angustifolia, is often referred to as lavender, and there is a colour named for the shade of the flowers of this species.

Lavender Oil

Commercially, the plant is grown mainly for the production of essential oil of lavender. This has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. These extracts are also used as fragrances for bath products.

English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) yields an essential oil with sweet overtones, and can be used in balms, salves, perfumes, cosmetics, and topical applications. Lavandin yields a similar essential oil, but with higher levels of terpenes including camphor, which add a sharper overtone to the fragrance.

The lavandins are a class of hybrids of L. angustifolia and L. latifolia. The lavandins are widely cultivated for commercial use, since their flowers tend to be bigger than those of English lavender and the plants tend to be easier to harvest, but lavandin oil is regarded by some to be of a lower quality than that of English lavender, with a perfume less sweet.

Culinary Use

It is grown as a condiment and used in salads and dressings. Flowers yield abundant nectar from which bees make a high-quality honey. Monofloral honey is produced primarily around the Mediterranean, and is marketed worldwide as a premium product. Flowers can be candied and are sometimes used as cake decorations. Lavender flavours baked goods and desserts (it pairs especially well with chocolate), and is also used to make “lavender sugar”. Lavender flowers are occasionally blended with black, green, or herbal teas.

Though it has many other traditional uses in southern France, lavender is not used in traditional southern French cooking. It does not appear at all in the best-known compendium of Provençal cooking, J.-B. Reboul’s Cuisinière Provençale In the 1970s, a blend of herbs called herbes de Provence which usually includes lavender was invented by spice wholesalers, and lavender has more recently become popular in cooking.

Lavender lends a floral and slightly sweet flavour to most dishes, and is sometimes paired with sheep’s-milk and goat’s-milk cheeses. For most cooking applications the dried buds, which are also referred to as flowers, are used. Some chefs experiment with the leaves but only the buds contain the essential oil of lavender, from which the scent and flavour of lavender are derived. In the United States, both lavender syrup and dried lavender buds are used to make lavender scones and marshmallows.

Medical Uses

The essential oil was used in hospitals during World War I.

Lavender is used extensively with herbs such as chamomile and aromatherapy. Infusions are believed to soothe insect bites, burns, and headaches. Bunches of lavender repel insects. In pillows, lavender seeds and flowers aid sleep and relaxation. An infusion of flowerheads added to a cup of boiling water is used to soothe and relax at bedtime. Lavender oil (or extract of lavender) is used to treat acne when diluted 1:10 with water, rosewater, or witch hazel; it also treats skin burns and inflammatory conditions.

A study published in 2010 investigated anxiolytic effects and influence on sleep quality. Lavender oil with a high percentage of linalool and linalyl acetate, in the form of capsules, was generally well tolerated. It showed meaningful efficacy in alleviating anxiety and related sleep disturbances.

Lavender oil is approved for use as an anxiolytic in Germany under the name Lasea. A survey paper on lavender and the nervous system published in 2013 states that, “there is growing evidence suggesting that lavender oil may be an effective medicament in treatment of several neurological disorders.”

Lavender may be very effective with wounds;[medical citation needed] however, lavender honey (created from bees feeding on lavender plants), instead of lavender essential oil has the best effects of uninfected wounds.

Wiccan

The use of Lavender has been documented for thousands of years. Magically speaking, lavender is often associated with love spells, as well as for workings to bring calmness and peace. To bring love your way, carry lavender flowers in a sachet on your person, or hang stalks of it in your home. To get a good night’s sleep, with calming dreams, stuff a pillow with sprigs of lavender. It can also be used in a purifying bath or smudging ritual.

The Lost Bearded White Brother