Garden of medicinal plants
Photos Credit: Salagon Museum
Translator: Jean-Marc Bulit
Malva sylvestris or the common mallow is a plant with a hairy stem and mauve flowers, that blooms between june and august around villages and land rich in nitrates. The Romans would eat its young sprouts: Cicero who loved it got an indigestion from it and Pline used its juice against feeling faint. Platearius recommended to bite down on clary sage roots in case of a toothache and to oint oneself with clary sage sap mixed with olive oil against bee bites.
Clary sage has laxative qualities (young sprouts in salad) and calms inflammations in the mouth. It is also used in case of coughing or bronchitis.