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 | Bayleaf Other Names: Bay, bay laurel and sweet bay.
Botanical Name: Lauraceae
Family: |
Description: |
Bay Leaf is also known as Sweet Laurel, Wreath Laurel, Bay Laurel, and Yeuh-kuei. The bay tree is indigenous to Asia Minor, from where it spread to the Mediterranean. The Greek word for laurel is "dhafni", named for the myth of the nymph Daphne, who was turned into a laurel tree by Gaea. Bay, or laurel, was famed in ancient Greece and Rome. Emperors, heroes, doctors and poets wore wreaths of laurel leaves. Triumphant athletes of ancient Greece were awarded laurel garlands for their exploits. Doctors wore crowns of Bay Leaf due to the Greek’s belief that it was a cure for everything from indigestion to nightmares. Bay leaves are still widely used throughout the world. It may be best known as a garnish or used similarly in soups, sauces, and stews, and is an appropriate seasoning for fish, meat and poultry. Bay Leaf is often used as a pickling spice.
Grown successfully in Mediterranean climates, the Bay is a hardy evergreen shrub that grows wild or cultivated. In warm areas it can grow as high as 60 feet. Bay Leaf can be harvested at any time. Bay Leaf has been used as an herbal remedy for headaches. It contains compounds called parthenolides, which have proven useful in the treatment of migraines. Bay Leaf has also been shown to help the body process insulin more efficiently, which leads to lower blood sugar levels. Bay Leaf has also been used to reduce the effects of stomach ulcers. Bay Leaf contains eugenol, which has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. Bay leaf is also an anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. Bay Leaf has also been used to treat rheumatism, amenorrhea, and colic. |
Constituents: |
| The leaves contain isoquinoline alkaloids, aporphine alkaloids, flavonoids, lignan glycosides and sesquiterpene lactones, while the essential oil contains 1,8-cineole, eugenol, linalool, costunolide and deacetyllaurenbiolide as main ingredients. |
Medicinal Usage: |
A weak infusion of bay leaves (laurel) can be taken at meal times to improve digestion.
It is a popular herb to use for flatulence, dyspepsia, and indigestion.
Historically it has been used for bladder and kidney ailments, but this has not been extensively researched.
Bay leaves are a vital ingredient of bouquet garni and are commonly added, to give flavor to, sauces, soups, stock, stews and desserts. |
Ancient Lore: |
BAY TREE LAURUS NOBILIS
The berries mightily expel the wind, and provoke urine, help the mother, and kill the worms. The leaves also work the like effects.
Where to find it: It grows in woodland, and prefers warm climates like the Mediterranean. Flowering time: Mid to late spring.
Astrology: It is a tree of the Sun and under the celestial sign Leo, and resisteth witchcraft very potently, as also all the evils old Saturn can do the body of man, and they are not a few.
Medicinal virtues. Galen said that the leaves or bark do dry and heal very much, and the berries more than the leaves. The bark of the root is effectual to break the stone and to open obstructions of the liver, spleen, and other inward parts which bring the jaundice, dropsy, etc. The berries are effectual against all poisons of venomous creatures, and the sting of wasps and bees, as also against the pestilence, or other infectious diseases and therefore put into sundry treacles for that purpose.
They procure women's courses, and seven of them given to a woman in sore travail of childbirth do cause a speedy delivery, and expel the afterbirth. The berries should not therefore be taken by such as have not gone out of their time, lest they procure abortion, or cause labour too soon.
They wonderfully help all cold and rheumatic distillations from the brain to the eyes, lungs or other parts; and being made into an electuary with honey, do help the consumption, old coughs, shortness of breath, and thin rheums, as also the megrim.
A bath of the decoction of the leaves and berries is singularly good for women to sit in that are troubled with the mother, or the diseases thereof, or the stoppings of their courses, or for the diseases of the bladder, pains in the bowels by wind and stopping of urine. A decoction of equal parts of Bay berries, Cumin seed, Hyssop, Origanum and Euphorbium, with some honey, and the head bathed therewith, doth wonderfully help distillations and rheums, and settles the palate of the mouth into its place.
The oil made of the berries is very comfortable in all cold griefs of the joints, nerves, arteries, stomach, belly or womb; and helpeth palsies, convulsions, cramp, aches, trembling and numbness in any part, weariness also, and pains that come by sore travailing.
All griefs and pains proceeding from wind, either in the head, stomach, back, belly or womb, by anointing the parts affected therewith; and pains of the ears are also cured by dropping in some of the oil, or by receiving into the ears the funic of the decoction of the berries through a funnel. The oil takes away the marks of the skin and flesh by bruises, fails, etc. and dissolves the congealed blood in them. It helpeth also the itch, scabs and wheals in the skin.
Modern uses: Not widely used medicinally. Herbalists use the oil only for external application in the treatment of rheumatism. |
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