Laurel

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LAUREL OR BAY - LAURUS NOBILIS

Lauraceae Family.
Country names: Sweet Bat, Noble Laurel, Daphne, Roman Laurel

This evergreen tree originates from the Middle East. It grows wild in the Mediterranean region, in Asia Minor and in North Africa. It is cultivated in other areas.

An evergreen tree with bright green hard lanceolate leaves, which grows up to 25ft/ 8m high. (Protect from frost.) The leaves (yellowish-beige, very fragrant) and fruit (small berries, black when ripe) are used. Blooms form March to May depending on the area. Composition - an essential oil (cineole, eugenol, geraniol). Berries contain fatty substances called "laurel grease".

Evergreen, the laurel symbolises acquired immortality, both in battle as well as in the arts. This symbolism is preserved in Greek and Roman cultures. In poetry it is a symbol of reputation. The antiseptic property of laurel is well known.

Devoted to the sun by Greeks and Romans the laurel is a peace symbol like the olive. In Rome, a divinatory tool, it played a very important role in mysteries and religious rites. In sacrifices, assistants were sprinkled with a branch of laurel soaked in holy water. In Greece, to prophesy, Pythia, the soothsayers chewed and burned its leaves, those who obtained a favourable reply returned crowned with laurel. In China, it is at the foot of the laurel that the hare of the Moon chews the simples, from which it extracts the drug of immortality. Nowadays, when the laurel dries up in the garden, it's an omen of death for the master of the house.

In Rome the Romans waved branches of laurel as a sign of joy and it adorned statues of Jupiter after every victory. The goddess of the Victory held a triumphal crown of laurel in one hand and in the other a palm branch. The winning generals, poets and scientists were crowned with it. Triumphant emperors wore laurel crowns and carried laurel in their hands. Emblem of peace and truce, carried on the victors javelin tips, it became a symbol of joy and victory. The use of crowns of laurel became so general that Christians used it to glorify their martyrs. Roman herdsmen scented and disinfected their cowsheds with fumigations of laurel mixed with sulphur and juniper. Doing the same in times of epidemic.

Daphne, pursued persistently by Apollo, implored the other Olympian gods to help her. By them she was rendered unrecognisable and changed into the most precious of aromatics, the laurel, whose light bark covered her breasts; her hairs became foliage, her graceful arms branches, her feet solid roots. Apollo, inconsolable, covers himself with leaves, and since, the name of 'Apollo's laurel' as remained.

In the Middle Ages, it adorned equally the brow of poets, artists, scientists, and students who obtained a university degree. During the Renaissance, 'scholars', diplomed academics, were crowned with berry bearing branches, the 'bacca laureati', (bacca = berries, laurea = laurel), that reminds us of the French term 'baccalauréat'.

It is a herb with both healing properties and culinary uses, and also has a reputation for warding off lightening and wizards. Bay, or laurel, is unusual in that it is one herb leaf which is better dry than fresh, because the changes which take place when the leaf is detached from the plant improve its flavour rather than diminish it. It reaches optimum flavour four or five days after being picked, after that it is somewhat reduced. Even today it is used to protect cupboards from weevils when it is scattered among flour and spices. Bay leaves under the mattress deter fleas and bed bugs.

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BOUQUET GARNI

One bay leaf, 2 sprigs parsley, 1 sprig thyme and 1 sprig marjoram. Add a bay leaf to rice for an original flavour, or to cabbage, cauliflower or beans to reduce cooking odours.

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FOR INDIGESTION - BAY TEA (1)

2 bay leaves and the peel of ½ a well-washed orange, cover with 150ml (1/4 pint) of boiling water and leave to stand for 10 minutes. Strain and drink warm. If you are prone to digestive problems use bay leaves in cooking as much as possible.

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FOR INDIGESTION - BAY TEA (2)

30-40g of leaves for 1 litre of boiling water. Infuse for 10 minutes. Take 3 cups immediately after meals for a better digestion. In other cases, stomach pains, flatulence, flu, bronchitis: take the same infusion, 3 hours after meals.

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CHRONIC RHEUMATISM

30g laurel berries, stoned
30g box wood
1 ½ litres water

Boil over a low heat till 1 litre remains. Now add the peel of 1 non-treated lemon. Infuse and filter. Drink 3 glasses per day between meals. Sweeten to taste with honey, or eat a little after having drunk the infusion, because it is bitter. Take over a period of 10 days.

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LAUREL LEAF OIL FOR RHEUMATIC PAINS

Macerate 100g dried leaves in 100g of 60o alcohol for 24 hours. Then add, 1 litre of olive oil and cook in a bain-marie for 6 hours. Leave to cool, filter and put in well-sealed containers.

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LAUREL POMADE

Pound the whole berries (stones included) and boil them for 15 minutes. Extract the juice through a gauze. Leave to cool and with a small spoon scoop off the oil that is on the surface of the liquid. Put it in small well-sealed bottles. In a bowl mix 2 parts berry oil with 1 part pure unsalted lard. Mix well and massage in lightly twice a day.

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FOR KNOCKS AND CONTUSIONS

In a cup of olive oil, macerate for 15 days a handful of laurel berries. Crush and filter through linen. Massage in lightly.

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NB: Laurel berries destroy the corpuscle, avoid oral consumption. They are TOXIC. USE UNDER THE SURVEILLANCE OF A COMPETENT HERBORIST.

Julia Renshaw

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