From Culpepper to vodka flavouring
Melilot (Melilotus officinalis, Yellow clover or King’s chaver) is an annual, sometimes biennial, member of the Leguminosae family, growing to 1.2m in heavy yet well-drained soil in most of Europe and Asia. It is a straggly plant with weak stems carrying three toothed leaflets topped by a very slender stalk of pale yellow flowers that smell of honey.
The generic name ‘Melilotus’ comes from the Greek words for honey and fodder; this has always been a very popular plant with apiarists.
The herb contains coumarins, flavanoids, tannins and dicoumarol (it also possesses an oleoresin that is released from the flowers by way of solvent extraction), which makes it antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, anticoagulant, antithrombotic, sedative, analgesic, styptic and diuretic.
Culpeper states ‘The head often washed with distilled water of the herb and flowers, is effectual for those that have suddenly lost their senses, as also to strengthen the memory, comfort the head and brain, and to preserve them from pains and apoplexy’.
This herb has a long history of medicinal use and was popular as a strewing plant in pagan ceremonies. European herbalists recommend Melilot as a treatment for thrombosis, facial and intercostal neuralgia, conjunctivitis, rheumatics, phlebitis, varicose veins and recently for lymphoedema; blocked or swollen lymph glands. The fresh flowers are infused and diluted as an eyewash.
Country people and agricultural workers used a poultice made from the masticated leaves to dress wounds and staunch bleeding. Melilot, when dried, has the smell of new-mown hay and is an alternative fodder for store-fed sheep and cattle.
The Swiss use the leaves and seeds to flavour Gruyere cheese and the Poles employ them in the production of vodka. The ground leaves, stems and flowers are included in herbal cigarettes prescribed for bronchial asthma and the whole flower is made into styptic plasters. The oleoresin is used in expensive perfumes and cosmetics.
This plant grows very well in Cyprus and can be seen in early May on rising ground in the Macharas region. Like all member of the Leguminosae, it fixes nitrogen and therefore enriches the soil. The pollen yields a high quality honey and is most attractive to bees and other pollinating insects.
There is a caveat however, some countries, including the United States, outlawed melilot as a food flavouring on the basis of toxicity – it is the coumarins that are responsible and they may also be phototoxic.
Next week Lily of the valley
