Blossoms and herbs which grown along the roadside and in the meadows are not only lovely to look at – many of them also have a particularly positive influence on health and can help in the case of many a minor ailment. Peppermint helps against nausea, plantain against sore insect stings. Here we have put together our Top 5 for you:
Chamomile is a very common healing herb which has an anti-inflammatory and anticonvulsant effect, protects mucous membrane and inhibits the growth of various fungi and bacteria. Externally chamomile is used as a dressing or poultice for skin or mucous membrane inflammations and taken internally this sturdy plant with its button-shaped blossoms is used against spasmodic ailments of the digestive tract. To make a tasty chamomile tea, put a teaspoonful of the flower heads (also available in dried form from the pharmacy) in a cup and pour boiling water over them. After about five minutes you can sieve the tea and sweeten with honey according to taste.
Also very helpful for gastro-intestinal disorders is caraway, which not only improves tolerance for example when cooking cabbage or onions, but can also be used as a tincture or tea in the case of stomach cramps. The fruits of the caraway plant should be crushed or ground before use such that the essential oil can be taken up into the water.
If you have a cold or are feeling sick, the fresh tasting peppermint has proved its worth. It has a cooling and pain-relieving effect, and helps to relieve cramps of the stomach, bowels or bile ducts and is also antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and mucous-dissolving. As a tea or an ingredient in cough pastilles, nasal ointments or as bath salts it is a valuable helper if you are suffering a cold. When applied as oil to temples or back of the neck it can help to relieve headaches.
Unbeatable in the case of sore throat or inflammation in the mouth and throat region is sage, which has been known for centuries as the “Queen of Medicinal Herbs”. Brewed as a tea and sweetened with honey, sage is a real miracle healer of coughs and sore throats.
For unpleasantly itchy insect stings the crumbled leaves of plantain bring relief. The juice of a freshly cut onion can also take away the itchiness: rub the onion for a few minutes on the sting to allow the anti-inflammatory juice to take effect. In some cases this also helps to prevent the sting swelling up and becoming more painful.