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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

What a Hero Looks Like


What a Hero Looks Like

Bud Day was perhaps the bravest of the brave at the Hanoi Hilton.

After serving as a U.S. Marine in World War II, a normal man might have concluded that he had done more than his share of military service. And anyone still alive after his parachute failed to open upon ejection from an Air Force jet in the 1950s would consider calling it a military career. But Col. George E. "Bud" Day, who died Saturday at age 88, kept putting himself in harm's way.

And that is why, at age 41, he was flying low over North Vietnam in August 1967. He led a command of forward air controllers—all volunteers because their mission of spotting enemy targets was so dangerous that nearly a quarter of their 155 pilots were shot down. Day's F-100 was one of them, and he was captured and tortured.

Despite severe injuries he escaped barefoot and fled through the jungle toward South Vietnam. Two days later an explosion tossed his body into the air, rupturing his eardrum and sinuses and tearing his leg with shrapnel. Yet he resumed his journey south, living off frogs and berries as he dodged Communist patrols. Roughly two weeks after his escape, he was in sight of an American base when a North Vietnamese soldier pointed a rifle at him. Day tried to escape again but was shot in the hand and thigh and captured.

Refused medical treatment and suffering infections, Day must have seemed ill-equipped to resist his captors. And yet through years of captivity he provided them only false information to avoid giving anything that might help shoot down more Americans.

His determination was an inspiration to fellow Americans at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison. In February 1971, Day and several others were discovered holding a forbidden religious service. According to the Air Force, "As the guards burst into the meeting room with rifles pointed at the prisoners, one of the Americans stood to his feet. Ragged, battered but unbroken, it was George Day. Looking into the muzzles of the enemy rifles he began to sing."

The song was the Star-Spangled Banner, and one by one other prisoners joined in the song. James B. Stockdale, who sang along that day and like Day would win a Medal of Honor, would recall, "Our minds were now free and we knew it."

A version of this article appeared July 29, 2013, on page A14 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: What a Hero Looks Like.

 

Fingers, Flies, & That Old Pinkeye




 

Microbial Misadventures is a recurring series on Body Horrors looking at instances and incidents where human meets microbe in novel and unusual circumstances that challenge our assumptions about how infections are spread. 

Conjunctivitis is spread through particularly artful and gross means – the contamination of objects with eye gunk, smeared inadvertently hither and thither as a person wrestles with the itchy, gritty misery that defines what is commonly known as pinkeye. Many of us know that infectious diseases inevitably come from someone, some one, but we don’t often know from whom. Conjunctivitis is easy enough for the amateur Sherlock or epidemiologist-in-training – find the disconsolate soul with red, dripping eyes and follow the (sticky) trail.

At least this is the assumption. But in the early 1980s this was upended by an insect almost as maddening as conjunctivitis: gnats. Yes, that’s right: those teeny flying obstructions that seem to dive-bomb open eyes and gaping mouths with remarkable accuracy do more than just vex innocent bystanders, they can also spread one of the more mortifying infectious diseases.

In 1981, parents living in southeast Georgia discovered an uncomfortable truth about “mechanical vectors” and disease transmission when an outbreak of bacterial conjunctivitis caused by Haemophilus aegyptius emerged in school-age children. In just over a month, from September 5 to October 16th, over 2000 cases of conjunctivitis were identified in 20 counties (1). These eye gnats were the “mechanical vehicle” for H. aegyptius,” the bacteria getting a free ride from eye to eye to infect children, akin to a bee visiting the local flora and inadvertently pollinating during its search for nectar. Local residents noted to investigators of the outbreak that the gnats had been “unusually prevalent” that summer of 1981 (2).

In this case, it was not the sticky digits of children fingered as the infecting culprit but the eye gnat, Hippelates pusio. These non-biting, flying buggies measure at just around 1 mm long and appear during a trying season for many of us: the sweltering, muggy months of summer. Despite their small size, the gnats are capable of flying significant distances and can travel more than one mile in 3 1/2 hours (2)(3). They’re a common pest in the lower half of the United States, from the southeastern states through Texas and to California (4).

Tragically for us humans, the gnats tend to seek nourishment from eye secretions, mucous membranes and open lesions (2); they derive their name from their infuriating habit of swarming and hovering at eye level as they await for an opportunity to land and feed. A 2001 paper on the role of gnats and other non-biting flies in the spread of human disease fittingly dubbed them “annoying pestiferous scavengers (5).”

Gnats are an uncommon vector of disease, and are more often an agent of vexation than anything else but this sort of outbreak is not a freak epidemiological occurrence. Known incidences of outbreaks are sometimes referred to as “gnat sore eyes” – and most often occur in the southern United States during our oppressive summer months (2). Due to their feeding and reproductive habits, gnats have also been implicated in the spread of other purulent eye infections as well as gastroenteritis (5). They are regularly implicated in the spread of pinkeye among livestock (1).

This outbreak demonstrates a fascinating, and most annoying, form of conjunctivitis transmission: insect-mediated. Conjunctivitis, stemming from bacterial or viral organisms, are often spread by fingers and fomites, not flies. This outbreak is remarkable for the role of gnats and its exceptionally large size – conjunctivitis outbreaks typically include under a hundred or so cases. Though gnats have been implicated in the spread of conjunctivitis and other diseases in other animals, particularly livestock, it is not often a vector of human disease (6). But in the early ‘80s in the steamy south, these kamikaze flies proved that they were more than just a visual vexation, but also a biological menace.

The ‘Microbial Misadventures’ Series



Resources

The infection that eye gnats can spread can go beyond the annoying to the fatal: Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius, a phylogenetically related species of H. aegyptius, may result in Brazilian purpuric fever, a deadly infection that afflicts young children resulting in sepsis and meningitis. You can read more about the epidemiology and clinical symptomatology at this 1989 article here. The Wiki article is here.


References

1. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (1982) Acute bacterial conjunctivitis–southeastern Georgia, 1981. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep31(29):402-4.

2. JW Buehler et al. (1983) Gnat sore eyes: seasonal, acute conjunctivitis in a southern state. South Med J. 76(5): 587-9

3. ML Tondella et al. (1994) Isolation of Haemophilus aegyptius associated with Brazilian purpuric fever, of Chloropidae (Diptera) of the genera Hippelates and Liohippelates. Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo. 36(2): 105-9

4. EL Snoddy EL et al. (1974) Studies on the bacterial flora of Hippelates pusio (Diptera: Chloropidae). J Med Entomol. 11(2): 226

5. TK Graczyk et al. (2001) The role of non-biting flies in the epidemiology of human infectious diseases. Microbes Infect3(3): 231-5

6. Department of Agriculture, County of San Diego (August 2004) Pest Notes. Weights and Measures.

 

The entire post can be found at:  http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/bodyhorrors/2013/07/27/mm-flies-pinkeye/

 

United States Coast Guard


United States Coast Guard

       A long wiki article on the subject can be found at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Coast_Guard

Complex Tradeoffs Between Specialized And Modular Combat Ships


Complex Tradeoffs Between Specialized And Modular Combat Ships

 

By Christina Mackenzie, Paris and Nicholas Fiorenza, Brussels

Source: Aviation Week & Space Technology

There are some analysts who believe the day of the ocean-going warship has passed and that smaller vessels, designed to counter littoral threats such as terrorism, smuggling and piracy, are the future of surface combatants.

“Wrong,” says Stephane Fremont, deputy director of surface ships and naval systems at DCNS, France's naval systems giant. “It's not only major countries that need to have the naval means to protect their trade interests,” he explains, but smaller ones whose location at strategic points around the world make the ability to deploy oceangoing vessels a must.

“Countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are surrounded by straits through which sail more than half the world's trade,” he says. “They are fully aware that a few mines or a threatening submarine in these waters could cause chaos to global trade and local economies. They need oceangoing vessels to maintain open seas.”

The South China Sea, for example, is near the coastal waters of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines. Each of these countries has an interest in being able to counter threats that emerge in this area, which means their fleets must be capable of operating in this environment. “The South China Sea,” Fremont says, “is deep and has violent storms. A littoral patrol vessel is not designed for this sea and its weather conditions, much less for antisubmarine and countermine missions.”

Vice Adm. (ret.) Olivier Saint Martin of the French navy agrees. “A surface warship is a major, unavoidable item for an oceangoing navy because it is robust and rapidly reconfigurable according to the mission: surveillance, force projection or action, and to the weapons used by an adversary.”

Saint Martin says that the design of surface ships must include accommodation, launch and recovery support for modern weapons, such as helicopters and unmanned vehicles.

Adm. (ret.) Jose Manuel Sanjurjo Jul of the Spanish navy, a military adviser to Spain's naval systems group Navantia, believes frigates should carry at least four unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which he finds preferable to helicopters since they require fewer personnel to operate. This point is also made by Saint Martin, explaining that in the French navy, personnel must multitask; it is often the supply officer who doubles as flight officer for UAVs.

Fremont calls the shipboard use of unmanned vehicles a revolution, since they can deploy from multimission ships to find and destroy mines.

Angelo Fusco, executive senior vice president for Italy of Fincantieri, also believes the future of surface ships will “include on-board UAVs.” One reason is downsizing of crews. He says navies are going to downgrade the type and number of ships in their fleets since “there is no tension between countries with big navies.” As a result, force projection will involve ships that are smaller than conventional surface warships and simpler to run, versatile in mission capabilities and seaworthy enough to operate in remote waters.

The Royal Netherlands Navy's new Holland-class oceangoing offshore patrol vessel (OPV) meets these needs. Designed to be a small, flexible patrol ship for missions such as counter-piracy, narcotics interdiction and coast guard missions, the OPV has a crew of just 50.

Similar to this OPV, the German navy's K130 Braunschweig-class corvette, built by Lurssen, is suited for littoral operations with its reduced radar and infrared (IR) signatures and specially adapted weapons, sensors and communication systems, but is also capable of long-range missions. The navy says the K130 represents a major leap in technology, notably in its high level of computer-supported automation. The corvettes can operate for 21 days out of port. Their computers and sensors simplify navigation, data and target acquisition, and allow the ships to be operated with a reduced crew.

Closer to home, the Belgian navy's three aging ready-duty ships (RDS) are being replaced by two new vessels for coast guard duties such as pollution control, guarding fish stocks, countering smuggling, monitoring maritime traffic, search and rescue, and disaster response. Built by French shipyard Socarenam, the new RDS will each have a fixed crew of 12, which can be augmented by 18 personnel from other public services such as the police or customs.

Belgian and Dutch multipurpose M-class frigates, launched in the 1990s for blue-water air defense and antisubmarine warfare, are now used mainly in littorals to monitor borders, pollution, drug trafficking and piracy. But they are being upgraded with combat management systems and new masts and sensors that will broaden their area of operations.

Thales Netherlands' Seastar and Gatekeeper sensors will provide the frigates with the capability to detect small targets as well as border violations, pollution, drug trafficking and piracy. Seastar—comprising four fixed active, electronically scanned array antennas—automatically detects and tracks small objects such as swimmers and periscopes in all weather, and guides helicopters. Gatekeeper is a 360-deg. electro-optical surveillance and alert system that uses IR and TV imagery to detect threats such as small boats and swimmers. The sensors will be matched with the M-frigates' Smart-S surveillance radar and the Thales STIR medium-to-long-range tracking and illumination weapon-control radar.

Under NATO's Smart Defense initiative, the Netherlands is proposing that the early-warning upgrade of Smart-L D-band volume-search radars on LCF air-defense and command frigates for ballistic missile defense (BMD) be extended to include Germany and Denmark. In June 2012, the Dutch government awarded Thales Netherlands a full-scale development and production contract for a BMD upgrade of the Smart-L radars on all four of its LCF frigates, whose current missions include counter-piracy patrols off Somalia.

Smart-L radar is also in service with Germany's three F124 Sachsen-class air-defense frigates, and is a major component of the anti-air-warfare suite of the Royal Danish Navy's three new Iver Huitfeld-class frigates. Thales Netherlands also sees opportunities for the derivative S1850M radar, which uses the same technology as Smart-L and is installed on the two French and two Italian Horizon air-defense frigates and the six Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers, under the designation Radar Type 1046.

Saint Martin concedes that the French navy can no longer afford to procure specialized ships such as the Horizon class, or frigates that are, as they were in the past, built for specific missions—for example, anti-air defense, antisubmarine warfare or surface combat. Instead, the multimission Fremm-class frigates have replaced these types of ships. Fremont believes “there will be a need for [Fremm-type] frigates for decades to come.”

Fusco remarks that one of the “constant themes under evaluation” is to have a simple, basic ship onto which can be installed additional components in the form of modules, and that in the future classification of ships by mission will be much less stringent. “At certain times a ship could have the role of a corvette and at other times that of a frigate,” he says.

But Fremont cautions that the idea of having a single platform that can be modified with modules “just doesn't work because once one adds together all the constraints of the different missions, it becomes impossible to [meet these needs] with just one ship.” A countermine ship, for example, has specific characteristics, principally that it must be antimagnetic so as not to inadvertently detonate mines. The hulls can either be antimagnetic steel, as is preferred by Germany, or composites, as used by France. The ships also have to be degaussed. Countermine ships are not silent, whereas were they to assume an antisubmarine role, they would have to be extremely quiet.

He and Fusco point out that another issue with modularity is it takes one to two months in port to change modules because plug-and-play capabilities are not well developed in the naval sector.

Moreover, one of the world's most modern and modular ships, the French navy's 21,500-ton BPC, relies on frigates for defense. The BPC, which is 199 meters (653 ft.) long, 32 meters wide and displaces 21,500 tons, has many roles: as a helicopter carrier for 16 NH90/Tiger-type aircraft; wet dock for four landing craft or two LCACs (landing craft air-cushioned); serving as a NATO-level 3,750-sq.-meter (40,350-sq.-ft.), 19-bed hospital, with two operating theaters and a radiology center; accommodation for 450 passengers or 1,008 troops; and as an 850-sq.-meter convertible space for an embarked command-and-control center. Nevertheless, it must be escorted by a frigate, which provides the anti-air-defense, antisubmarine-warfare and countermine protection that these high-value vessels don't have.

So, while the one-ship-for-all-missions idea via modules is difficult to achieve, at least for now, assets such as unmanned vehicles are attractive, mission-enabling alternatives. They allow a ship to sail within a safe distance of a crisis zone and deploy whatever robotic vehicle meets mission requirements. For a suspected minefield, a sacrificial autonomous underwater vehicle could be used to locate and destroy mines. For combat, a UAV could overfly enemy territory, transmitting imagery that allows the ship to accurately launch missiles at targets while avoiding civilian infrastructure.

There are consequently many ways to fulfill diverse mission requirements, but first a ship has to be able to sail where it will be most effective, and this usually means well beyond the littorals. Thus surface warships will continue to have oceangoing capabilities, while meeting budget and personnel constraints with technology and design ingenuity.

For now, that will have to do.

 

Tuberculosis


Tuberculosis

       A long wiki article on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis

United States presidential inauguration


United States presidential inauguration

       A long wiki article on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_inauguration

Juniper berry


Juniper berry

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A juniper berry is the female seed cone produced by the various species of junipers. It is not a true berry but a cone with unusually fleshy and merged scales, which give it a berry-like appearance. The cones from a handful of species, especially Juniperus communis, are used as a spice, particularly in European cuisine, and also give gin its distinctive flavour. According to one FAO document, juniper berries are the only spice derived from conifers,[1] although tar and inner bark (used as a sweetener in Apache cuisines) from pine trees is sometimes considered a spice as well.

Species

All juniper species grow berries, but some are considered too bitter to eat. In addition to J. communis, other edible species include Juniperus drupacea,[2][3] Juniperus phoenicea,[4] Juniperus deppeana, and Juniperus californica.[5] Some species, for example Juniperus sabina, are toxic and consumption is inadvisable.[6]

Characteristics

Juniperus communis berries vary from four to twelve millimeters in diameter; other species are mostly similar in size, though some are larger, notably J. drupacea (20–28 mm). Unlike the separated and woody scales of a typical pine cone, those in a juniper berry remain fleshy and merge into a unified covering surrounding the seeds. The berries are green when young, and mature to a purple-black colour over about 18 months in most species, including J. communis (shorter, 8–10 months in a few species, and about 24 months in J. drupacea).[2] The mature, dark berries are usually but not exclusively used in cuisine, while gin is flavoured with fully grown but immature green berries.[1]

Uses

The flavour profile of young, green berries is dominated by pinene; as they mature this piney, resinous backdrop is joined by what Harold McGee describes as "green-fresh" and citrus notes.[7] The outer scales of the berries are relatively flavourless, so the berries are almost always at least lightly crushed before being used as a spice. They are used both fresh and dried, but their flavour and odour are at their strongest immediately after harvest and decline during drying and storage.

Juniper berries are used in northern European and particularly Scandinavian cuisine to "impart a sharp, clear flavour"[1] to meat dishes, especially wild birds (including thrush, blackbird, and woodcock) and game meats (including boar and venison).[8] They also season pork, cabbage, and sauerkraut dishes. Traditional recipes for choucroute garnie, an Alsatian dish of sauerkraut and meats, universally include juniper berries.[9] Besides Norwegian and Swedish dishes, juniper berries are also sometimes used in German, Austrian, Czech, Polish and Hungarian cuisine, often with roasts (such as German sauerbraten). Northern Italian cuisine, especially that of the South Tyrol, also incorporates juniper berries.

Juniper, typically Juniperus communis, is used to flavor gin, a liquor developed in the 17th century in the Netherlands. The name gin itself is derived from either the French genièvre or the Dutch jenever, which both mean "juniper".[1] Other juniper-flavoured beverages include the Finnish rye-and-juniper beer known as sahti, which is flavoured with both juniper berries and branches.[10] The brand Dry Soda produces a juniper-berry soda as part of its lineup. Recently, some American distilleries have begun using 'New World' varieties of juniper such as Juniperus occidentalis.[11]

Juniper berry was first intended as a medication since juniper berries are a diuretic and were also thought to be an appetite stimulant and a remedy for rheumatism and arthritis. Western American Native Tribes are also reported to have used the juniper berry as an appetite suppressant in times of hunger and/or famine. Currently, the juniper berry is being researched as a possible treatment for diet-controlled diabetes, as it releases insulin from the pancreas (hence alleviating hunger). It is also said to have been used by some tribes as a female contraceptive.

A few North American juniper species produce a seed cone with a sweeter, less resinous flavour than those typically used as a spice. For example, one field guide describes the flesh of the berries of Juniperus californica as "dry, mealy, and fibrous but sweet and without resin cells".[12] Such species have been used not just as a seasoning but as a nutritive food by some Native Americans.[13] In addition to medical and culinary purposes, Native Americans have also used the seeds inside juniper berries as beads for jewellery and decoration.[13]

An essential oil extracted from juniper berries is used in aromatherapy and perfumery.[4] The essential oil can be distilled out of berries which have already been used to flavour gin.[1]

History

Juniper berries, including Juniperus phoenicea and Juniperus oxycedrus. have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs at multiple sites. J. oxycedrus is not known to grow in Egypt, and neither is Juniperus excelsa, which was found along with J. oxycedrus in the tomb of Tutankhamun.[14] The berries imported into Egypt may have come from Greece; the Greeks record using juniper berries as a medicine long before mentioning their use in food.[15] The Greeks used the berries in many of their Olympics events because of their belief that the berries increased physical stamina in athletes.[16] The Romans used juniper berries as a cheap domestically produced substitute for the expensive black pepper and long pepper imported from India.[4] It was also used as an adulterant, as reported in Pliny the Elder's Natural History: "Pepper is adulterated with juniper berries, which have the property, to a marvellous degree, of assuming the pungency of pepper."[17] Pliny also incorrectly asserted that black pepper grew on trees that were "very similar in appearance to our junipers".

The wiki link on this subject (with images) can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniper_berry

Common sage


Salvia officinalis

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Salvia officinalis (sage, also called garden sage, or common sage) is a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the family Lamiaceae and is native to the Mediterranean region, though it has naturalized in many places throughout the world. It has a long history of medicinal and culinary use, and in modern times as an ornamental garden plant. The common name "sage" is also used for a number of related and unrelated species.

Names

Salvia officinalis has numerous common names. Some of the best known include sage, common sage, garden sage, golden sage, kitchen sage, true sage, culinary sage, Dalmatian sage, and broadleaf sage. Cultivated forms include purple sage and red sage. In Turkey, Salvia officinalis is widely known as adaçayı, meaning "island tea". In the Levant it is called maramia. The specific epithet officinalis refers to plants with a well-established medicinal or culinary value.[1]

Taxonomy

Salvia officinalis was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It has been grown for centuries in the Old World for its food and healing properties, and was often described in old herbals for the many miraculous properties attributed to it.[2] The specific epithet, officinalis, refers to the plant's medicinal use—the officina was the traditional storeroom of a monastery where herbs and medicines were stored.[1][3] S. officinalis has been classified under many other scientific names over the years, including six different names since 1940 alone.[4]

Description

Cultivars are quite variable in size, leaf and flower color, and foliage pattern, with many variegated leaf types. The Old World type grows to approximately 2 ft (0.61 m) tall and wide, with lavender flowers most common, though they can also be white, pink, or purple. The plant flowers in late spring or summer. The leaves are oblong, ranging in size up to 2.5 in (6.4 cm) long by 1 in (2.5 cm) wide. Leaves are grey-green, rugose on the upper side, and nearly white underneath due to the many short soft hairs. Modern cultivars include leaves with purple, rose, cream, and yellow in many variegated combinations.[2]

History

Salvia officinalis has been used since ancient times for warding off evil, snakebites, increasing women's fertility, and more. Theophrastus wrote about two different sages, a wild undershrub he called sphakos, and a similar cultivated plant he called elelisphakos. Pliny the Elder said the latter plant was called salvia by the Romans, and used as a diuretic, a local anesthetic for the skin, a styptic, and for other uses. Charlemagne recommended the plant for cultivation in the early Middle Ages, and during the Carolingian Empire, it was cultivated in monastery gardens.[5] Walafrid Strabo described it in his poem Hortulus as having a sweet scent and being useful for many human ailments—he went back to the Greek root for the name and called it lelifagus.[6]

The plant had a high reputation throughout the Middle Ages, with many sayings referring to its healing properties and value.[7] It was sometimes called S. salvatrix (sage the savior), and was one of the ingredients of Four Thieves Vinegar, a blend of herbs which was supposed to ward off the plague. Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen all recommended sage as a diuretic, hemostatic, emmenagogue, and tonic.[6]

Uses

Common sage is grown in parts of Europe for distillation of an essential oil, though other species, such as Salvia fruticosa may also be harvested and distilled with it.

In Britain sage has for generations been listed as one of the essential herbs, along with parsley, rosemary and thyme (as in the folk song "Scarborough Fair"). It has a savoury, slightly peppery flavor. It appears in many European cuisines, notably Italian, Balkan and Middle Eastern cookery. In British and American cooking, it is traditionally served as sage and onion stuffing, an accompaniment to roast turkey or chicken at Christmas or Thanksgiving Day. Other dishes include pork casserole, Sage Derby cheese and Lincolnshire sausages. Despite the common use of traditional and available herbs in French cuisine, sage never found favour there.

Salvia and "sage" are derived from the Latin salvere (to save), referring to the healing properties long attributed to the various Salvia species.[6] It has been recommended at one time or another for virtually every ailment by various herbals. Modern evidence shows possible uses as an antisweating agent, antibiotic, antifungal, astringent, antispasmodic, estrogenic, hypoglycemic, and tonic.[8] In a double blind, randomized and placebo-controlled trial, sage was found to be effective in the management of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.[9]

The strongest active constituents of sage are within its essential oil, which contains cineole, borneol, and thujone. Sage leaf contains tannic acid, oleic acid, ursonic acid, ursolic acid, cornsole, cornsolic acid, fumaric acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, niacin, nicotinamide, flavones, flavonoid glycosides, and estrogenic substances.[8]

Investigations have taken place into using sage as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease patients.[9][10][11][12] Sage leaf extract may be effective and safe in the treatment of hyperlipidemia.[13]

Cultivars

In favourable conditions in the garden, S. officinalis can grow to a substantial size (1 square metre or more), but a number of cultivars are more compact. As such they are valued as small ornamental flowering shrubs, rather than for their herbal properties. Some provide low ground cover, especially in sunny dry environments. Like many herbs they can be killed by a cold wet winter, especially if the soil is not well drained. But they are easily propagated from summer cuttings, and some cultivars are produced from seeds.

Named cultivars include:

  • 'Alba', a white-flowered cultivar
  • 'Aurea', golden sage
  • 'Berggarten', a cultivar with large leaves, which rarely blooms, extending the useful life of the leaves
  • 'Extrakta', has leaves with higher oil concentrations
  • 'Icterina', a cultivar with yellow-green variegated leaves
  • 'Lavandulaefolia', a small leaved cultivar
  • 'Purpurascens' ('Purpurea'), a purple-leafed cultivar
  • 'Tricolor', a cultivar with white, yellow and green variegated leaves

'Icterina'[14] and 'Purpurascens'[15] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

The entire wiki link on the subject can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia_officinalis