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
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