MARIGOLD CALENDULA FLOWER

Description

Profile: Calendula officinalis is a daisy-like annual plant. Calendula flower is a naturalized decorative plant used by herbalists for its benefits. Calendula flowers are used in lotions, creams, and balms. They make a wonderful calendula tea infusion and herbal tea blends.

Details:

Calendula has been used topically, ceremonially, as a dye and food plant for millennia. It's called marigold or pot marigold. Calendula is an annual herb with daisy-like blooms and pale green leaves. Native to Southern Europe, Egypt, the Mediterranean, and the Canary Islands to Iran, calendula is now naturalized worldwide and grown in gardens.

Mediterranean, Balkan, Eastern European, German, Indian, Polish, and Hungarian countries grow calendula. Canada, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand grow less. Summer is the finest time to collect flowers, when resins are high and dew has disappeared. Low-temperature drying preserves flower color.

In medieval Europe, calendula was commonly available and was known as "poor man's saffron" It was also used to colour hair and butter. St. Hildegard of Bingen, a herbalist and nun practicing herbalism in 11th-century Germany, is credited with first cultivating calendula. A Niewe Herball, from 1578, by English botanist Henry Lyte states that calendula '...has pleasant, bright and shining yellow flowers, which close at the setting down of the sun, and do spread and open again at the sun rising,' referring to the flower's propensity to open in the day and close at night or on overcast days.

Nicholas Culpepper, a 17th-century botanist, herbalist, and astrologist, recommended using calendula juice mixed with vinegar as a skin and scalp treatment and as a heart tea. Astrologically related with the sun and fire, calendula was thought to provide protection, divination, and legal assistance. Flowers strung above doorposts were thought to ward off evil and safeguard sleepers if placed under the bed. Flowers picked at midday are considered to strengthen and comfort the heart.

According to Ayurvedic healing principles, calendula is cooling and has a bitter, pungent flavor. Calendula (jin zhan ju) is used to encourage healthy skin in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Native North Americans have used it to treat upset stomachs. Traditional uses are similar to modern ones.

NOTICE: DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT IF PREGNANT OR NURSING.

**These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any diseases.