Herbs for All Seasons And Reasons

As Puritan Leader John Winthrop's ship neared the Massachusetts coast, "there came a smell offshore like the smell of a garden." The garden-like fragrance of herbs still hangs on the New England air, and with it the sweet smell of commercial success. Indeed, Americans' fascination with herbs--plants valued for specific medicinal, culinary or aromatic uses--has grown so fast in recent years that the demand for herb plants and seeds has wafted to every corner of the country. Dried and fresh herbs, used for millenniums in teas, elixirs, salves and perfumes to spice food and please the nostril, are enjoying a luxuriant comeback in city stores and country herb farms. Then too there are tens of thousands of private herb gardens.

The herb craze is directly linked to Americans' greatly heightened interest in cooking. No self-respecting cook would be without at least the culinary big four--thyme, basil, parsley and oregano--to which most gourmets would add rosemary, savory, sage, saffron, sassafras, tarragon, mint, chives, dill, lemon verbena, marjoram, fennel, sorrel, chervil, coriander, cumin, caraway and celery seed. From ajowan to zedoary, there are hundreds of other herbs available, in 17th century Herbalist John Parkinson's phrase, "for use and delight." To the delight of the vast army of health-food enthusiasts who use herbs, most of them are grown organically without chemical fertilizers or sprays.

Some 1,300 varieties of dried and powdered herbs are handled by the Indiana Botanic Gardens, a company that has a mailing list of 300,000. Increasingly, commercial herb farms are becoming tourist attractions. At Caprilands, in North Coventry, Conn., visitors are shown through 14 different herb gardens, including one containing all the herbs mentioned in Shakespeare's works. The tour ends with an herbal lunch in the 18th century farmhouse of Caprilands' Adelma Simmons, who has written five books on herbs. Many of the new herb fanciers are rediscovering ancient health cures. Genine Kepnis, manager of the Organic Food Cellar in Cambridge, Mass., says that one salubrious seller is goldenseal, Hydrastis canadensis, which is used as a cure-all for complaints ranging from sore throats to poison ivy. "It even makes a good mouthwash," says Kepnis. "Herbs have become so popular," she notes, "that they are replacing both drugs and supermarket brand-name spices."

Medicinal Value. Edith Foster Farwell of Lake Forest, Ill., who has written three books on herbs, believes that many young people are turning to herbal medicines because they distrust most pharmaceutical products. "I get a lot of letters from people who want me to cure this or that," she says. One of her most frequent requests is for a potion to cure warts; she recommends juice from the celandine plant, which was used for that purpose in colonial times.

Some herbs have undisputed medicinal value. As Dorothy Hall points out in The Book of Herbs (Scribners; $7.95), to be published next month, "some of our old grandmothers' recipes are proving to be not so old-hat after all." For example, horehound, an age-old relief for coughs and sore throats, still sells briskly. Sage and mint teas, to name only two, are widely used to treat colds; and aspirin is made from salicylic acid, the essential chemical in willow bark, known as a palliative since the dawn of time. Safflower has long been grown for what is now known as "polyunsaturated" oil. Foxglove yields digitalis. Ephedrine, the base of many nasal sprays, is extracted from a desert shrub. Indians in New Mexico still use their traditional backache cure: a plaster of pitch and verbena.

Indeed, the well-stocked herb garden can supply potions and lotions for almost any need or occasion. Basil, still used in snuff, "maketh a man merry and glad," vowed 16th century Herbalist John Gerard. A potion to keep one awake? How about lemon balm, the "scholar's herb," which medieval students drank as tea to keep them alert during exams? A pot of basil in a kitchen window is said to discourage flies; fennel, which has a mild licorice taste, also keeps fleas away from dogs ("Plant fennel near to kennel"). Many herbs make subtle dyes for cotton, silk or wool used in hand-weaving and embroidery.

Though rarely advertised as such at organic food stores, several herbs have been employed for centuries as aphrodisiacs. Ogden Nash ("Parsley/Is garsley") to the contrary, the indispensable parsleyan garnish, Petroselinum crispum, has been prized as a guarantor of virility since at least the 1st century. (Its seeds also enjoy fame as a baldness cure.) Without herbs, the world would not have that honored amorific, the martini. Coriander seed is not only used as a spicy seasoning but is also reputed to be an erotic stimulant and is used to flavor gin. And Artemisia, or wormwood, is an essential ingredient of vermouth. Martinis may not have been served at King Arthur's court, but wormwood undoubtedly found its way into the royal flagons. In the permissive Middle Ages, Artemisia was known ambivalently as Lad's Love and Maiden's Ruin.

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