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Licorice.

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What Hildegard has to say about licorice.

Remember my Hildegard calendar? February is licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra). Crudely translated, the text goes:

"Licorice is of moderate warmth and gives a clear voice, nevermind how you eat it, and makes the mood mild and clears the eyes and softens the stomach for digestion. But it is also good for the disturbed of mind if they eat it often, as it takes away the excitement in their brain."

Hmm. I use licorice root in teas to soothe the gut, strengthen the adrenals, strengthen the kidneys, soothe and strengthen the lungs, and because it tastes so good.
I use licorice root tincture to give a better taste to otherwise ghastly tincture blends.

Licorice is a few hundred times sweeter than sugar - with an aftertaste, without any liver fooling, without any real sugars.

(I used to wonder for years how they found out just how many times sweeter than sugar any given thing is. It's simple, really: they make a standardized tea and dilute it until it doesn't taste sweet anymore.)

It's a great herb, and most people love any tea blend which includes licorice.

My current tea blend is geared towards the current respiratory virus: it contains licorice, hibiscus flowers (jamaica), yarrow, boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), thyme, and echinacea root. It's entirely possible that I threw in a few other herbs while blending it, but if so, I forget which they were.

Comments

Have you seen Priscilla Throop's English translation of Hildegard's Physica? If so, what do you think of it as a translation?

Sorry, haven't seen that one.