Edible and healing flowers
In Roman times rose petals were used to flavor cooked brains, sweet marjoram flowers were baked in hash, and safflower petals were used for a boiled sauce.
Roses and violets were added to wine to enhance flavor. Later, in the Middle Ages, rose petals were used to flavor cakes, creams, and confectionery. Both orange blossom and rose petal water are flavorings made from flowers. Since the third and fourth centuries C.E., rose water has been made by steeping petals and then distilling the water.
Middle Eastern and Indian sweets such as shola, baklava, firni, and halvah are flavored with rose water. It is also used to flavor Middle Eastern beverages such as lassi and sherbet. Flower use varies from culture to culture and age to age.
While in America today roses are used more as a decoration than a flavoring, dried rosebuds are used as a condiment in Asian cookery. But in addition to their symbolic, cooking and spiritual uses, flowers are consumed for their healing properties.
Flowers from the great scarlet poppy contain alkaloids such as thebaine, which is a source of codeine. The unripe pods of opium poppies are used to make many alkaloids including morphine, thebaine, narcotine, and codeine.
The list of flowers used as medicine is extensive, and it includes arnica used as an anti-inflammatory analgesic and hawthorn used as an antispasmodic, cardiac, and vasodilator. The marsh mallow is a diuretic, antitussive, and demulcent.
Passionflowers are a sedative. Rosemary is used as a tonic, diaphoretic, antiseptic, and astringent. And finally, due to their astringent qualities, some flowers, including nasturtiums, roses, and yarrow, are used as bath oils.
But in addition to their symbolic and spiritual uses, flowers are consumed for their healing properties. Flowers from the great scarlet poppy contain alkaloids such as the baine, which is a source of codeine. The unripe pods of opium poppies are used to make many alkaloids including morphine, thebaine, narcotine, and codeine.
The list of flowers used as medicine is extensive, and it includes arnica used as an anti-inflammatory analgesic and hawthorn used as an antispasmodic, cardiac, and vasodilator. The marsh mallow is a diuretic, antitussive, and demulcent. Passion flowers are a sedative. Rosemary is used as a tonic, diaphoretic, antiseptic, and astringent. And finally, due to their astringent qualities, some flowers, including nasturtiums, roses, and yarrow, are used as bath oils.
