Sage

SAGE - Salvia Officinalis - Mint FamilyCommon names: garden sage, common sage, true sage HISTORY OF USESage is a pungent and distinctly flavored herb from the mint family with a long history of culinary and medicinal use. Throughout history, sage has been used to treat so many maladies that it gained a reputation as a panacea, prompting the late herb expert Varro E. Tyler, Ph.D., to write, “If one consults enough herbals… every sickness known to humanity will be listed as being cured by sage.”The ancient Greeks and Romans first used sage as a meat preservative. They also believed that like another powerful preservative, rosemary, it could enhance memory. Sage gained a much broader medicinal reputation that rosemary did, however. The Roman naturalist Pliny prescribed it for snakebite, epilepsy, intestinal worms, chest ailments, and menstruation promotion.Sixteenth-century British herbalist John Gerard called sage “singularly good for the head and brain. It quickeneth the senses and memo