Purslane

Last week I visited the Sears gardening center. Their idea of gardening is similar to present day medical treatments. Kill and remove whatever is a bother and add chemicals to assist the rest to stay healthy.

I looked at the Ortho list of pest-plants and noted that over half were my very best friends. So I picked one on the list to tell you about.

PURSLANE is a weed that most people pull out of their gardens and throw away. She is small and likes to live in tilled soil. You find her around your roses or under your tomato plants. She lays close to the ground and sends her "branches" horizontal to the ground in all directions from a central root. The tiny yellow flowers sit in a rosette of leaves.

The parts that make her stand out from all the other weeds are her leaves. They are a lot like the leaves of a Jade plant or a small oval aloe leaf. It is just this difference from the other weeds that endears her to an herbalist, for held within these leaves is Omega-3 fatty acid.

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for every cell in the body. They have even been thought to inhibit breast and other forms of cancers.

One of my friends had a loss of skin pigment and wanted to know if there was an herbal combination that might be helpful. I consulted The School of Natural Healing and was reminded of Purslane with is fatty acids. It was suggested to use some of the herbs that are stimulants to get the nutrition to the cells that most needed these fatty acids. So I suggested herbs like Cayenne, Ginger, and Peppermint to get things moving.

The juice of Purslane has been used like Aloe for burns, and in combination with rose oil it has been used in the mouth for sores and loose teeth.

Purslane is also used for cardiac weakness. In some places it is even prescribed for this purpose.

The seeds are sometimes used for difficult breathing. I have found seeds to be very power foods.

Because it is so rich in vitamins and minerals, Mrs. Grieves (A noted herbalist) mentioned "that 2 to 3 ounces of Purslane a day was sufficient for a man even while undergoing great fatigue." I find this amazing and yet I have seen plants do such great things in a short period of time that my surprise is lost.

As a fresh cut herb in a salad, it adds a cooling effect to any meal. The older shoots can be put into stews and soups; they can even be pickled with salt and vinegar to have in the winter time. In Europe this plant is cultivated for this purpose. When used with Sorrel in equal parts, the French make a wonderful soup called "bonne femme"

Just think of all this nutrition that we have been throwing out or into our compost piles all these years. Herbs have so much to offer us in the way of healing and as we have just learned, they are foods. Why would we "Ortho" them?