Bergamot

A couple of years ago I wanted a "Bee Balm" plant in my yard so one my friends gave me some of what she had in her yard. They were beautiful with their red tassels on the top of the plants. I put them in my back yard to add color. But while riding my bike on the bike trail, I noticed these same plants growing wild along the sides of the trail only they had purple tassels on the top. So I did some investigating and found that wild Bee Balm or Bergamot is purple.

As I usually do, I "liberated" a few of these plants and put them in my yard. My usual habit is to wait until the plants go to seed and then take the seeds for my yard but these plants are so "nondescript" that I thought I might not recognize them without their purple tops. I was right. They are hard for me to sort out among all the weeds growing along the trail.

Then I set out to learn about them.

The first thing that I learned was that this whole plant is edible. I also have a book written by a Native American, Tis Mal Crow called NATIVE PLANTS, NATIVE HEALING Traditional Muskogee Way. In this book Tis has a whole chapter devoted to this one plant, Wild Bergamot. If one is to believe this, the Muskogee tribe used this plant for everything, from Lung infections, Tuberculosis, Skin rashes, Stings and Bites, Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia, Burns, Fevers, Frostbite, Scar tissue, Digestion, Blood Infections, Ear Infections, Sore Muscles, Appendicitis, and even Love potions. He mentioned that it is called Sweet Leaf and related to the mint family. When they make a tea out of this plant it is called OSWEGO TEA.

I went into Dr. Dukes Database to learn more. I could understand why the Native Americans could use this plant for everything. He has a list of about 60 different constituents in this plant and they were loaded with abilities to handle things like; bacteria, inflammation, Candida, vermin, virus and some even mentioned that they were antioxidant and anticancer along with being sedative.

We just don't give enough attention to things that our bodies could use that aren't found in the food or drug departments anywhere.