Bay Leaves: Here’s Why You Should Always Have Them In Your Home
Often used as a bouquet garni to flavor our homemade dishes, this aromatic shrub has many other properties… Appetite enhancer and body booster, the laurel, formerly revered by the Greeks and Romans, will quickly become one of our best health allies!
What is the laurel?
The laurel, also called laurel noble by translation from the Latin Laurus nobilis, is a shrub that has few requirements except for the heat and the sun that it then knows how to transmit so well to culinary preparations. Logically, it is mainly in the ground around the Mediterranean basin. It is recognized by its dark green, dense and resistant leaves, often used in the construction of hedges in gardens. Less known, the bay leaf also gives round, black berries in spring which, when used dried, have the same taste properties as the leaves.
But if bay laurel is an essential aromatic plant in French gastronomy, it is also renowned for its medicinal properties and widely used in herbal medicine.
The medicinal properties of bay leaf
Laurel has always been used to treat disorders of the digestive system.
It opens the appetite, stimulates the secretion of gastric juices in the stomach, ensures good digestion and prevents fermentation.
It is also used for its antiseptic properties, which is why it is present in many marinades.
The laurel would also be a good expectorant in case of bronchitis and its powder would bring down the fever.
Laurel essential oil (which should never be used internally) is often used in the form of ointments to combat muscle aches or pains. Its action would also be beneficial on rheumatic pains. Leaf decoctions added to bath water are also said to soothe aching limbs.
In the form of a leaf poultice, the laurel sauce would reduce the pain associated with wasp or bee stings.
The laurel sauce would also have interesting properties on the urinary tract since it would tone the bladder and according to Dioscorides (1st century AD), it would eliminate kidney stones. Still according to Discoride, its bark would also relieve liver ailments.