Action: expectorant, diuretic, hypotensive, digestive, tonic.
Uses: Indigestion, high blood pressure.
Preparations: Tea: Half-1 teaspoon to each cup boiling water; infuse 15 minutes; dose 1 cup, thrice daily. Fresh juice: Half-1 teaspoon, or as a lotion for eczema.
FAMILY: Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)
SYNONYMS: A. longirostris, garden chervil, salad chervil.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: A delicate annual herb up to 30 cms high, with a slender, much branched stem, bright green, finely-divided, fernlike leaves, umbels of flat white flowerheads and long smooth seeds or fruits. The whole plant has a pleasing aromatic scent when bruised.
DISTRIBUTION: Native to Europe and western Asia; naturalized in America, Australia and New Zealand. Widely cultivated, especially in southern Europe and America.
OTHER SPECIES: A cultivated form of its wild relative, the wild chervil or garden-beaked parsley (A. sylvestris), with which it shares similar properties and uses. Not to be confused with another common garden herb sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata), also known as sweet or smooth chervil.
HERBAL/FOLK TRADITION: The name chervil comes from the Greek ‘to rejoice’, due to its delightful scent. The leaves are used as a domestic spice in salads, soups, omelettes, sauces and to flavour bread dough. In folk medicine it is used as a tea to ‘tone up the blood and nerves. Good for poor memory and mental depression. Sweetens the entire digestive system.’.
The juice from the fresh herb is used to treat skin ailments such as eczema, abscesses and slow-healing wounds; also used for dropsy, arthritis and gout, among others.
ACTIONS: Aperitif, antiseptic, carminative, cicatrisant, depurative, diaphoretic, digestive, diuretic, nervine, restorative, stimulant (metabolism), stomachic, tonic.
EXTRACTION: Essential oil by steam distillation from seeds or fruit.
CHARACTERISTICS: A pale yellow liquid with a sweet-herbaceous, anisic odour.
PRINCIPAL CONSTITUENTS: Mainly methyl chavicol, also 1-allyl-2, 4-dimethoxybenzene and anethole, among others.
SAFETY DATA: Methyl chavicol and anethole are known to have toxic and irritant effects; methyl chavicol is reported to have possible carcinogenic effects. Since these constitute the major proportion of the essential oil, it is best avoided for therapeutic use.
AROMATHERAPY/HOME: USE None.
OTHER USES: Extensively employed as a flavour ingredient by the food industry, especially in meat products, as well as in alcoholic and soft drinks.
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