AY Honors/Herbs/Answer Key

1. List 25 culinary herbs and their uses.

Basil

Basil is most commonly recommended to be used fresh, and in cooked recipes, is generally added at the last moment, as cooking destroys the flavor quickly. It is known as the King of Herbs.

Bay leaf

Bay leaf is often used to flavor soups, stews, braises and pâtés in Mediterranean Cuisine. The fresh leaves are very mild and do not develop their full flavor until several weeks after picking and drying.

Chives

Uses for chives involve shredding its leaves (straws) for use as condiment for fish, potatoes and soups.

Lemon grass

Lemon grass is commonly used in teas, soups, and curries. It is also suitable for poultry, fish, and seafood. It is often used as a tea in African countries.

Parsley

Two forms of parsley are used as herbs: curly leaf and Italian or flat leaf. Curly leaf parsley is often used as a garnish. Flat leaf parsley has a stronger flavor.

Peppermint

Peppermint has a high menthol content, and is often used as a flavoring in tea, ice cream, confectionery, chewing gum, and toothpaste.

Raspberry leaves

Leaves of the raspberry cane are used fresh or dried in herbal teas.

Rose hips

Rose hips are commonly used as a herbal tea, often blended with hibiscus and as an oil.

Rosemary

The fresh and dried leaves are used frequently in traditional Mediterranean cuisine as an herb; they have a bitter, astringent taste, which complements oily foods, such as lamb and oily fish. They are extensively used in cooking, and when burned gives off a distinct mustard smell, which can be used to flavor foods while barbequeueing.

Rue

Rue was used extensively in middle eastern cuisine in olden days, but because it is very bitter, it is usually not suitable for most modern tastes. However, it is still used certain parts of the world, particularly in northern Africa.

Sage

As an herb, sage is considered to have a slight peppery flavour. In Western cooking, it is used for flavoring fatty meats (especially as a marinade), cheeses, and some drinks. In Britain, sage is used with onion for stuffing and also in sauces. In French cuisine, sage is used for cooking white meat and in vegetable soups. Germans often use it in sausage dishes. Sage is also common in Italian cooking. In the Balkans and the Middle East, it is used when roasting mutton.

Saffron

Saffron is characterized by a bitter taste and a hay-like fragrance. It also contains a dye, crocin, that gives food a rich golden-yellow hue. These traits make saffron a much-sought ingredient in many foods worldwide.

2. List 25 medicinal herbs and their uses.

Chamomile

Chamomile is used medicinally against sore stomach, irritable bowel syndrome, and as a gentle sleep aid. It can be taken as an herbal tea, two teaspoons of dried flower per cup of tea. For a sore stomach, some recommend taking a cup every morning without food for two to three months. It is also used as a mouthwash.

Comfrey

This herb contains allantoin, a cell proliferant that speeds up the natural replacement of body cells. This means that it will promote the swift healing of damaged or injured tissues, as well as maintaining cell growth and preventing diseases.

Cowslip

Cowslip is used medicinally as a diuretic, an expectorant, and an antispasmodic, as well as for the treatment of headaches, whooping cough, tremors, and other conditions

Eucalyptus

An essential oil extracted from eucalypt leaves contains compounds that are powerful natural disinfectants and which can be toxic in large quantities.

Great Mullein: Great mullein is used as an herbal remedy for sore throat, cough and lung diseases.

Peppermint

It is said that peppermint helps against upset stomachs, inhibits the growth of certain bacteria, and can help smooth and relax muscles when inhaled or applied to the skin.

Purslane

purslane is used as a remedy for constipation and inflammation of the urinary system. In antiquity its healing properties were thought so reliable that Pliny advised wearing the plant as an amulet to expel all evil.

Raspberry leaves

Raspberry leaves have an astringent flavor and in herbal medicine are reputed to be effective in regulating menses.

Rosemary

Rosemary has a very old reputation for improving memory, and has been used as a symbol for remembrance (as in worn during weddings, war commemorations and funerals) in Europe, probably as a result of this reputation. Students in ancient Greece are reported to have worn sprigs of rosemary in their hair while studying for exams to improve their memory, and mourners would throw it into graves as a symbol of remembrance for the dead. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia says, "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance".

Sage

Modern evidence supports the effects of sage as an antihydrotic, antibiotic, antifungal, astringent, antispasmodic, estrogenic, hypoglycemic, and tonic.

Saffron

Modern medicine has also discovered saffron as having anticarcinogenic (cancer-suppressing), anti-mutagenic (mutation-preventing), immunomodulating, and antioxidant-like properties.