Lovage is also called maggi plant. People who cannot eat salt are recommended to have a lovage plant in the garden. Lovage can grow up to two meters in size. You can use this herb to enrich soups, salads and hot meals. If you add lovage to your food you won’t miss the salt at all. Lovage has a nice aroma. The herb lovage is ideal for people on a low-salt diet. NB! This article is written from the personal view of the author and may contain information that is not scientifically substantiated and/or in line with the general view.

Contents:

• Maggi and lovage
• Eating tips lovage
• Lava tea
• Former use of lovage
• Lovage, a medicinal delicacy
• Bergapten and other coumarins
• Beta-sitosterol
• Carvacrol

Maggi and lovage

If a recipe calls for Maggi and you don’t have it at home, you might as well pick lovage from the garden. Lovage is also called maggi plant because its scent is reminiscent of Maggi. Yet there is no lovage in Maggi.Botanical drawing of lovage / Source: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons (PD)

Eating tips lovage

The lovage plant originally grows in the Mediterranean and South West Asia. The plant also does very well in the Netherlands. A two-meter-high lovage plant is very tempting to use daily. You can walk over with a sign to pick off some leaves. You can use the leaves whole as a lettuce leaf. If you chop the leaves finely you can use them in soup. Once you have baked potatoes, you can put fresh cut leaves over the potatoes if they are already on your plate. You can season cooked brown rice in exactly the same way as potatoes. You can mix this herb with rosemary and thyme to season a tomato sauce for pasta. For winter you can dry the herb, powder it and put it in a jar.

Lava tea

Lava tea is a medicinal tea that cleanses the kidneys and liver. Lovage can be used as a mixed herb. You can mix it with dandelion leaves to drink a special liver cleansing tea. Lovage works as an antiflatulence medicine. In addition, it has a diuretic effect. This means that it stimulates the kidneys to produce urine. Lava tea has been used for centuries to clean wounds. It has an antiseptic effect, which means that it fights bacteria. Lava tea also works well against indigestion, menstrual disorders and as an expectorant.

Former use of lovage

Lovage is a plant that can grow to two meters in height. It is a large perennial plant. It produces many yellow flowers. In the fall it dies until almost nothing remains. Lovage comes from Southern Europe. This spicy spice is related to angelica, parsnip, celery, parsley and fennel. In England the plant is called ‘lovage’ and in many Eastern European countries the name of the plant is the translation of the word ‘love herb’ or ‘love stick’. It is not known why love is connected to the plant. Maybe that’s because it was considered a panacea, which can also be said of love.

Lovage, a medicinal delicacy

Lovage is already described as a herb in Roman cookbooks. The Romans also used lovage seeds as a spice in food. The Romans called lovage a panacea; a cure for all diseases. It was prescribed for diseases related to the heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, and it was a remedy for hysteria. In English cookbooks, the root of lovage is used to put it in syrup to make a sweet.

Bergapten and other coumarins

Lovage contains many phytonutrients. It contains coumarins and psoralens. The psoral bergapten is a substance that is also found in bergamot, parsnip, citrus oils and grapefruit juice. It is a strong-smelling medicinal substance that is used, among other things, in therapy against multiple sclerosis. Bergapten is a potassium blocker in the nerves.The yellow lovage flowers / Source: H. Zell, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA-3.0)

Beta-sitosterol

Beta-sitosterol is a plant sterol. It is used in the treatment of prostate cancer, Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia or ‘BPH’ which is a benign prostate enlargement and balding. It is not only found in lovage but also in corn, basil, buckwheat, soybeans, licorice, black cumin, sage, cherimoya, senna, two-style hawthorn, evening primrose, white mulberry, sea buckthorn, March violet, ashwaganda and saw palmetto.

Carvacrol

Carvacrol is a fragrance and flavoring agent. It has properties that make foods last longer. Carvacrol is a strong antiseptic, a bactericidal substance. Carvacrol is used as an essential oil. In addition to being a component of lovage, carvacrol is found in thyme, oregano and rosemary.

read more

• Chicory, coffee substitute and wild vegetables
• The wild strawberry: medicinal creeping plant
• The healing power of celery
• The nettle as a vegetable
• The plantain as a medicinal vegetable