Contents:
Common Names | Parts Usually Used | Plant(s) & Culture | Where Found | Medicinal Properties | Biochemical Information
Legends, Myths and Stories | Uses | Formulas or Dosages | Nutrient Content | How Sold | Warning | Resource Links | Bibliography
Scientific Names
- Petroselinum sativum L.
- Umbelliferae
- Umbel family
Common Names
- Common parsley
- Garden parsley
- March
- Parsley breakstone
- Rock parsley
Parts Usually Used
Fruits, berries, stems, leaves, and roots
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture
An erect, hairless perennial plant with a distinctive scent. It has shiny, pinnate leaves with triangular-lobed leaflets, often curled in cultivated plants. The small yellowish flowers grow in flat-topped, compound umbels, each with 8-15 smaller umbels. Fruits are egg-shaped, ridged, somewhat flattened.
Other varieties: P. hortense; P. crispum; extra curled dwarf; neapolitanum; gigante; tuberosum; decora.
The Chinese use the herb (Apium petroselinum) (“Inn sai” is the Chinese name) and call it parsley. Seems it is used similarly to Petroselinum sativum L.
Some have categorized parsley as in the carrot family, some in the umbel family and yet others say it has its own parsley family. Let the reader choose or if anyone has proof of which is correct, please forward the information.
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Where Found
Cultivated and occasionally found growing wild in waste places or around buildings in eastern and Pacific areas of the United States and Canada. Gathering of wild parsley is not recommended.
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Medicinal Properties
Diuretic, carminative, anthelmintic, emmenagogue, expectorant, stimulant, antispasmodic, aperient, laxative, carminative
Juice: febrifuge, promotes menstruation
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Biochemical Information
Apiin, apiol, bergaptein, calcium, fatty oil, flavone glycoside, furanocumarin bergapten, iodine, iron, isoimperatorin, mucilage, myristicene, volatile and essential oils, parsley camphor (apiin), petroselinic acid, phosphorus, pinene, potassium, and vitamins A and C.
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Legends, Myths and Stories
Some references claim that parsley belongs to the carrot family.
It is claimed, when the parsley herb is rubbed against a glass goblet or tumbler, it will break it. The cause of this phenomenon is unknown.
Rose bushes like for parsley to be grown near them, because they keep away rose beetles.
Parsley is native to the Mediterranean region of Southern Europe and has been cultivated for more than 2,000 years. It was originally used as a medicinal plant (see below) prior to being consumed as a food. Ancient Greeks held parsley to be sacred, using it to not only adorn victors of athletic contests, but also for decorating the tombs of the deceased. While it is uncertain when and where parsley began to be consumed as a seasoning, historians think it may be sometime during the Middle Ages in Europe. Some historians credit Charlemagne with its popularization as he had it grown on his estates.
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Uses
Parsley is a sweet plant that contains a substance in which tumor cells cannot multiply. It is good for goiter, obesity, edema, dropsy, swollen glands, epilepsy, bed-wetting, fluid retention, rheumatism, sciatica, lumbago, jaundice, indigestion, asthma, coughs, colds, fever, gas, night blindness, swollen breasts, menstrual disorders, promotes onset of menses, snakebites, bruises, dropsy, eye infections, and worms. For thyroid, lung, stomach, bladder, gall stones, kidney stones, liver, and can be used to treat gravel and stones of the kidney. It also makes a good eyewash. It purifies the breath as well. The oil of parsley rubbed on the scalp is purportedly able to stimulate hair growth.
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Formulas or Dosages
A tisane of dried herb is made when fresh is not available.
Eat raw or steep chopped leaves and stems in hot water. Drink 1 cup daily.
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Nutrient Content
Calcium, fatty oil, iodine, iron, phosphorus, rich in potassium, and rich in vitamins A and C. Rich in vitamins and minerals. Good source of chlorophyll. (Try it after eating onions or garlic)
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How Sold
Parsley tablets or fresh cut herb
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Warning
Do not use parsley if a kidney infection is present.
Do not take parsley juice or oil if pregnant, it is a uterine stimulant.
Best grown in the garden rather than gathered wild, since it resembles poisonous wild plants like Poison Hemlock.
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Resource Links
LiveStrong.com: Benefits of Juicing Parsley
Natural Health Techniques: Parsley
Bibliography
The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine
Back to Eden
Indian Herbalogy of North America
Earl Mindell’s Herb Bible
The Herbalist Almanac
Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs
Old Ways Rediscovered
Herbal Gardening, compiled by The Robison York State Herb Garden, Cornell Plantations, Matthaei Botanical Gardens of the University of Michigan, University of California Botanical Garden, Berkeley., Pantheon Books, Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994, first edition
The Magic of Herbs
Planetary Herbology
American Folk Medicine
Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Fifth Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements
Webster’s New World Dictionary
An Instant Guide to Medicinal Plants
Secrets of the Chinese Herbalists
The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine
The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book)
Country Home Book of Herbs
