CALENDULACALENDULA
Calendula officinalis
DESCRIPTION
Calendula – the dermatologists’, cosmetic surgeons’, and fancy cosmetic companies’ worst enemy – is a common garden plant that is as attractive as it is easy to grow. Its scientific name, Calendula officinalis, gives us a hint of what ancient physicians felt about its powers to heal and maintain skin in perfect health. Calendula refers to the calendar, as the plant blooms every month of the year. The second word, officinalis, refers to the workshop of an alchemist, a place where lead was said to be converted into gold. Turning lead into gold is no small feat, but the ancients felt that calendula could perform an equally amazing transformation on the skin, hence the name.
Calendula is truly the miracle worker of the skin, whether a person has lumps or bumps, scabs that won’t heal, eczema, athlete’s foot, acne, or even herpes sores. Perusing old herbals the reader quickly discovers that calendula has been used to treat every skin condition ever dreamed up. It is an all-purpose skin-healing agent. Not surprisingly, wherever calendula grows, it is used to treat the skin.
If you have chronically bad skin, take a look at how you live life emotionally and physically, and if you don’t take care of yourself, start. This sounds like an oversimplification, but it isn’t. If you eat poorly, start eating properly. If you don’t sleep enough, make it your business to get into bed at a reasonable time. If your emotional life is out of kilter, do something to address the issue. Having said this, if your skin is bad because you don’t take care of yourself, using calendula in combination with improving your overall health routine will truly make a difference.
Calendula is commonly known as "pot marigold," "garden marigold," or sometimes just plain "marigold." Here is where we get into some trouble. There are two marigolds sold at garden centers. One is medicinal, and the other is not. The two plants are entirely different and unrelated. One is Tagetes erecta, and the other is Calendula officinalis. If you have ever wondered why scientific names exist, now you know.
For this reason, particularly when we are talking about medicinal herbs, we must use the scientific name when discussing and, most important, when purchasing our plants. The other plant called marigold in English-speaking countries doesn’t do anything for the skin. The one you want is Calendula officinalis. Of course, you can call it "Bert" if you want to, just as long as you know that you have the right plant or seeds in your hands. Though I am all in favor of local seed sellers and nurserymen, when it comes to medicinal plants, where making sure that you have the right one is critical, you may be better off sticking to large national concerns that are very unlikely to sell you the wrong item.
Calendula is a member of the daisy family, along with chrysanthemums, sunflowers, Jerusalem artichokes, elecampane, asters, thistles, chamomile, dandelion, burdock, and globe artichokes. A number of members of this family, most notably chamomile, elecampane, dandelion, and burdock, are used to treat skin problems. It would seem that this family contains a set of chemicals that in some fashion speed skin healing, although the exact nature of these chemicals and their interaction remains a mystery. What is no mystery, however, in that around the globe different ethnic groups, from the Arabians to the indigenous people of the Americas, were all using a daisy relative to increase the health of skin long before the age of international communication. I think you will agree that this is more than a mere coincidence.
Unlike some of its relations that bloom once and call it quits for the season, calendula is a blooming fool. Once it starts, you can’t stop the poor little flower factory, and calendula is usually still at it when the stinging frosts come and knock it to the ground. The plant has been in cultivation for so long that no one really knows where it originated. It can be a perennial plant or an annual plant depending on the severity of the winter it must endure. People living in climates with temperatures well below freezing for months on end will have to plant calendula as an annual, but in more moderate climes, calendula will keep on going year after year. This preference for mild winters hints that the plant may have originally spring up somewhere around the Mediterranean basin where the winters are mild.
The doubters in our midst will be happy to know that calendula has been picked apart from top to bottom in the aim of discovering that miraculous substance that speeds skin healing. At this phase of the game, it cannot be said that the chemical has been found. In fact, it is unlikely that it will ever be found, because chances are that there is no it, just a series of its that work together to create nice-looking skin. Modern people seem more comfortable when the products they use have at least a mile-long list of ingredients, so to put you at ease, here are some for the label of your soon-to-be calendula creme: volatile oil, bitter substances, carotenoid substances (lycopin, neolycopin, citroxathin, carotin, violaxanthin, flavoxaanthin, chrysanthemaxanthin), gums, mucilage, rein, albumine, malic acid, cholesterin esters of laurin, myristin, palmatin acids, vitamin C, arnidol and faradiol (dihydroxy alcohols), calendin, triterpendiols, parafine, cerylalcholhol, stimasterin, glycosides and glucosides.
THERAPEUTIC USES
In the laboratory, calendula extracts have been proven to be anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiprotozoal, antiulcerous, immuno-stimulating and promoting of epithelization. To put that into plain English, extracts of calendula both take care of several causes of skin problems, such as bacterial and viral infections, and treat a number of the symptoms, such as inflammation and ulceration. This business about increasing epithelialization is a critical element referring to the skin’s ability to knit itself back together. Some chemical in the plant actually stimulates the rejoining of broken skin, which is just what you need when you have some sort of abrasion. So you see, calendula really is the all-around best skin treatment; it addresses the symptoms as well as their causes.
Calendula is also marvelous for healing any sort of ulcer in the mouth, be it from the herpes virus or another source. In fact, as long ago as the 1940’s, German surgical clinics treating mouth and maxillary diseases experimented with calendula extracts as a healing agent for post-surgical wounds and found that a gargle made with the plant did indeed speed the healing process. If you have gum disease, you may want to start gargling with a light tea make with the flowers of your new calendula plant.
Nothing could be more pathetic than a child with the chicken pox or measles. During the 17th century, calendula petals were used in the treatment of small pox and measles, as well as animal and insect bites. In the modern day, calendula comes to the rescue whether the patient has been attached by a marauding band of mosquitoes or has picked up a dose of the pox at the playground. Generous application of the creme will greatly diminish the discomfort. This is probably due to the plant’s ability to reduce inflammation. Itchy skin feels better under a layer of calendula.
Accidents happen, and it’s important to have something in the medicine cabinet that can be used in first-aid situations. Calendula creme is one of the best candidates for skin tragedies, from burns to abrasions. It will help skin heal faster and hurt less. Don’t forget, calendula has antibacterial, antiviral, and antifugal actions, which will eliminate infection on the wound site, and as well an anti-inflammatory action, which will reduce pain.
Another common skin complaint today is eczema, and as with many chronic conditions, there aren’t always easy answers to the problem. Many herbalists have discovered that getting patients off dairy products eliminates the condition. Others have found that eczema sufferers are allergic to aluminum, and replacing all aluminum cooking utensils with stainless steel makes a huge difference. Even with these two known causes of the disorder out of the way, some people still suffer from eczema, and for many of them, calendula creme works to keep the condition under control. Part of the syndrome is terrible itching which leads to scratching, and so on. Calendula creme both soothes the itching and seeds the healing of the broken tissue, thus ending the itch cycle.
Athlete’s foot fungus is yet another unpleasant condition that can be eradicated with the use of calendula creme. You may remember that ingredients contained in the plant have antifungal powers. Well, that is just what you need when you have athlete’s foot fungus, or, worse yet, when those same fungi have made their home between your legs. Creme containing calendula extract will kill the nasty fungi and release you from your bondage of itching.
For our all-purpose creme, we need to make a water extract as well as an alcohol extract out of our happy calendula plant. And I do mean plant. Formerly, just the flowers of calendula were used in skin ointments, but recent discoveries hint that some of the best parts of the plant can be found in the stem and roots.
Calendula plants should be harvested in full bloom, a period that starts about one month after planting. You will want to harvest ten plants as we will need five for our water extract and five for our alcohol extract. Once you have pulled them out by their roots, drag the lot into the kitchen, put them in the sink, pull off any dead leaves and slugs, and wash the plants from top to bottom, taking extra care to get the dirt off and down the sink. Once you have washed your ten plants, it is time to chop them into bits – stems, roots, petals, the works! Divide the plants into two groups of five and hack away.