page_title: Salvia officinalis
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Salvia officinalis / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Echte Salbei. A blühende Pflanze in natürl. Grösse; 1 Blüthe, vergrössert; 2 dieselbe im Längsschnitt, desgl.; 3 aufgeschnittene Krone mit den inneren Blüthentheilen, desgl.; 4 u. 5 fruchtbare, 6 unfruchtbare Staubgefässe, desgl.; 7 Pollen, desgl.; 8 Kelch aufgeschnitten mit Stempel, desgl.; 9 Stempel, stärker vergrössert; 10 Fruchtknoten im Querschnitt, desgl.; 11 derselbe im Längsschnitt desgl.; 12 Frucht mit Fruchtkelch, natürl. Grösse; 13 Frucht ohne Fruchtkelch, desgl.; 14 Nüsschen, desgl.; 15 dasselbe, vergrössert; 16 u. 17 dasselbe im Quer- und Längsschnitt, desgl.; 18 Same, desgl. Latina: Salvia officinalis. Русский: Шалфей лекарственный. A — цветущее растение; 1 — цветок; 2 — то же в продольном разрезе; 3 — разрезанный венчик со внутренними частями цветка; 4 и 5 — тычинки; 6 — стаминодии; 7 — пыльца; 8 — разрезанная чашечка с пестиком; 9 — пестик; 10 — завязь в поперечном разрезе; 11 — то же в продольном разрезе; 12 — плод (ценобий) с чашечкой; 13 — плод (ценобий) без чашечки; 14 — орешек; 15 — то же, увелич.; 16 и 17 — то же в поперечном и продольном разрезе; 18 — семя.
context_page_description: Salvia officinalis is a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae and native to the Mediterranean region, though it has been naturalized in many places throughout the world. It has a long history of medicinal and culinary use, and in modern times it has been used as an ornamental garden plant. The common name "sage" is also used for a number of related and unrelated species.
context_section_description: Salvia officinalis has been used since ancient times for warding off evil, snakebites, increasing women's fertility, and more. The Romans referred to sage as the "holy herb," and employed it in their religious rituals. Theophrastus wrote about two different sages, a wild undershrub he called sphakos, and a similar cultivated plant he called elelisphakos. Pliny the Elder said the latter plant was called salvia by the Romans, and used as a diuretic, a local anesthetic for the skin, a styptic, and for other uses. Charlemagne recommended the plant for cultivation in the early Middle Ages, and during the Carolingian Empire, it was cultivated in monastery gardens. Walafrid Strabo described it in his poem Hortulus as having a sweet scent and being useful for many human ailments—he went back to the Greek root for the name and called it lelifagus.
  The plant had a high reputation throughout the Middle Ages, with many sayings referring to its healing properties and value. It was sometimes called S. salvatrix (sage the savior). Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen all recommended sage as a diuretic, hemostatic, emmenagogue, and tonic.Le Menagier de Paris, in addition to recommending cold sage soup and sage sauce for poultry, recommends infusion of sage for washing hands at table. John Gerard's Herball (1597) states that sage "is singularly good for the head and brain, it quickeneth the senses and memory, strengtheneth the sinews, restoreth health to those that have the palsy, and taketh away shakey trembling of the members." Gervase Markham's The English Huswife (1615) gives a recipe for a tooth-powder of sage and salt. It appears in recipes for  Four Thieves Vinegar, a blend of herbs which was supposed to ward off the plague. In past centuries, it was also used for hair care, insect bites and wasp stings, nervous conditions, mental conditions, oral preparations for inflammation of the mouth, tongue and throat, and also to reduce fevers.
caption: Painting from Koehler's Medicinal Plants (1887)
exif: {"Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "44", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9515"}