The Forgotten Few: Herb Robert

Plants are subtle. Sometimes they shout at you. Sometimes they brush against you until you take notice. Sometimes they sit and laugh at you for ignoring them. They know you will come to them eventually.

It was Australians who first alerted me to Herb Robert. “Where can I get hold of some herb Robert plants?” asked one woman.

“Why do you want to grow it?” I asked. “Over here, it grows everywhere; a ubiquitous weed. We try to ignore it.”

I was told it was the latest wonder drug, being used for cancer. She wanted to eat it every day to boost her immune system. She told me the name of the Australian herbalist who was waxing lyrical about the herbal properties and posted a link to Isobell Shipard’s articles. I read them and promptly dismissed them. I’m never comfortable when unknown authors gush about something. When they mention a particular product will cure all known cancers, it’s usually time to go and do the washing up.

I forgot about the articles. I did go out into the garden and noticed herb Robert was growing all over my garden; a geranium with a tiny pink flower. Its stems were mostly green but some of them were red. I smiled at it and let it slide from my memory.

It niggled at me for a couple more years that I knew nothing about this plant. Eventually, I asked the fount of all knowledge - Facebook – if anyone was working with herb Robert and had they heard about the claims being made for it in Australia. The responses were eye-opening. Several practicing herbalists in the UK and Ireland were using herb Robert in their practice with fascinating results. I needed to know more.

Who is Herb Robert? (Geraneum Robertianum)

 Herb Robert is a member of the cranesbill family, so named because the seedpods have bulbous bases and pointy tips which resemble a crane’s bill. The plant can either be annual or biennial. It grows up to 20”/50cm tall, although I’m sure the once which colonised my stream bank this summer were taller! It has deep-cut delicate leaves with three or five leaflets. The plant is hairy and smells musky, often turning deep red as it ages.   The flower has pink petals which are round-edged with white veins. The stems form nodes at the base which turn red and the roots are shallow. They are really easy to weed!

Herb Robert has many different names. Julie Bruton-Seal says its name was originally Rupert (named after a 7^th century saint) and there are many different saintly Roberts including a pope associated with it. Dylan Warren- Davies, the Welsh herbalist ascribes the Robert as St Robert of Molesme, the founder of the Cistercian monastic order who was a noted herbalist and healer. The name is also connected with Robin (the bird) and Robin Goodfellow (a mischievous household sprite) but several commentators have pointed to the Latin term, rubra meaning redness as a possible source.

Wherever you are in the UK, herb Robert will have its own local name. Geoffrey Grigson, in 1958, collected 110 different regional names. Julie Bruton-Seal notes nearly a quarter were variants of robin or Robert, six were related to the plant’s smell (Stinky’ Bob!) and four to kissing. The connection between Herb Robert and Robin and Puck gives it a darker side. Don’t kill cock robin, don’t uproot herb Robert, don’t cross Robin Goodfellow – all will bring ill-luck. Only one of herb Robert’s local names mentions death. This is “Death comes quickly” and is only found in Cumbria.

What does Herb Robert do?

Look at the plant. Its redness signifies life and blood. A friend’s grandmother used to make herb Robert tea when she was feeling ill. She didn’t know she suffered with sticky blood but her grandmother recognised herb Robert would do what was needed.

Culpepper and other ancestral herbalists used herb Robert for both internal and external bleeding and other discharges. All parts of herb Robert can be utilised. Don’t try and dry it, it doesn’t work. You might be lucky if you take all the leaves off or try drying the roots. If you look hard enough it should be available all year round or infuse it in something for the times you can’t gather.

Julie Bruton-Seal says that Herb Robert can also be used for eruptions of the skin, including skin ulcers, tumours and eczema. She quotes Pechey in 1707 who noted it was helpful in treating erysipelas. Aerial parts can be useful as a mouthwash for gum disease and sore throats. The Irish traditionally use herb Robert for kidney issues as the plant is mildly diuretic and cooling. The tea can be used as a compress when there is backache.

Both Culpepper and Maud Grieve talk about herb Robert being used by farmers for all kinds of diseases in cattle and for increasing fertility when cows can’t be got into calf. It may be that the agricultural use of the plant continued when the practice of using it for humans had been forgotten. Apparently, it is still a common remedy in Ireland for red-water fever in farm cattle.

Let’s think about the smell. It stinks. Only John Pechey thought it smelt like parsnips. It’s possibly the only plant that slugs, caterpillars and other munchers studiously ignore. There must be something in the plant which repels insects.

Earlier this year, a herbalist posted about an insect repellent she’d made with elder leaf. I’d just had to prune an elder branch, so decided to make a double infused oil and add herb Robert oil to the salve along with some traditional repelling essential oils (citronella, sandalwood). 

I took it the Radical Herb Gathering in June. Every evening we were eaten by midges. The first evening I daubed myself with the insect salve – no midges. The second evening I forgot the salve and was attacked on all fronts. I put salve on the parts of my skin where I’d been attacked and it was instantly soothed.

The Irish herbalist, Bridget Meagher, is using a tincture of herb Robert for head lice. It’s wonderful to have another plant in our arsenal to deal with infestations.

There are many more uses for herb Robert besides internal and external bleeding. One Irish herbalist, is using it for high and low blood pressure, excessive menstrual bleeding, balancing blood sugar levels and as a nerve restorative. Another uses it for varicose veins and haemorrhoids mixed with yarrow and horse chestnut. A third for ear drops when treating otitis externa. She infused herb Robert with plantain, calendula and mullein in sweet almond oil. 

Why does it do all these things?

Herb Robert contains vitamins A, B and C. It has a vast array of minerals- calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus and germanium.

Its actions are astringent, antibiotic, adaptogen, antiviral, styptic, tonic, diuretic, sedative, antioxidant. 

Herb Robert contains a natural source of germanium which David Farrell described in 2015 as “a valuable element and powerful antioxidant which has the ability to make oxygen readily available to the cells of the body.” He explains that more oxygen at cellular level gives the body more opportunity to fight disease by its own powers and healing can take place quickly. If cells can’t get oxygen, they can’t get nutrients to regenerate. Those cells then become anaerobic, a state leading to pain, disease, wayward cells and possibly cancer.

Farrell quotes the Nobel physicist, Otto Warburg, who said “the prime cause of cancer is lack of oxygenation of cells”. In 1966, he discovered that cancer cells could not exist in the presence of abundant oxygen but only in an anaerobic state. It’s thought that germanium stimulates electrical impulses at a cellular level to create a beneficial ripple effect throughout the whole body.

Finally, I went back to Isobell Shipard’s articles. She came across the claims for herb Robert from a 1976 article written by a Spanish doctor, who had been inspired by a Portuguese letter written to Natura magazine in 1953. The stories concerning cures talked about taking powdered herb Robert leaves mixed in fresh raw egg yolk – a form of administration I have never heard of before. It makes me wonder why the herb is maximised in a fat solution or whether it is a cultural way of taking medication in southern Europe e.g. French people prefer suppositories to tablets; Italian men drink raw eggs to increase their virility (if the fictional Scilician detective, Montalbano, is anything to go by!)

Isobell Shipard was a leading herbalist in Queensland, Australia. She died at the end of 2014 and was instrumental in bringing herbs to the attention of ordinary Australians. She advocated the use of herb Robert for over twenty-five years and without that Australian prompt I would never have considered using this powerful little ally.

I hope to inspire others to treat herb Robert with more respect and admiration for its wide range of uses. 

References

Bruton-Seal, J & Seal, M Wayside Medicine Merlin Unwin Books 2017 ISBN-13: 978-1910723-37-7

Culpeper, N Complete Herbal 1653 Wordsworth Reference 1995 ISBN 1 85326 345 1

Facebook Forgotten Herbs Group discussion contributions from Julie Bruton-Seal, Joanna Byron, Natasha Clarke, Nikki Darrell, Althaea Hawthorn, Mari Jerstad, Saskia Marjoram, Brigitte Meagher, Claire Mullen, Margaret Palmer, Mina Said-Alsopp, Jane Wallwork-Gush, Monica Wilde

Farrell, D Medicine in your garden, the miracles of Herb Robert http://plantconsciousness.com/1/post/2015/08/medicine-in-your-garden-the-miracles-of-herb-robert.html Davyd Farrell 8/3/15

Grigson, G. (1996) The Englishman’s Flora. Helicon Publishing Ltd, Oxford
Warren-Davis, D Reflections on Herb Robert  https://www.facebook.com/awelshherbal/posts/1102448653111098 posted 15/5/16

Plants for a Future Herb Robert (January 2004): http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Geranium+robertianum

Shipard, I HERB ROBERT  http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/free-herb-information/herb-robert.html

Shipard, I Herb Robert – Natural Alterative (3/2/08) http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/isabells_blog/herb-robert-natural-alterative.html

Wood, M The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to Old World Medicinal Plants 2008 North Atlantic Books ISBN 9 781556 436925

Wood, M The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to New World Medicinal Plants 2009 North Atlantic Books ISBN 9 781556 437793

 

 

Solstice Harvest

Walking out into the garden, my intention was to continue finding permanent homes for the dozens of tomato plants languishing in the seed house. Unfortunately, the bag of compost was almost empty so I had to be content with filling pots for only a few.

My eyes were drawn to the carpet of daisies covering the grass around the raised vegetable beds.

“Gather what you have,” the garden whispered.

The previous morning, my husband ended up with a bruised brow bone after an altercation with the new vacuum cleaner. His cries of pain brought both wife and daughter to his side but there was little we could do as he pressed a cold cloth to the offending temple.

A nasty, raised bump was a salutary reminder of the dangers of housework. The daisies offered a solution. Forgotten by the mists of time, daisies have always been a bruise herb. Today we might turn to plantain, yarrow, comfrey or elder leaves or bark but herbalists trying to revive the use of various weeds, think we should be considering daisy as well.

Author and herbalist, Julie Bruton- Seal, recently told the story of administering a salve of daisy mixed with mugwort to her elderly mother when she dropped a bottle onto her foot and thought she’d broken something. The pain diminished considerably after the first application and she was able to go for a long walk that evening. The salve was applied a second time the same day and her foot did not swell or bruise.

The herbalist, Nikki Darrell, was the first person to alert us to the many different facets of daisy. She has been using it as an alternative to arnica is deep tissue salves mixed with plantain. This salve is not only used for bruising, but also to repair old acne scars, treating kitchen burns and scalds and for bites and stings. She has also made a flower essence which she has found helpful in “restoring the inner child to health” and for birth trauma in both mother and child.

My harvest yielded a basketful of flowers and leaves together with a sprinkling of greater plantain and yarrow leaves growing in the lawn underneath our ancient apple tree. By nightfall it had been doubly infused in sunflower oil and mixed with beeswax to provide a bruise salve which my husband was able to apply before bed.

As I gathered the daisies, my eye was drawn to a waterfall of fresh, green cleavers climbing up the wooden frame which screens the compost bins. In Victorian times, genteel ladies would drink vast amounts of cleaver tea to ensure a clear complexion but I generally use it as a means of helping the lymphatic system to flow. My stock of tinctures was getting low. Now seemed the perfect time to capture the vibrant essence of several herbs.

Willowherb has always been a nuisance in my garden. I failed to value it as a helpful plant for several decades until I was researching prostate support and discovered it had been under my nose all along. Now I add it to my “prostate tonic” along with nettle root, saw palmetto and couch grass. Hiding in every bed in my garden, I picked a huge bunch and turned it into tincture by evening.

Every year new herbs come to my attention. This year, it is Herb Robert. Named after a saintly French Abbott, who lived at the same time as Hildegarde of Bingen, this fragrant plant with its tiny, pink flowers is being lauded as a cancer preventative in both northern and southern hemispheres.

Many herbalists are now working with this plant and have discovered it is a strong styptic with astringent properties, which gives it a place in the first aid cabinet and for longer term use when dealing with “boggy tissue”. It also acts as an anti-oxidant and has the unique ability to oxygenate cells, making it useful in strengthening the immune system and restoring nerve damage.

So far I have eaten the suggested 3-4 leaves a day for a week and found myself feeling totally exhausted. Maybe I was being shown I needed rest! We’ve also made a flower essence (supposedly good for revealing faerie) but I have yet to work with it. Tinctures should be made from plants whose stems are turning deep red for the strongest medicine, so these were the ones I gathered and prepared.  

Another new activity this year has been making my own green powders to provide added vitamins and minerals during winter months. These can be made by dehydrating and grinding any edible green plant. So far I have processed nettles, ground elder, marjoram, lovage and watercress, adding the herbs for increased flavour.

Nettles and ground elder found their way into my baskets and soon the dehydrator was filled with these, together with lemon balm and a luxurious pineapple weed which was smothering my pleurisy root shoots in their large tub. I’d never eaten pineapple weed leaves before. They were really succulent and tasty. I know they can be used in the same way as chamomile, although with weaker effect so I’m looking forward to adding it to my larder.

The last plant in my solstice harvest was Sweet Cecily. Long known as a method of reducing sugar consumption with sour fruit such as plums and rhubarb, it can also be made into a pleasant, aniseed aperitif by macerating green pods and leaves in vodka for three days then leaving the strained liquid to mature for several months before drinking. I prepared this liqueur many years ago but the bottle disappeared, so it was time to try again.

Every solstice is different in the continuing seasonal wheel. This year I listened to the garden and was rewarded with valuable food and medicine for my winter stores..