Lavender, Flax and Folk Medicine

Herbal healing seems to have been with us since the beginning of civilization as we know it.

• Egyptians used lavender in the mummification process. They, the Phoenicians and people in Arabic regions used it for perfume.
• Folklore has it that in both Medieval and Renaissance Europe, washing women were called “lavenders” because they used lavender to scent drawers and dried laundry on lavender bushes.
• In 16th century France, lavender was used to defend against infection.
• On St. John's Day, lavender was used to drive away evil spirits.

Lavender is native to the mountainous areas of the Western Mediterranean. Circa 600 B.C., it is thought to have come from Greece into France and thence to England where it was introduced by the Romans. It was introduced into North America where the Shakers were the first to grow it commercially, both here and in Canada.

It has become an integral ingredient in folk medicine and aromatherapy. This versatile herb is used for its calming influence on the mind, easing depression, irritability, headache, migraines and the pain of sciatica, rheumatism and sore muscles, for stress relief, to soothe insect stings, induce sleep and decrease anxiety. It is also used as an insect repellent to keep moths away, as an antiseptic and to heal wounds more quickly. It has many more uses as well.

One of the world's oldest plants is flax. It has been known to us since 5000 B.C. Flax remnants were found in Stone Age dwellings in Switzerland. Flax cultivation was depicted in Middle Eastern burial chambers, and cloth woven from flax was found in Egyptian tombs.

Around 650 B.C., both Hippocrates, and Theophrastus mentioned using flax for the relief of abdominal pain and cough respectively. About the first century A.D., Tacitus wrote praising flax. In the eighth century, Charlemagne decreed that flax seeds were to be eaten to maintain good health. In the 12th century, Abbess Hildegard von Bingen used flax meal in her hot poultices to treat various ailments.

Flax has been found in all temperate and tropical areas for so long that we cannot identify its geographical origin. It is found in a semi-wild state wherever it grows and is also called Linum (linseed). It first appeared in North America in 1617 when Louis Hebert brought it to New France. By the end of the 19th century, as American pioneers pushed westward, they planted flax from their homelands in the prairies. Flax is cultivated for both its fiber (fiber flax) and its seeds (seed flax).

There are so many uses for flax that it is simply not possible to mention them all here. Please see “Fabulous Flax” article on this website for more in-depth information about flax.

In the folk medicine tradition, flax has been and is used for abdominal pain, heart health, to decrease menopausal symptoms and arthritis inflammation, to increase stamina, and in poultices for rheumatism, neuralgia, diarrhea, ulceration and abcesses. In fomentations, the application of moist heat, it works to increase circulation, relieve the pain of sprains, strains, muscles, joints and nerve areas. Flax seed oil has been used internally for coughs, asthma and pleurisy and externally for burns and sores. In addition, it has been used in the treatment of cancer and has been found to contain various anticancer agents.

Herbs were man's first healing agents. They are nature's remedies and form the oldest medical science. Several thousand years B.C., the Chinese, Sumerians and Egyptians all used plants for medicines. In the 18th century B.C., Babylonian King Hammurabi presented information about healing plants carved in stone tablets. In 2800 B.C., Shen Nung, a Chinese herbalist, listed 366 plant drugs, including a shrub found in a Neanderthal grave. By 1500 A.D., there was a thriving medicinal plant trade between countries in the Mediterranean and the Levant, a large area in Southwest Asia.

Several herbs, including aloe, are mentioned in the Old Testament. Egyptian papyri, tell us that many plants and herbs in modern pharmacopeia were used by the Egyptians. This list includes garlic, flax seed, fennel, thyme and onion to name a few.

Hippocrates, the father of medical literature, believed it in natural healing and left much healing to the “effort of nature”. His treatment methods were used until 1500 A.D. Of the 300 to 400 plants in his writings, almost a third of them are still used today.

In the first century A.D., Dioscorides, a Greek physician, wrote about the uses of over 500 medicinal plants. This work remained in use until about the 17th century. During the middle ages, herbal medicine knowledge was preserved and used by the monks and nuns who cultivated their own herb gardens.

In Elizabethan England, herbalism experienced a golden age. It is from this period that most of our present day herbal lore derives. In England, herbal practitioners are called botanic practitioners and are the successors of Galen and Hippocrates.

Native Americans used simple herbs to prevent and heal diseases. As settlers arrived here from Europe, they brought their own herbal knowledge. Combined, these two cultural practices produced a distinctly American folk medicine. In pioneer days and beyond, people lived in isolated areas. Transportation and communication were difficult and doctors scarce, so folks had only each other for knowledge or help in times of difficulty or illness.

In the old Soviet Union under Stalin's leadership, ancient medical books were burned, traditional herbal pharmacies closed, and the folk healers arrested, imprisoned or, sometimes, executed.

The father of modern American herbal medicine, appears to be Jethro Kloss whose book “Back to Eden” was originally written in the 1920s and 1930s and updated several times by his family members. He operated sanitariums and was a pioneer in what we now call the health food industry. Some remedies he presents were the result of his nearly 40 years of experience. Among the herbs used effectively by Mr. Kloss and other herbal healers are both flax seed and lavender.

I believe that at the beginning of this 21st century, people are looking for more natural ways to heal themselves and are returning to practices like reflexology, massage, herbal remedies and aromatherapy, which today usually refers to treatment with essential oils. However, I think this term can also be applied to the use of herbal wraps filled with lavender or other fragrant herbs. In a wrap containing both flax seed and lavender, the lavender fragrance promotes relaxation, and the flax seed delivers a moist heat; a fomentation brought up to the 21st century. It seems that when a person is relaxed, healing can be more effective.

Perhaps much of the positive curative evidence using herbs is anecdotal today, but it was just such anecdotal information that healed him people for centuries before chemical healing became so popular. I believe herbs have served us well for centuries and will continue to serve us well for centuries to come.