The Herb Hound: BAY LEAF

BAY LEAF-Laurus Nobilis

Also known as: bay laurel, sweet bay, noble laurel, indian bay, roman laurel

Parts used: leaves, berries, bark

Meridians/Organs affected: heart, spleen, digestive, kidneys, bladder, pancreas, reproductive, urinary, immune

Properties: stimulant, emmenogogue, carminative, emetic, diaphoretic, aromatic, stomachic, astringent

Bay is a member of the Lauraceae family. It is a frost-hardy, evergreen type tree that can get up to 50 feet tall. It has leathery, oval-shaped leaves and cream colored flowers that appear in the spring in clusters followed by dark purple berries. Commonly found in the Canary Islands, the Far East, Italy, France and parts of England and the Americas. It does better in a sub tropical climate.

This plant has quite a lengthy history. It was one of the most celebrated plants by early poets and athletes. The leaves were used in crowns and dedicated to gods of music and poetry. (This was back when poets were highly thought of and people aspired to be one). Laurel crowns were placed on the heads of Olympians, and doctors were honored with a laurel crown upon graduation. Court poets were even given the title of 'laureate'. This gave rise to the term 'baccalaureate' which comes from 'bacca-laureus' meaning 'laurel berry' and has become an academic standard.

In Greece, the leaves were chewed by priestesses before reading oracles. It was also believed that if you kept a bay leaf in your mouth you would be protected from misfortune and if you wore it on your head it would keep you from being struck by lightning. (Don't ask me how people come up with this stuff...) The older herbalists viewed bay as a virtuous tree. Parkinson stated that it is "..both for honest civil uses and for physic, yea both for the sick and the sound, the living and the dead." Culpeper wrote that, "The berries are very effectual against all poisons of venomous creatures, and the sting of wasps and bees, as also against the pestilence or other infectious diseases..." He also recommended it for "..diseases of the bladder, pains in the bowels by wind and stopping of urine." Culpeper was a very superstitious man who believed that bay was a "...tree of the sun and under the celestial sign Leo, and resisteth witchcraft very potently..." Even Shakespeare wrote of it in Richard II saying that, "Tis thought the King is dead, we will not stay, the bay trees in our country are all wither'd." which was considered to be a bad omen. The Greeks dedicated the bay tree to Apollo and believed it to be an emblem of the sun god. It was believed to protect one from evil.