The various herb teas are really the safest, easiest and best ways of getting the benefit from aromatic leaves and flowers of herbs. The majority of these teas are also anti-indigestive and relaxing - making them good to drink last thing at night.

The herb teas are believed to have other, more important medical properties, too. Eyebright and Fennel for example, are held to be good for the eyes. Lady's Mantle (called the Alchemist's Herb) makes a tea which is supposedly good for acne and for many peculiarly female conditions. Lemon Balm tea is said to prolong life. Lovage tea is sometimes claimed to act as a deodorant. And a tea made from Woodruff is said to relieve headaches and migraine.

Making your own medicines can be a complicated and somewhat hazardous occupation because many of the herbs have dangerous or unexpected side-effects. So anyone interested would be wise not to attempt it but to investigate the stock of the nearest herbal or homeopathic supplier. Among other things, a number of creams and ointments are made from herbs, one well known one being Comfrey ointment which has quite amazingly good effects in cases of back strain. (In medieval times this herb was called Boneset, and recommended for sprains and strained backs.)

Herbal medicine becomes further confused because each herb was used to cure innumerable ailments. Rue, for example, which is dangerous taken in large quantities, was used for putting on bee and wasp stings, as an antidote for poisons, as a cure for dizziness and to take away warts and pimples.

Some herbal cures

Many of the herbal cures do now seem rather fanciful. The very few listed below are included for their interest value, you are not really advised to try them.

An eighteenth century Sussex remedy for ague - which was probably a fever - prescribes 'seven Sage leaves to be eaten by the patient fasting seven mornings running'.

Asthma sufferers, even as late as the first quarter of the twentieth century, were advised to 'mince Garlic, spread it on thin bread and butter, and eat just before going to bed'.

Gout was a disease traditionally thought to result from rich-living and over-indulgence. But some of the cures for it had great simplicity, if not austerity. One late nineteenth-century remedy was that 'a clove of Garlic be eaten night and morning'.

An Australian hint, undated, for anyone troubled with their kidneys reads: 'Take a handful of Parsley, cover it with water and boil for a while. Strain and when cool drink a glassfull.'

Two particularly odd herbal cures state that to improve a bad memory you should drink Sage tea, sweetened to taste, and that Garlic sliced and worn in the socks will cure rheumatism.

To keep your skin clear some herbalists advise you to boil Elder flowers in water, strain, and then drink the liquid. And a nice seventeenth-century recipe for 'An excellent water for Ye sight.' says: 'Take Fennel, Anniseed and Elecampane, dry and powder them, mix in good brandy, dry it again; Every morning and evening eate a pretty quantity, it is excellent for the sight.'

While another of the same period tells you to 'Take good White Wine, infuse Eyebright in it three dayes, then Seethe it with a little Rosemary, drink it often, it is most excellent to restore and strengthen the sight. Also eate of the powder of Eyebright in a new laid egg rare-roasted every morning.'

A Welsh antidote for a spider's bite was to mix Garlic, treacle, and ale - unfortunately the quantities are not given. But you were supposed to drink freely of the mixture so ale probably predominated.

There are many complicated and expensive recipes for removing freckles and sunburn, mostly dating from the times when a pale skin was the sign of a lady. Rather more useful ones are those which tell you how to stop sunburn hurting. One advises washing the affected part with Sage tea. Another says 'When the face and neck are sunburnt simmer two pounds of fresh Elder flowers in two pounds of hog's lard until crisp and then strain through sieve. Leave to cool and then apply the ointment to the burnt area.'

If you wanted to keep your teeth from rotting - an important concern in the days before dentures, fillings and toothpaste - you had to 'wash the mouth continually with the juice of Lemons and afterward rub your teeth with a Sage leaf, and wash your teeth after meat with fair water.'

Finally, a delightful recipe for 'Comforting the Head and the Braine' which says: 'Take Rosemary and Sage of both sorts of both, with flowers of Rosemary if to be had, and Borage with ye Flowers. Infuse in good Canary wine for three days, drink it often.' The wine certainly makes it sound a pleasant cure.

The medicinal herbs

The medicinal properties of herbs were second in importance only to the culinary qualities. Below are listed the traditional medicinal usages and beliefs attributed to various herbs - obviously not all the reputed curative properties are to be relied upon or tested.

It is only quite recently that its qualities as a ea have been discovered in Europe, but they have been famous for centuries in the northern part of the United States, and in Canada. The Oswego Indians must have been the first to use its leaves to make a tea, for in North America this plant is named after them. After the 'Boston Tea Party', (December 16, 1773) patriotic American colonists drank it instead of Indian tea.

Its fragrance when it is growing make it a good bee plant and one of its American names is Bee Balm.

Centuries later, the great Elizabethan gardener and herbalist, John Gerard had the same praise for it in its use 'for the comfort of the heart, to drive away sorrow'. he - and many other people - had found that the effect of its leaves in a salad was 'to exilerate and make the mind glad', and the idea of an exhilarating salad is delicious in itself.

Borage was grown, too, for the beauty of its vivid blue flowers - Louis XIV had some planted in the gardens of Versailles - and they have been much copied in embroidery for centuries.

In England in the fifteenth century it was an essential plant, and it stayed in favour. For John Gerard, Chervil made salads that excelled 'in wholesomeness for the cold and feeble stomache'. The boiled roots were a preventive against plague. It could be eaten to cure the hiccups, and its leaves soothed the pain of rheumatism and bruises.

It was believed to mend broken bones, and to heal such things as bruises, sprains, swellings and backache. One Elizabethan recipe is for Comfrey root, boiled in sugar and liquorice, and mixed with Coltsfoot, Mallow and Poppy seeds to make an ointment for curing bad backs and strains. But its use was not confined to muscular troubles, people also made Comfrey tea for colds and bronchitis, using an ounce of dried leaves to one pint of boiling water.

Elecampane looks like a sunflower, and in Germany there was an ancient custom of putting a branch of it in the centre of a nosegay of herbs to symbolise the sun and the head of Odin, the greatest of the Norse gods.

The Romans, in their practical way, used the roots in a medicine for the cure of over-eating, and Tudor herbalists candied them to use for the treatment of coughs, catarrhs, bronchitis, and chest ailments generally.

Long ago, country people used to use it, too, for an early morning drink, and in some places they made wine from it. In the North of England, where it grows on Hadrian's Wall, it was used to treat hay fever.

In the Middle Ages, Fennel was a favourite strewing herb for, apart from being fragrant, it kept insects at bay. It had a high place in the kitchen, too, lending its flavour to food that was often far from fresh to make it palatable. The royal household of Edward I, who reigned in England towards the end of the thirteenth century, used Fennel at the rate of eight and a half pounds each month.

Fennel even had power against witches. If it were hung over the doorway on Midsummer Eve it would keep them away. And people who put it in the keyhole of their bedroom made sure that nothing dangerous would disturb their sleep.

The antiseptic quality of Garlic is not just a matter of faith - in the First World War, sphagnum moss soaked in garlic juice was used for wound dressings. Garlic was valued in other medicines, too, for the digestion and for colds, coughs and asthma. And an old country remedy for whooping cough was to put a clove of Garlic in the shoes of the whooper!

Lemon Balm had valuable qualities for human beings, too. It soothed tension. It was a dressing for wounds, and in the Middle Ages it was believed that a sprig of Leon Balm placed on an injury was enough to staunch the blood. it was good for the ears, toothache, and sickness during pregnancy. It was held to cure mad dog bites, skin eruptions and crooked necks. It prevented baldness. and when made into an amulet in a piece of linen or silk, it caused the women who wore it to be beloved and happy.

With all these powers to its credit, it is not surprising that the Ancient Greeks had believed that it promoted long life, and that a Prince Llewellyn of Glamorgan drank 'Melissa tea' - so he claimed - every day of the 108 days of his life.

Loveage was grown all through the 'Dark Ages'. It is yet another of the almost-all-purpose medicines: it was taken for sore throats, quinsy, and for eye ailments; for indigestion and stomach-ache, and for getting rid of boils, spots and freckles. It was also added to baths, most probably as the earliest deodorant.

In Central Europe, when girls went to meet their lovers, they wore Lovage in a bag hanging around their necks, and perhaps it was its use as a perfume that led to Lovage being put into love potions which were guaranteed to awaken everlasting devotion.

Maybe the 'poore women' of Gerard's day found a ready market fo it because it had so many uses. Gerard himself claimed that it would purify 'Corrupt water' on sea voyages, and that it would cure 'swimming in teh head and the paines and giddiness thereof'. And in dried and powdered form it was made into medicine for coughts and colds.

The Greeks used it to counteract all manner of afflictions, including ulcers, consumption, snake bites and grief. The Romans ate it. The Chinese at one time preferred Sage tea to tea tea, partly for its tonic properties. It was held to be good for the brain, the senses and the memory; it strengthened the sinews; it was good for palsy and cured stitches; it made a good gargle and mouthwash and kept the teeth white. And Gerard recommended its use in the brewing of ale!

Wormwood was well thought of as a medicine for a number of complaints. It was used to cure quinsy, prevent drunkenness, and heal the bites of rats and mice, and, mixed with wine, Rosemary, Blackthorn, and Saffron, it had a reputation for keeping people in good health. Wormwood had its magical qualities, too. If it was hung beside the door, it kept away evil spirits. And, back in the everyday world, if it was added to ink, it stopped mice from eating old letters.