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Carrying
the herb may lengthen one's life, but consuming tansy could
shorten it as the essential oil contains thujone, a convulsant
narcotic that is toxic and potentially fatal. However, an
old legend maintains that a small piece of tansy placed in
your shoe will cure a persistent fever.
In
the garden tansy will flourish in almost any soil. A hardy
perennial, growing to four feet, with clusters of attractive
yellow flowers and fernlike, strongly aromatic green leaves,
it makes an engaging backdrop to blue and grey herbs such
as sage. The herb's resinous scent blends pleasantly with
floral and spicy fragrances in your flower garden. It is advisable
to keep tansy away from your vegetable garden however because
it can be invasive with its creeping rhizomes and it appears
to attract both cabbageworms and aphids. Conversely, the herb
is an effective repellant to moths, ants and cockroaches and
is used as a strewing herb in areas where these insects are
a pest. Another common name for tansy is "ant fern".
In the fall, dead and dying tansy will make a potassium-rich
contribution to your compost heap.
North American Indians used tansy to induce abortion. The
herb is potentially fatal in this role and underscores the
caution against exposure to it when pregnant. The primary
medicinal role of tansy is as a anthelmintic (worm expellant).
Tansy, like feverfew, contains parthenolides, an ingredient
which is used to prevent and alleviate migraine headaches.
The herb has also been used as a carminative to aid digestion
and applied externally to kill scabies, lice and fleas. The
17th-century British herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper, even advocated
tansy for treating sunburn, pimples and freckles. Skin lotions
containing tansy have been recommended for their cleansing
and soothing qualities. It is supposed to be especially effective
in combating acne. In the days when ladies desired a very
white skin, a concoction of tansy steeped in buttermilk for
a week was supposed to accomplish this. But then, the malodor
of week old buttermilk would be enough to turn anybody pale.
Great caution should be used when considering tansy as a medicinal
herb. It should only be employed under the advice and direction
of a health professional.
Tansy can be used in the kitchen in very small quantities,
although I would personally advise against it because of the
potential toxicity. The leaves are strong tasting and peppery.
The herb can add piquancy to scrambled eggs, salad dressings,
cakes and cookies, but why bother when there are healthier,
risk-free alternatives?
However, out of interest, here's a recipe from a very old
English cookbook:
'A
Tansy'
'Beat 7 eggs, yolks and whites separately; add a pint
of cream, near the same of spinach-juice, and a little tansy-juice
gained by pounding in a stone mortar; a 1/4 pound of Naples
biscuit, sugar to taste, a glass of white wine, and some nutmeg.
Set all in a sauce-pan, just to thicken, over the fire; then
put it into a dish, lined with paste, to turn out, and bake
it.'
Tansy is also supposedly one of the 130 herbs constituting
the secret recipe - dating back to 1757 - for the liqueur,
Chartreuse.
Crafters love tansy because the dried flowers and leaves make
a fragrant, attractive and long-lasting addition to arrangements
of everlastings - the immortality theme again. The young leaves
and flowers also make an effective dye for woolens.
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