Beautiful, golden and lovely calendula. There’s so much to love about this plant, and so it’s no surprise it is a key ingredient in NatFem Balm and Oil, or that it grows throughout the Archeus gardens (organically of course!).
I think of calendula as ‘first aid and food’ all wrapped up in one plant. It can also beknown as ‘Marigold’ or ‘Pot Marigold’, but I don’t like to call it that because it gets it confused with the ‘other’ marigold which is ‘tagetes’ – think Frieda Kahlo and the Mexican Day of the Dead, and I don’t use that one in NatFem products because it does not have the same benefits.
Calendula officinalis is brimming with beneficial properties. It’s rich in vitamins A,C,E and coenzyme 10. In Carole Fisher’s Materia Medica of Western Herbs, its listed actions include: anti-inflammatory, wound healing, antiseptic, antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial. It has been shown to reduce signs and symptoms of contact dermatitis, acute inflammation from radiotherapy and in treating burns.
Studies have shown that it has helped inhibit herpes, candida, trichomonas vaginalis and staphylococcus aureus.
Its medicinal uses associated with the reproductive tract includes vaginal thrush, vaginitis, cervical dysplasia. While as a skin treatment, the combination of its actions make it applicable for many skin problems including inflamed skin conditions, fungal infections, eczema, nappy rash, sore nipples, broken capillaries and sebaceous cysts.
I love working with calendula and it is a key ingredient in NatFem Original Balm and Original Oil, and if you've stuck with me this far through this email, you'll see why it is such a friend to intimate areas.
Beyond its uses as a medicinal herb, I love that the dried flowers smell like warm honey.
If you haven’t already tried including fresh calendula petals in your salads - then you should! I also use camellia oil infused with calendula as a salad dressing. Not only do calendula petals look gorgeous in a salad, but they are bursting with all the healing properties mentioned above. Their taste is complex. Take the time to try some petals on their own. Their taste is sweet, almost bland and then becomes more peppery. This peppery aspect must aid digestion. I also put calendula leaves into stir fries and casseroles, and I put dried flowers into my herbal tea blend (I make it with all sorts of goodies from my garden!).
Calendula makes a great companion plant in veggie gardens. It attracts bees which aids pollination, repels whiteflies from tomatoes and lures aphids away from beans. It also attracts beneficial insects, including ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies, which prey on aphids.
And on a final note of whimsy, legend has it that if a woman walks barefoot on calendula petals, she will understand the language of birds!
PS: While NatFem Original Balm and Original Oil were initially created to help with our nether regions, it is worth remembering that they can be used anywhere on the body. :-)
Sources:
Fisher, C. 2009. Materia Medica of Western Herbs. Vitex Medica
