Gathering: The sprigs or leaves of rosemary are gathered from well-established plants ideally when they are just about to flower or during flowering. Tinctures are immediately processed or flowering branches are hung in the shade to dry.
Preparation: Rosemary’s abortifacient properties are historically derived from the ingestion of rosemary’s leaf decoction during early pregnancy. Rosemary is used as a simple or sometimes combined with mugwort and rue, or as a carminative with aloe. One source suggests rosemary be combined with a few lavender flowers, and maybe a slice of lemon and some honey.[433]
Words to the Wise: Contact dermatitis has occurred occasionally with rosemary. Rosemary’s essential oil can cause psychoactive, inebriated effects. Rosemary is estrogenic and may cause estrogen-like side effects: abnormal blood clotting, liver problems, and may encourage the growth of estrogen-dependent tumors. Estrogenic herbs may not be as effective for premenopausal women.
Watch for Signs of Toxicity Specific to Rosemary Essential Oiclass="underline" Changes in personality, stupor, gastrointestinal irritation, nausea, and vomiting.
Emmenagogual Decoction (leaves): 1 oz. (28 g) herb to 2 cups (500 ml) water. Simmer covered at least 1 hour, 2 – 3 Tbs., to three to four times a day, for up to seven days.
Powder: 4 - 10 #0 capsules, three - four times a day, for up to seven days.
Rue
Here did she fall a tear; here, in this place, I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace; Rue, even for Ruth, here shortly shall be seen, In the remembrance of a weeping Queen.
-William Shakespeare, Richard II, 1595
AKA: Rue, herb of grace, herbygrass, southern countryman’s treacle, and garden rue.
Parts Used: Leaves and new shoots.
Medicinal Properties: Abortifacient, anthelmintic, antispasmodic, aromatic, emetic, emmenagogue, rubefacient, stimulant, and tonic.
Effects on the Body: Improves appetite and digestion, stimulates nervous and uterine systems, expels worms, and used as an antidote to poisonous snake and insect bites.
Abortifacient Action: Uterine contractor and contains rutin.
Contains: Rutin and the oxytocic alkaloids arborinine, graveolininine, skimmianine and pilocarpine.
Description: Rue is a bush-like aromatic perennial shrub that reaches heights of 2 – 3 ft. (0.6 – 1 m). Rue’s stem is woody in its lower section. Aromatic bluish-green leaves are alternate and pinnately divided, 3 – 5 in. (7.5 - 12.5 cm) long, often having a whitish cast. Yellow flowers, ½ inch (1.3 cm) wide, with yellow, toothed petals and green centers, appear in summer to early autumn, forming in loose clusters at the top of the plant. Naturalized from Europe, rue is found in North America in old fields, roadsides and waste places from Newfoundland south to Virginia and west to Missouri.
Rue, ‘herb of grace,’ was the model for the suit of clubs. The symbol of the suit of clubs is not a club but a trefoil, meaning a plant that has compound leaves with three leaflets. Trefoil rue has long been associated with the three-fold Roman goddess Diana. Diana was the Triple Goddess: Virgin Moon, Mother of all Creatures, and the Crone Destroyer, as well. The name Rue is thought to be derived from the Greek reuo, meaning ‘to set free.’ The orgiastic followers of Diana are known to have used the abortifacient rue as a love charm.’[434] Respect and worship of the triple feminine aspect of the Earth Mother was so widespread, the Christians saw the Roman goddess Diana as their competitor and called her the “Queen of Witches.”[435] Rue, powerful gynecological medicine, was associated with the wise-woman midwives who were brutally harassed as witches and declared by Christians “to use rue to brew magical drinks for causing harm.”[436] In the North American Voodoo religion, rue is sacred to Erzulie, loa (goddess) of love. Sensual, pleasure loving, and a protector of women, Erzulie (sometimes compared to Aphrodite) represents the power of seduction and fertility.[437] Rue, when carried in a red flannel bag, is believed by the Voodoo worshippers of Erzulie to “help protect the virginity of a female and protect the wearer against all poisons.”[438] Rue is a traditional abortifacient of the Hispanic people of New Mexico,[439] and rue infusion has been documented as being used as an abortifacient throughout Latin America.[440] Rue contains a chemical substance called philocarpine, which is used in veterinary medicine as an abortifacient for horses.[441] Rue also contains a substance called rutin, or Vitamin P. Rutin, present in many plants, is one of the essential bioflavonoids that serves to help the body strengthen arteries and veins and harden bones and teeth. Rutin is also known to have the power to prevent pregnancy. In large doses, rutin prolongs the action of the adrenal hormone adrenaline and decreases capillary permeability in the uterine tissues.[442] Decreased capillary permeability in the uterine tissues causes the endometrium to become non-nutritive to the fertilized egg. The egg does not implant, and abortion occurs. Chinese research on a related species in the Rutaceae family, Murraya paniculata, has shown the active substance, named yuehckukene, at a dose of 3 mg/per kg of body weight on the day after coitus, to be 100% successful in preventing pregnancies in female rats. The yuehckukene extract of this rue-sister is said to look promising as a future postcoital interceptor.[443] Some tests on pregnant mice have shown that rue has the ability to interfere with embryo development and interfere with fallopian tube transport and implantation.[444] However, another test of Ruta graveolens on pregnant mice showed no anti-implantation effects, only fetal death.[445]
Gathering: A mature rue plant may be harvested several times a year if each time the leaves or shoots are harvested, a top-dressing of rich compost is added to stimulate new growth.[446] The best time to gather rue’s green shoots is right before the flowers open in the morning after the dew has dried. Shoots are immediately processed into tinctures or dried in the shade. Dried rue is stored in airtight containers.
434
Christian Ratsch,
435
Barbara G.Walker,
439
George A. Conway and John C. Slocumb, “Plants Used as Abortifacients and Emmenagogues by Spanish New Mexicans,”
440
M. O. Guerra and A. T. L. Andrade, “Contraceptive Effects of Native Plants in Rats,”
441
Norman P. Farnsworth, et al., “Pontential Value of Plants as Sources of New Antifertility Agents, Part I”
442
David G. Spoerke Jr.,
443
Yun Cheug Kong, Jing-Xi Xie, and Paul Pui-Hay But, “Fertility Regulating Agents from Traditional Chinese Medicines,”
444
J.L. Gutiérrez-Pajares, L. Zúñiga, and J. Pino, “Ruta graveolens Aqueous Extract Retards Mouse Preimplantation Embryo Development,”
445
T.G. De Freitas, P.M. Augusto, and T. Montanari, “Effect of
446
Claire Kowalchik and William H. Hylton, eds.,