You Can Grow Your Kitchen Herbs By Kyle Roderick ThirdAge Staff

Having fresh healing herbs on hand can bring extra flavor to your cooking while helping to nourish your mental and physical health.

"Even if you live in an apartment, you can easily grow herbs in pots on sunny windowsills," says landscape designer Philip Castiglia of La Canada, Calif.

Castiglia, who has studied healing herbs and ethnobotany with herbalists, has planted healing herb gardens for many clients. He recommends growing multitasking healing herbs such as mint.

"A few teaspoons of mint leaves can be used to make an anti-nausea tea," he says. "Mint tea also is mildly sedating and is good to drink before going to bed."

Rosemary and oregano contain antioxidants that help prevent aging in cells, says former USDA botanist James A. Duke, Ph.D., author of "The Green Pharmacy" (Rodale Press, $29.95). If you have arthritis, you may want to include as much of these as you can in your cooking, he suggests. Use oregano and rosemary in pizzas, soups and stews.

Try planting clovey tasting holy basil for salads and Asian dishes, and for your head. Researchers from Michigan State University report in the journal Phytomedicine (March 2000) that they've identified six compounds in Ocimum sanctum that act like ibuprofen, naproxen and aspirin. This supports traditional use of the leafy green for treating headaches.

If you are prone to an upset tummy, you might want to raise summer savory. Known botanically as Satureja hortensis, this annual herb is traditionally used for treating intestinal disorders. In the journal Ethnopharmacology (July 2000), researchers from Iran's Isfahan University of Medical Science documented the herb's anti-spasmodic activity.

A good source of information about medicinal herbs is the nonprofit American Botanical Counsel. It offers a wide variety of material backed up by scientific studies.

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Find tasty recipes to incorporate healing herbs.

-- SAR01 (rauch01@yahoo.com), March 01, 2001