Calendula

Scientific Name: Calendula officinalis

Taste: bitter, pungent, salty, sweet

Family: Asteraceae

Medicinal Parts: flowers

Energetics: warm, dry, tonifying

Actions:  draining, lymphatic, alterative, diaphoretic, vulnerary, antimicrobial

Affinities: lymphatic and digestive system

Notable Constituents:  volatiles, triterpenes, bitter glycosides, sterols, flavonoids, carotenoids, resins, mucilage (to 1.5%)

Medicinal Applications

- Calendula is healing to internal and external wounds. Cuts, scrapes, stings, and bruises can be helped by a topical application and internally digestive irritation, abrasion and ulceration, also leaky gut, can be helped with calendula tea. 

- Calendula is useful in stagnant and boggy lymph conditions, including infection and edema. Useful for lymphatic congestion due to infective pathogens or autoimmunity. Suited to a wide variety of conditions, such as intestinal bloating, eczema, and lymphomas. The antimicrobial action is also associated with its lymph clearing properties.

-Stimulates blood flow to the surface of the skin and its eliminatory pathways, which aids in healing. This action also produces a diaphoretic effect, helping to break up fever. 

In Practice

-Add calendula to a gut formula to help calm digestion, and to get at the lymphatic stagnation that causes many types of digestive distress. 

-Add calendula infused oil to beeswax to create a wound healing salve, or soak cheese cloth in a strong calendula decoction and lie on top of wound. 

Cautions/Contraindications

Calendula is considered a safe herb for everyone.

Friends

peppermint, fennel, chamomile, catnip, and plantain