Hyssop

History of Hyssop.

The name comes from the Hebrew for Azob, a holy herb. Ironically, hyssop is not indigenous to the East and based on the descriptions of the plant referred to as hyssop in the Bible, they can not possibly be the same plant.
 
Hyssop is a native of southern Europe and the Mediterranean. It is not clear when hyssop migrated to England, but the cultivation of 'Ysope' is described in the Feate of Gardening before 1440 and it has become naturalized on the walls of Beaulieu Abbey where it might have been grown in the 13th Century.
 
Turner (1508 - 1568), often referred to as the Father of British Botany, makes mention of a second variety that is all 'roughe and hory' and is much more hardy than common hyssop.
 
Gerard, author of Herball or Historie of Plants(1597), a work that borrows its information liberally from Dr. Priest's earlier work Pemptades (1583), appears to have grown both varieties and considered common hyssop quite ordinary and common, declining to include it in his works as it was so well-known.
 
Tudor and Elizabethan knot-gardens often included hyssop. During this period, it was still common for floors to be strewn with rushes and sweet herbs and hyssop's sweet scent made it quite useful for that purpose.
 

Folklore.

Hyssop was hung to provide protection from the evil eye and guard against witches.
 
The white or yellow stripes on the leaves and their fragrance led to hyssop often being planted on graves.
 

Early Medicinal Use of Hyssop.

Medicinally, hyssop vapors were considered by Turner to be useful to "driveth away the winde that is in the eares, if they be holden over it." And Parkinson (1567 - 1650) in Paradisi in Sole, Paradisus Terrestris claimed "it is many countrey people's medecine for a cut or greene wound, being bruised with sugar and applied." (Anyone familiar with Latin might spot the pun in the title of Parkinson's work 'paradisi in sole', park in sun.) He also also recommended a decoction of hyssop would "taketh away the itching and tingling of the head, and vermin also breeding therein."
 

Modern Medicinal Uses.

Hyssop is often used in an infusion to aid digestion, ease coughs, sore throats, hoarseness and bronchial catarrh. An old country remedy that continues to be used is hyssop tea and hyssop baths to ease rheumatism, bruises and discolored contusions. In a lotion form, hyssop is used to treat ear, eye and throat infections and to relieve bites and stings.
 
Hyssop is considered and emmenagogue, herbs that stimilate blood flow in the pelvic area and are often used to stimilate menstual flow. One of our references recommends that pregnant woman avoid hyssop due to this property.
 
One source reccomends not using hyssop oil, internally or externally, because it causes muscle spasms and even epileptic seizures but another says that in careful doses the oil is not harmful. Both agree that in small amounts the leaves and flowers are safe.
 

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