( Tintaura, romanian- Centaurium Umbellatum, Family: Gentianaceae )
Common Centaury is found throughout Europe, mainly on calcareous soils and dry grassy places like sand dunes and chalky uplands.
Common Centaury has a smooth stem with small opposite leaves and a branched flowerhead. It is in bloom between June and September. Its pink flowers close during the afternoon like other members of the Gentian family.
The flower was named Chironia, from Centaur Chiron. The violet leaves of the plant, properly used, help mental healing.
Hippocrates describes Centaurium, under the Greek Kentareion and according to legend, Chiron (founder of medicine) used Centaury to heal a wound inflicted.
Renowned for supporting the nervous system it also helps the digestive system, is a wonderful herb as potent as the mythological powerful ( Chiron) Centaury,, the centaur ‘half like a horse, half a god’, who was the son of Saturn (Cronos) and the nymph Philyra who was a daughter of Ocean.
Chiron lived with his wife Chariclon in a cave on Mount Pelion in Greece and was the tutor of Asclepius, god of medicine, and reared Achilles.
When Hercules was passing by on his labors in search of the Erymanthian boar, Chiron was accidentally wounded by one of Hercules’ poisoned arrows
Centaury is one of the four panaceas ascribed by Pliny to Chiron, the centaur who is the archetype of healers.
The association with Chiron, the centaur, indicates the long usage of these plants and associates both with wound healing.
For example, in the Iliad of Homer, which describes the Trojan War: “Eurypylos says, ‘Cut the arrow out of my thigh … and put kind medicines on it, good ones, which they say you have been told off by Akhilleus, since Kheiron, most righteous of the Kentauroi, told him about them’
The main power of this herb is aiding the elderly self to grow up and be able to express and defend your opinions, uninfluenced by others.
So the Centaury remedy helps you to develop a stronger will and greater sense of yourself.
Healers use the aerial parts as a bitter tonic and to stimulate gastric juices. They can also be added to bath water for continued healing benefits.
The health benefits of Centaury tea have been known for a long time within traditional herbal medicine. Products obtained by various methods from the Centaury plant and prepared in various forms have a wide range of use, primarily to soothe the nerves. Centaury is used also for animals who are worried.
It has a long history of traditional use as a digestive tonic and was also used to treat fevers – hence the name “feverwort”.
Centaury offers many health benefits and in ancient times these benefits were already known to Romans who used it, among other things, as an antidote to the snake poison.
Centaury is recommended as an alexipharmic panacea by Quincy. Alexipharmics are substances considered to protect the heart against poison, in particular after venomous bites.
Apuleius proposes the herb crushed in vinegar to dispel the poison after a bite of a viper. Parkinson and Culpeper recommend 1 drachm (4 g) of powder for snakebite in wine, and Culpeper adds that is ‘wonderful good against the biting and poisons of an adder’.
The healing of inflammation from wounds and protection against wounds or snake bites is an ancient theme in the use of Centaury as it was an ingredient in Mithridatum. This remedy is based on a formula set by Zopyrus, physician to King Ptolemy of Egypt, to Mithridates VI (d. 63 BC), King of Pontus (which is an area west of Trabzon on the southern shore of the Black Sea). The formula contains 20 aromatic plants, including ginger, myrrh, and centaury, of which 15 remained in the formula of 36 ingredients proposed by Celsus (Norton 2006).
“Jerusalem balsam” was another panacea used in Europe that was formulated at the Franciscan monastery of St Saviour in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 17th century (Moussaieffa et al 2005).
Centaury was included in one formula of 40 ingredients found in Venice which dates from the early 18th century.
The same remedy was used both externally on wounds, including gunshot wounds and fistulas, and also daily in small doses in food to resist infectious diseases.
This recalls Ibn Sina and Apuleius, who both advise that internal usage will heal wounds. Apuleius advises a decoction in water boiled down to a third party.
Centaury continues to be used today in Turkey for chronic inflamed wounds, either as a tea of aerial parts or as a salve made with olive oil (cf. Berkan, 1991).
The spiritual role of this plant is to heal those parts of the personality which, from altruism, are predisposed to let themselves out and obey others. That creates imbalance and they must learn to say “no” when appropriate.
The Nature Spirit of Centaury is helping heal the weak-willed, dominated by others, and over-anxious.
Brooke (1992), maybe in a reference back to the story of Chiron, Hercules, and Achilles, argues that Centaury is useful to face the day with courage, to stand up for yourself, and to drink ‘before a long journey where trials of strength are to be attempted’.
So Centaury is healing the inner child trauma and it is also known as a plant of determination that helps accomplish true relationships.
Centaury has a strong bitter principle that helps relieve dyspepsia, languid digestion, and indigestion. It’s the best-known species of the genus Achillea Due to its various therapeutic uses in both folk and conventional medicine.
Old ulcers that refused to heal were called Chironian as if requiring Chiron himself to heal them (Dawson 1949).
Centaury (the most healing species, Greatest Centaury) as Dioscorides attested, probably the herb used by the legendary Centaur, has a large, red astringent root and it is strongly recommended for use in wounds.
Its drying properties are destined by nature to heal sinuses and fistulas and soften old hardnesses, and heal malignant ulcers’.
Ibn Sina (another name of Avicenna a Persian “polymath” – meaning “one who learned much” who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic Golden Age and the father of early modern medicine) describes the two “Centauries” and states that centaury cleans fresh wounds and closes old ulcers, and that dried centaury is used in preparations for plasters for use in fistulas, including ‘lacrimal fistulas’. This last recommendation for use in fistulas is also made by Dodoens, who advises the powder of dried aerial parts.
Ibn Sina advises centaury for muscle tears. He advises us of an enema in sciatica, nerve pain, and tears and that if blood comes out then this is beneficial. He means discharge of blood from the wound and thus cleansing of the wound.
Ibn Sina recommends centaury for obstructions of the liver and as a remedy for a hardened spleen both as a drink and applied topically, which recommendations are repeated by various authors including Culpeper. Ibn Sina advises 6 g as a decoction for colic and states that sometimes the decoction cleanses mucous and unripe humor as well as yellow bile.
Centaurium erythraea external usages are explained by Dioscorides.
Dioscorides describe the preparation of juices from the aerial parts collected when in a seed. The fresh herb is soaked for 5 days, boiled hard, strained, and then boiled again until it reaches a honey-like consistency.
Dioscorides also states that ‘the broth is good for sciatica as it draweth the blood and eases the pain’ Descriptions of hip pain sound more like osteoarthritis of the hip or septic arthritis than the use of the term sciatica today to describe pain extending from the hip down the leg. Galen states that some pour the decoction on hip pains.
Dioscorides also recommends the juice for eye conditions, cleansing with honey ‘those elements that cast a shadow over the eyes’. He also advises the juice for ‘ailments around the tendons’, which are given as diseases of the sinews
Salernitan herbal, which recommends the local application of the juice with leek juice for ‘worms in the ears’. This could be otitis external or Beck suggests ear wax.
Culpeper and Parkinson both recommend external usage for scabs, freckles, and spreading scabs of the head.
He also states that the decoction of the root is a suitable enema for hip ailments delivering blood and relief.
The area around the joints was visualized as being stretched because of the flow of the phlegmatic humor into the area, and thus herbs were needed to dry up or promote the flow of this humor (Culpeper et al 1655).
Hoffmann refers to it as indicated primarily in anorexia especially if associated with liver weakness, indigestion, and any condition where sluggish digestion is involved.
Pliny recommends 1 drachm (4 g) in 1 hemina (about 270 mL) of water with a little salt and vinegar to purge the bowels and draw down the bile.
Parkinson states that it thins the blood and humor and purges choleric and green humor. It is thus useful, he says, for ‘lack of appetite, poor gastric function, gastritis, heartburn, to stimulate hepatic and biliary activity and in cases of jaundice.
Culpeper states that it purges choleric and gross humor, and is especially good for the blood.
Galen stated that it is good for those whose nerves are affected.
Macer makes one think of the pure, clean bitter taste of Centaury as if it would regulate flow and thus purify the spirit.
Modern authors such as Menzies-Trull and Wood recommend centaury in depression associated with digestive disturbance
Bach flower essences are widely recognized since their main objective is to stabilize the body’s energy through the healing of the emotional problems that affect people today.
When used correctly, Bach Flower Essence Centaury aids in focusing mental energy, so you can do what’s right for you.
The original Bach Flower Remedies is a safe and natural method of healing discovered by Dr. Bach in the 1930s in England. It helps with excessive fear and anxiety towards others and over-protectiveness.
He shows the connection between this action and the use of the Bach flower essence of Centaury for courage and to help the person to speak out.
Pelikan refers to the medicinal function of bitters as to ‘make the ether body inclined to receive the astral body’, hence the etheric aspect of the organs serving metabolism will be suffused with astral influence, allowing a vigorous and healthy response to the ingested food. ‘The right appetites will then arise, the fluid organism will be toned and conscious awareness strengthened’
The most interesting fact is that the plant had the total attention of Apuleius who wrote: “The Golden Ass” which is a mystery opera, totally devoted to magic.
’ Apuleius advises the herb crushed in vinegar for worms and this appears in Centaury as both bitter, thus creating an appetite, and a pleasant stomach in indigestion.
Hool recommends a tonic for the delicate or elderly: centaury 1 2 oz, raspberry Rubus idaeus 1 2 oz, infuse in 1 pint. Take a wine glassful (60 mL) four times a day.
The British Herbal Pharmacopoeia recommends it as a carminative in dyspepsia, anorexia, and in children with gastric or hepatic weakness.
However, it is of particular service to people with low energy, including elderly people with poor appetite and it is proven it is very effective and well tolerated.
It is also the herb of choice for children, who sometimes combine poor appetite with susceptibility to infections.
It has traditional usage in Scotland as an infusion as a tonic, particularly to improve the appetite of tuberculosis sufferers (Beith 1995). It can be included in Centaury when there are aches and pains associated with chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia.
Centaury is also used in salads, soups, cabbage dishes, or dressings, the herb can be an interesting variety.