Which medicinal plants were important 100 years ago? Where were they wanted? And how were they grown, harvested and dried? An example: Roman chamomile. About a hundred years ago, the Roman chamomile with so-called double flowers was mainly cultivated and used as a medicinal herb. The botanical species Anthemis nobilis grows along grain fields and pond banks, especially on sandy soils, but the flower heads of the wild-growing plants have few edge flowers, while the form grown, mainly in Belgium but also in France, Germany and England, have filled flower heads.
Description of the plant.
The perennial, herbaceous plant with an average height of 25 cm has a rhizome, which, after developing a root rosette in the first year, produces every year many branched and ascending stems with spreading, sessile and double pinnate leaves. The leaves are linear-lanceolate.
The 2 cm large and stalked flower heads are at the end of the stem. The involucre leaves, which cover each other like shingles, are elongated-ovoid, membranously edged and hairy on the outside. The filled, cone-shaped flower base is covered with numerous spatula-shaped, membranous and hairy straw scales on the dorsal side. The numerous female, ribbon-shaped marginal flowers, whose white, 7 mm long corolla is usually 4 to 8-veined and 3-toothed, have a cylindrical, short and yellow-brown, unilocular ovary with style and two outwardly curved, blunt stigmas.
The disc florets, very few in the center, sometimes missing, are yellow, tubular with a 5-toothed corolla , 5 stamens with fused anthers and an ovary like those of the marginal flowers. The fruit is an achene.
Culture of Roman chamomile.
Anthemis nobilis was the most important plant for the medicinal herb culture in Belgium, in the region of Deux-Acres, Flobecq, Lessines and Boussu. In the region mentioned, almost every farmer had his chamomile fields. The area cultivated with chamomile was then 65 hectares. According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, the annual yield before 1914 was 150 tons of dried chamomile flowers (according to Prof. De Graaff in 1926 also 150 tons Ph. Tdschr. IV-1926) and pharmacist L. Vandenbussche estimates the yield around 1930 at 300-500 tons . It is true that the built-up area could fluctuate strongly under the influence of prices.
Cultivation of Roman chamomile.
The plants were propagated vegetatively; In the spring, old plants were divided into bundles with 4-5 shoots each, which were then planted in rows approximately 50 cm apart, approximately 60 cm apart. The plants required a fertile, nitrogen-rich soil and a moderate, even slightly warm climate. They bloom from June-July to September.
Harvesting Roman chamomile.
The flower heads of the first crop were well filled and thick, but less numerous and less sought after than the later flowering ones because, according to the growers, they turn brown easily. The second and third picking yielded the most sought after, well-filled and most aromatic flower heads, which were therefore the most valuable. With the next harvests the heads are gradually less numerous and also smaller.
The not fully developed, still somewhat green flower heads were picked regularly, every fourteen days, preferably in dry weather. Flower heads picked in humid weather do not dry beautifully white. The pickers, usually women and children, took care to pick as few flower stems as possible. The fresh flower heads were then delivered to wholesalers, who dried them quickly in special dryers with compressed warm air. 5 kg of fresh flower heads yielded 1 kg of dried ones. The flower heads of different sizes were then separated by sieves into: excellent quality with a maximum of 50 flower heads per 10 g and current quality with a maximum of 70 flower heads per 10 g. The even smaller ones were intended for distilleries, for processing into liqueur.
There were also chamomile cultures in France (Nord and Anjou), in Germany (Saxony and Thuringia) and in England (Surrey) .
Description of dried material, the so-called materia medica.
The pharmacy books gave a description of the dried material, the so-called materia medica, which sounds old-fashioned like this: Hemispherical, whitish flower heads, with a diameter of at least 20 mm and an average weight of 200 mg. The involucre consists of two or three rows of scales arranged like imitations, straw-like on the edges and partly covered with the recurved, three-toothed tongues of the marginal flowers, which, very rarely in the center, show some yellow, hermaphroditic tubular flowers; cone-shaped, solid, straw-like flower base; …Smell strong and characteristic ; taste bitter.
Quality control
According to detailed standardization regulations, the diameter of ‘prime’ quality had to be a minimum of 20 mm and of ‘current’ quality a minimum of 16 mm. Only excellent quality was accepted as pharmacy goods by the Pharmacopée Belge IV. Chamomile flowers could contain no more than 3% brown colored flower heads and no more than 3% flower heads smaller than 20mm. They were not allowed to contain stems or foreign matter. Because Roman chamomile was also processed industrially in liqueur distilleries, checks were also made to ensure that flowers that had already been distilled were not put back on the market.
So there were a lot of regulations at that time for growing, harvesting and processing herbs, for checking quality and detecting possible counterfeits.
And now?
The fact is that more herbs are now being used everywhere and therefore more herbs are being grown. In Belgium too, people are trying to restart a herbal culture. There are various herbalist training courses that also provide, albeit brief, information about the quality and cultivation of medicinal plants. In the Lessines region there are still remains of medicinal herb cultivation, especially angelica. Furthermore, a lot of information and tourist attention is paid to the former herbal culture in that region. There is a permanent exhibition, a herb garden and a herb path to visit and walk in Flobecq. The entire region, the Flemish Ardennes, is ideal for beautiful, spicy walks.