Every good general must know when to charge and when to retreat. Every good herbalist must know when to treat and when to seek out a doctor and/or pharmaceuticals.
Rosemary
This plant, up until recently known as Rosmarinus, has been renamed by botanists responsible for classifying plants into botanical families and giving them their Latin, or botanical, names. It is now officially known as Salvia rosmarinus. Learn Latin, they said; the Latin names never change, they said… Right! (Insert a big eye roll and an exaggerated sigh here. LOL!)
This is one of the plants that, while it doesn’t grow wild here, is easy to find, has seeds, and will thrive in our tough East Texas climate.
Rosemary has been used since ancient times as a medicine and has never fallen from grace, never being relegated to just an old wives' tale. That’s because it works. Not only does it work, but it works in so many ways, across so many areas of the body, and against so many maladies that it boggles the mind. And, even with all of the studies and advancements in medicine and science, it has never been proven not to work. That’s amazing! So, let’s jump into a quick study of this powerful medicine that has probably been just sitting there quietly and humbly on your kitchen shelf, or maybe just posing as an ornamental in your garden, not giving you a clue to it’s very real superhero abilities all this time…
Did you know that:
..Nurses used to brew a strong rosemary tea and use it to sterilize instruments and operating rooms?
..Before refrigeration and preservatives like BHA and BHT, as well as others, Rosemary was being used by people and the early commercial food industry to stop food spoilage? Especially in meats and meat dishes. Psst! Still works for this, and is fast becoming a popular preservative for the commercial food producers again.
..It was once used as an incense or smudge to fumigate and purify sick rooms and even hospitals?
..It has been used in cosmetics and skin lotions and ointments since time immemorial for it’s antioxidant, and thereby anti-aging properties… and still is today!
..That Rosemary was one of the predominate protective herbs used in the Thieves Vinegar during the Bubonic Plague?
..Astonished yet? Well, hang on for this ride, because it only gets better from here!
Rosemary is as effective, and sometimes even more effective, for pain caused by inflammation in the body than aspirin. It can relieve pain when taken when either taken internally, or used externally.
To make a tea of rosemary first boil a pint of water. Remove from heat and add about a ½ oz of herb to the water, steep 10 minutes, strain and drink warm or cold.
To make a Liniment for Sore and Strained Muscles, take a double handful of fresh rosemary leaves and chop it coarsely. Add this to either a pint of olive oil (or another oil of choice) or alcohol. Soak it for at least a week before straining and storing in a cool dry place. To use just rub it onto the affected area. Remember that I said Rosemary can be used as a preservative? Well, that comes in handy in this case if you use the oil-based liniment instead of the alcohol-based one. Rosemary, due to its antioxidant actions, should keep your oil from going rancid much longer than it would normally take for it to turn just sitting on your shelf. As stated earlier, it has been used in the past and is currently being considered as an alternative to BHA & BHT as a preservative for foods such as cereals, luncheon meat, and pizza. Because Rosemary has, and still is widely used in the food industry, it has been thoroughly investigated. What they have discovered is that Rosemary, when compared with 15 other widely used food preservatives, came out on top by far! It exhibits the strongest antioxidant activity of any of them. One of the most astonishing findings to researchers was the amazing ability rosemary has in stopping fats from going rancid for a very long time, making it an excellent choice as an addition to many oil based mixtures.
Rosemary is very beneficial for your hair and scalp. But, be aware it will darken your hair, so if you’re blonde or gray...BEWARE! IF you’re brunette or darker, you will do very well with it. I don’t know about red heads.
To make a hair rinse, make it just like you would make the above tea, but add more herb (double or better), and steep for 15 minutes or so. Shampoo hair, and rinse as usual. Then pour (cooled of course) this strong tea over hair. Allow to dry. You can also catch this ‘rinse water in a bowl and pour it over the hair multiple times if you wanted to.
Rosemary has been proven to be effective in not only reducing, but restoring lost hair in Alopecia (hair loss, usually related to stress, diet and or excess testosterone). By using a hydro-alcoholic, AKA dual extraction, method, which is basically by making an alcohol extract as well as a water extract, almost like a tea, and then mixing them together, hair may start regrowing in as little as 2 weeks of daily application to the scalp. And, yes, women make testosterone just like a man though in much lower quantity normally, just like men produce estrogen in a lower concentration than women. Sometimes this process goes a little bonkers and the hormone levels go haywire causing many problems like hair loss.
Rosemary is very beneficial when treating mucousy respiratory conditions. Rosemary can be smoked for relief from coughs and bronchial congestion. Inhale 6-10 puffs per treatment. Repeat as necessary. It is usually mixed with other herbs for this such as mullein or coltsfoot especially when being used to treat asthma or other mucous congestion that also includes the lungs and throat. And, yes, coltsfoot can grow here, but it really struggles with our heat, so, while it CAN, it doesn’t particularly like it.
Rosemary is somewhat astringent. Because of this astringency, it can be made into a very effective mouthwash, as it will not only sweeten the breath, but tighten and tone the gums.
To make a mouthwash you can simply bring a pint of water to a boil, then remove it from the heat source and add in about 3 tsp. Of the dried leaves, flowers and bendy tips. Cover well and let it steep for about 30 minutes or so. Strain, and store in the fridge.
Rosemary is a diaphoretic, helping you to sweat out a fever. You know, today when people get a fever they run to the medicine cabinet and grab some Advil or Tylenol, or even aspirin because they want to get rid of that fever...NOW. Maybe they need to slow down a minute and think about that move. A fever is the body’s way of ramping up to fight off an invader, why would you want to stop that? I agree, a fever makes you feel miserable, but, in the long run, it actually is helping you to get better faster. Now, if you have a high fever, that’s a different story than trying to just wait out a low grade fever, and you should do something about a high fever for sure. However, even a high fever doesn’t need to be completely, artificially and immediately shut down. A diaphoretic will actually cause a fever to peak before it breaks, which means that your immune system has been allowed to ramp up to it’s most vigilant degree. Isn’t that what you want – to get better faster? It doesn’t take any longer to get relief by raising a fever to the breaking point than it does to put that fire out by means of over the counter medications, and is much more beneficial to your body than said ‘medicines’. Dr. John Christopher believed in treating fevers WAY differently than we currently do. He believed in putting a patient in a hot bath until they broke a sweat, then wrapping them in a wool blanket, putting them to bed, keeping them warm and hydrated with WARM or HOT drinks until the illness passed. I know. I can hear it now. You’re thinking, Well what about brain damage from a fever that gets too high? Guess what? Unless the infection or virus has attacked the part of the brain that controls body temperature, or maybe has set up in the spinal area, interrupting those signals to the body, or even when there has been a brain injury that has affected the area of the brain responsible for controlling your body’s thermostat, you’re not likely to get too hot. Our body’s were created with a thermostat that will last a lifetime if it’s not damaged in some way. Like I said, a brain injury can occasionally make the thermostat not work correctly. Or even a brain growth or tumor in the wrong area of the brain, or an illness like meningicoccemia can cause, well, I’m not sure if it injures the thermostat or just scrambles the messages sent out to the body, like faulty wiring, but those things can definitely create a need for something from the outside of the body to be introduced to rapidly lower and control a raging fever, lessening the damage that kind of internal heat can cause. But those cases are pretty rare. Every person will have to decide for themselves just how they want to treat a fever, but, personally, I think treating it with a diaphoretic is the most beneficial way to go. Just my opinion. I am not a Doctor, so, my opinion is just that, an opinion. Take it with a grain of salt. Do your own research, and make up your own mind.
Rosemary is beneficial for treating digestive conditions like indigestion, colic, nausea or gas. This is partially due to the cholagogue action of this plant. Cholagogue is just a fancy way of saying it acts upon the liver and gall bladder to stimulate bile production. This extra bile production helps the gut digest foods better and easier, especially greasy food --- you know, the good stuff? As a matter of fact, Hippocrates, Galen and Dioscorides all prescribed rosemary for liver deficiencies.
The really high calcium content in Rosemary leaves happens to also be very easily assimilated by the body. This makes Rosemary very soothing and strengthening for the nervous system.
According to Dr. John Heinermann in his book Miracle Healing Herbs (1988) Rob McCaleb, editor of The HerbalGram, which was an excellent resource for herbal information back in the day … and may still be today, I’m not sure if it’s still in print or not, to sterilize questionable water and protect yourself from things like Montezeuma’s Revenge, or worse, (if that’s possible) you should first boil the water and then add a little rosemary to improve your odds of staying healthy. I would assume that this is because of rosemary’s well-documented anti-microbial effects.
Rosemary’s diuretic effects are useful in cases of kidney stones, gout, rheumatism, and UTI’s.
There is an interesting historical story attached to this herb. Actually, there are many due to it’s EXTREMELY long use as both food and medicine, but this one I found particularly interesting. There are several versions of it, Not hard to understand that if you consider the childhood game where you have several children sit in a row, or a circle, then one child whispers something into the ear of the child next to him or her. This ‘secret’ is to be told only once, no do overs allowed in this game. Then that child whispers in the ear of the next child, and so on until it reaches the end of the line. Did you ever play that? If so, you found out just how much a story can change and grow once it has been passed form person to person. (The object lesson here? Don’t listen to gossip!) Anyway, here’s a recap of the highlights of the condensed, historical ‘facts.’
Way back in the 14th century, Queen Elizabeth of Hungary, then in her 70’s, was crippled to the point of near paralysis from gout and rheumatism. Someone, (and there are some pretty entertaining versions as to who that was, but, we’ll just leave it at someone for now) had her try Rosemary. Some stories say she used it externally, some say internally, and some say she used it both ways! Whoever someone was, and however the Queen used it, it worked! She not only recovered from her pain and whatever stage of paralysis she had been experiencing, but she regained so much of her youthful vigor that she actually married, or, remarried as the case may be, or may not be, after her recovery!
Just as there are many versions of this story, there are also many recipe’s related as to the exact formula, or formula’s she used, however she used them.
Here’s one of them called Rosemary Youth Elixir: Take one good sized handful of rosemary flowering tops or leaves and soak it in 2 cups fine brandy for about 10 days. Strain and bottle. While the rosemary is mixing with the brandy, repeat this recipe in a separate container substituting lavender for the rosemary. Once both are done and bottled up, mix 3 parts of the rosemary brandy and mix it with 1 part of the lavender brandy. It is reported that 1 tsp of this mixture taken a couple of times a day will begin to restore a more youthful vitality within a short period of time, taking no more than a fortnight (2 weeks) to begin seeing improvement.
Another account completely is told in another book: Mielke, C. (2025). Six-fingered Queen - Elizabeth of Poland, Queen of Hungary, through the lens of disability. Including Disability, 2024(4), 1-22.
And I quote one sentence from the book:
“Centuries after Elizabeth of Poland's death, Queen of Hungary's water was praised for its ability to cure headaches, rheumatism, vertigo, poor hearing and eyesight, and toothaches. “
Whatever the actual truth is behind these stories, the fact that she was given great relief through Rosemary can’t be denied. It is the one constant in all of the tales. This relief can be explained once you understand that rosemary is not only diuretic and anodyne (pulls off excess fluid and kills pain), but is also a nutritive, anti inflammatory, and increases blood flow to the brain, and… well, let’s just say, what a wonderful combination of remedial actions to have growing in one plant in your garden or in your home!
But, ya know what? We’re not done yet with this fabulous little herb!
Rosemary is also, really beneficial to your heart and circulatory system in an astonishing number of ways!
Being anti-lipidemic, both you and your Doctor will be happier with your blood work. I know, anti-lipidemic is yet another of those scary sounding medical words… but, don’t worry, all it means for you is that it can lower the cholesterol and triglyceride levels in your blood. Well, actually, it can lower the bad cholesterol and raise the good cholesterol levels, which means in turn that your Doctor will be proud of your progress instead of lecturing you as much about diet, exercise and taking some old pharmaceuticals that you’d rather avoid taking as long as possible. I know there is currently a debate about whether high cholesterol is really a major culprit in heart disease or not, but, until they make up their minds, here is what Rosemary can do about this problem(?) IF you and your Doctor consider it a problem. One scientific study stated rosemary’s effectiveness as an anti-lipidemic quite well I thought:
“Dyslipidemia is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Current strategies are not effective in the management of dyslipidemia. Thus, there is a necessity to find new preventative and therapeutic approaches. In recent years, herbal medicine has drawn great attention regarding the prevention and management of dyslipidemia. Rosmarinus officinalis, commonly known as rosemary, is an evergreen shrub containing several polyphenols. The plant grows in the Mediterranean and South American regions. Rosemary and its main components have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and lipid-lowering properties. The present review has focused on in vivo and in vitro studies on the hypolipidemic effects of rosemary and its main constituents as well as their functional mechanisms. Studies have described lipid-scavenging activities of rosemary through its flavonoid contents. Modulating inflammation and oxidative stress have been described as possible mechanisms by which rosemary ameliorates dyslipidemia. However, the exact mechanisms are not fully understood yet. Conducting experimental and clinical trial studies are recommended to confirm the safety and efficacy of rosemary in the prevention and management of dyslipidemia and other cardio-metabolic diseases. “ (Farkhondeh T, Samarghandian S, Pourbagher-Shahri AM. Hypolipidemic effects of Rosmarinus officinalis L. J Cell Physiol. 2019 Sep;234(9):14680-14688. doi: 10.1002/jcp.28221. Epub 2019 Jan 29. PMID: 30693502. ) Their conclusion? While they’re not sure exactly how rosemary works, it obviously does and it needs further study to determine it’s mode of operation and it’s safety and efficacy (of course).
Another way (or three or four) that it helps your cardiovascular system is that by being so rich in antioxidants, it is an astonishingly good circulatory system protectant. Free radicals do a lot of harm in our bodies, as we all know, but, rosemary helps repair and protect your vessels, veins, and heart muscles and tissues from damages caused by said free radicals.
Because it is a really effective anti-inflammatory, it helps keep things running smoothly throughout the body, including the circulatory system. Science has been saying for years that inflammation throughout the system was a major contributor to the risk for heart attacks and strokes. Well, rosemary fights against that!
It also acts as an ACE inhibitor. An ACE inhibitor stops a specific enzyme from converting one specific chemical in your body to another form. The second form is a strong vasoconstrictor, which means that it causes your blood vessels to constrict and make the pathway for the blood to flow through smaller, and thereby causes a rise in your blood pressure. Stopping this conversion of chemicals, reducing blood pressure and improving blood flow is a really good thing for an herb to do!
Rosemary contains many substances that are cardiotonic. In other words, it nourishes and rebuilds healthy cells, tissues and function of the entire cardiovascular system. It contains substances that strengthen and increase flexibility of your blood vessels and capillaries, even helping in the treatment varicose veins. It increases blood flow through not only your arteries but the smaller vessels and veins too. A red wine in which rosemary has been steeped has been used as a folk remedy for cardiovascular problems for a long, long time.
And, one more thing before we leave this subject of rosemary’s beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system --- okay, maybe more than one more thing rosemary does, or causes, that helps your cardiovascular system, and then we move on --- It is a blood thinner. It is a diuretic. And, mostly because of it’s high calcium that your body can use easily instead of letting it go in your mouth and out your, well, whichever route it uses to leave your body, unused because your body decided it was too darn hard to break it down or convert it into some form it could use easily like many of the over the counter calcium supplements we spend our hard earned money on today do, it acts as an antispasmodic to muscles such as those in the blood vessels, heart, etc, which are responsible for getting your blood to and from where it’s supposed to get to and from. That too, is a good thing.
And so now we move on to what rosemary is best known for … improving memory, and other good for your brain stuff… (but, that’s still not all…)
There have been many, many, many studies proving Rosemary’s effectiveness in improving memory.
Like…
Ghasemzadeh Rahbardar M, Hosseinzadeh H. Therapeutic effects of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) and its active constituents on nervous system disorders. Iran J Basic Med Sci. 2020 Sep;23(9):1100-1112. doi: 10.22038/ijbms.2020.45269.10541. PMID: 32963731; PMCID: PMC7491497. Which concluded that…
“ This review authenticates that rosemary has appeared as a worthy source for curing inflammation, analgesic, anti-anxiety, and memory boosting. It also arranges new perception for further investigations on isolated constituents, especially carnosic acid, rosmarinic acid, and essential oil to find exquisite therapeutics and support drug discovery with fewer side effects to help people suffering from nervous system disorders. “
Or this one…
Zhao J, Li Z, Zhang R, Yu H, Zhang L. Network pharmacology mechanism of Rosmarinus officinalis L.(Rosemary) to improve cell viability and reduces apoptosis in treating Alzheimer's disease. BMC Complement Med Ther. 2025 Mar 7;25(1):94. doi: 10.1186/s12906-025-04771-8. PMID: 40055645; PMCID: PMC11889937. Which states that...
“The findings highlight the effectiveness of rosemary in helping to increase cell viability and reduce apoptosis when treating mouse hippocampal neuron HT22 cells, thereby supporting its therapeutic potential in treating Alzheimer's disease. “
You get the idea. The more they study rosemary’s effects on the brain, the more they come to the conclusion that … it works!
There was even another study involving college students that showed that taking rosemary at a dosage of 500 mg twice a day for 30 days not only improved memory and recall, but also reduced stress and anxiety, as well as improved sleep in both duration and quality. It’s not just an old person’s herb.
They have also done studies involving the use of rosemary in treating opioid withdrawal symptoms. They found that it improved sleep in these people too, fighting insomnia and increasing duration, regularity and quality of the sleep. It also helped in reducing the musculoskeletal pain associated with withdrawal, even reducing the muscle jerks they usually exhibit! This little plant also proved to exhibit some anti-convulsant properties. Wow! In conclusion, they found that patients receiving rosemary experienced less severe symptoms of withdrawal, mainly sweating, pain and insomnia.
Dr. Jill Stansbury in her book, Herbal Formularies For Health Professionals, Volume 4 –2020, noted that rosemary leaves tend to act as a cholinterase inhibitor.
(My notes: A cholinesterase inhibitor is a class of drugs that prevent the breakdown of a specific neurotransmitter. These drugs are used to treat Alzheimer’s, Myasthenia gravis and Parkinson’s disease.
Examples of these drugs are: Donepezil (Aricept), Rivastigmine (Exelon), Galantamine (Razadyne) and Tacrine (Cognex) etc.)
And in her book Herbal Formularies For Health Professionals, Volume 5 –2021, she notes that, “The rosmarinic acid in Rosemary has been found to reduce antibody driven inflammation of neural tissue.” In other words, it stops, or at least minimizes, swelling of brain and nerve tissue so they can work better.
Rosemary has also been studied for use as a UV protectant. It was tested along with grapefruit extract. Both were tested separately, and then they were tested in a 1:1 combination. Both worked well on their own, but the protective power was amplified significantly when they were combined. I don’t know if anyone really understands exactly how these extracts work, but, the results of these studies suggest that they each have a unique method, or route of working because when used alone, they only showed about a 40% increase in protection, but, when combined, that jumped to about 70% better protection. When taken by mouth for a couple of months, it makes it possible to be out n full sun exposure a lot longer than normal before that tell tale pink skin begins to appear signaling that you’d better cover up quick or you’re headed for a severe sunburn!
A similar hydroalcoholic extract was studied against melanomas, skin cancers. Taken orally, this extract was producing noticeable decrease in the melanoma’s size, numbers, and growth within a few weeks.
Rosemary is also a really good, safe anti-fungal and can be used very effectively in the fight against any of the Candida overgrowth problems which are so prevalent these days due to chemical exposure, antibiotics and poor diet. It is especially effective on topical infections where it can be used as an essential oil. A 10% Rosemary Oil and 90% carrier oil was shown to reduce fungal overgrowth by as much as 86%! As a matter of fact, an uncontrolled trial showed that gargling Rosemary oil in water (in a 1:10 proportion of oil to water) inhibited the growth of the fungi Candida albicans of 12 patients who were unresponsive to the drug Nystatin (Durakovic Z & S: J Indian Med Assoc 72(7):175-176,1979).
As a side note, rosemary is one of the most used essential oils in the world. But, did you know that it can take as much as 75 pounds of rosemary in flower to steam distill 1 pound (16 ounces) of essential oil?!?
Now to the warnings and stuff:
Contra indications: Rosemary is not safe in medicinal doses during pregnancy. Many believe this is being too cautious and have used it safely during pregnancy, but, why take a chance unless it’s an emergency? It does however appear to be perfectly safe during lactation. It should not be combined with anticoagulants (blood thinners), diuretics (medicines that pull fluid from your body, including your kidneys), or hypotensives (medicines that lower blood pressure). Do not take rosemary with lithium as it can lead to toxic levels of lithium in the body.
To get the medicinal benefits of rosemary through diet, it must be added AFTER cooking as heat will do away with the medicinal properties rapidly. So, eating rosemary lemon and butter chicken (one of my favorites), will not help your memory of anything except how good that chicken was.
I told you this herb was going to amaze you, didn’t I?
C. Shaw
Liability Disclaimer
The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider or licensed physician before using any herbal remedies, supplements, or alternative treatments, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, have a pre-existing medical condition, or are taking any medications.
Herbal remedies can interact with prescription drugs, cause allergic reactions, or have side effects that vary from person to person. The author and this blog do not claim that any herbs, recipes, or practices discussed will prevent, treat, or cure any disease or health condition.
All content is based on traditional use, general knowledge, and/or personal experience. Results are not guaranteed. The author and this website assume no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions, or for any damage or injury (including but not limited to direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages) that may result from the use or misuse of any information presented here.
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