Plant Description

History and Origin

Lemon verbena is a small shrub of the verbenaceae family originating from South America. It is cultivated for its delicious lemon-scented leaves and for its properties in phytotherapy. It can flavor some dishes, drinks and infusions for its calming and digestive virtues. Lemon verbena is also known to fight against depression and insomnia. It is also called Aloysia triphylla in Latin.

Aromatherapy 

Energetic and Emotional Effect

Lemon verbena has an energizing effect. It stimulates energy and reduces nervous fatigue, while helping find back the joy to live and self-esteem. It helps strengthen concentration abilities. Lemon verbena enables to turn the page on the past and to manage the present. It is very useful to fight against depressions and to help overcome grief. Lemon verbena prepare for the future with joy and confidence.

Uses

Plant description

History and Origin

Originally from New-Caledonian tree malenia leucodendron. Niaouli, named that way by the Native people, is mainly from New-Caledonia. It provides, with melaleuca cajeputi from the Moluccas, the essence of niaouli (cajuput) to the perfumery industry (Journ. offic. 9 sept. 1875, p. 7703, 1st col.)

Plant Description

History and Origin

 Camphor tree is a beautiful evergreen and aromatic tree coming from China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and a few other countries in South-East Asia. It is well known for the essence that is extracted from the leaves and wood, camphor. The essential oil has been used for very long. It is used for its properties as antiseptic, antiviral and heart tonic. The term originates from the Malagasy language (from raven, the leaf, et tsara, “good”, literally meaning : “the good leaf”).

Plant Description

History and Origin

Bay laurel natively grows as a shrub around the Mediterranean Sea. During Antiquity, laurel was the very symbol of victory and prestige. Associated to the divinity of the Greeks Apollo, Romans and Greeks used to crown their leaders and elite members with its leaves. The classic image of Jules Cesar is associated to laurel.

The use and reputation of laurel is well established, yet, today, its culinary use often offsets its therapeutic properties.

Herbalists used to advise laurel in cases of mild nervous disorders, atonic amenorrhea, chronic bronchitis and breakdown. As an herbal tea, it was also used to treat loss of appetite and atonic dyspepsia. Crushed leaves were applied to cure ulcers and disinfect wounds.

Plant Description

History and Origin

True Lavender is a subshrub growing on the dry and sunny hillsides of southern France and other countries around the Mediterranean Sea. It comes with a long-standing reputation as a popular remedy. Known since Roman Antiquity as a perfume and aromatic, Lavender was named from Latin term lavare (meaning “to wash”). Not only using it to perfume linen, Romans also used it in private and public baths. But lavender was also known as a popular remedy against digestive disorders as well as a cosmetic care and insect repellant.

Plant Description

History and Origin

Italian Helichrysum or Everlasting is a perrenial plant. Helichrysum comes from the greek words "helios", sun, and "chrysos", gold, because its flowers look like little gold suns. It is found almost everywhere around the Mediterranean area and in Corsica, by the sea and inland. It is used for its particular biochemical compounds.

Plant Description

History and Origin

Daucus carota, originally from Eurasia, is present in undulating lands of South-Western Quebec. It doesn’t reach further North because of the drop in temperatures. Wild carrot is a pubescent herbaceous plant with umbels of white flowers. In Native herbalism, an infusion of the full-blooming blossoms is taken for diabetes. The decoction of the roots is taken by men to treat blood disorders, pimples, paleness and loss of appetite. In women, it is used to treat fallen womb. Besides, the decoction is used for urine stoppage.

Plant Description

History and Origin

Latin name of Shea nut (Parkii) was given for M. Mungo Park, great exploratory, who was  the first to go up the Gambia River around the end of XV th century. The tree grows tall and  can live more than 300 years. It bears fruit around 15 years and is fully productive only  from 25 years of age.

Plant Description

History and origin

Edible coconut flesh is also known as copra. Copra oil is extracted from the flesh of the nut, or coconut oil, which has a solid texture at room temperature because of its high levels of saturated fatty acids. Copra oil is mainly used by the food industry for making pastries, candies and for frying, and it is also sometimes hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, which makes it even more solid.  The word "coco" appeared in the language at the beginning of the 16^th century. It comes from the Portuguese and Spanish word "coco" which means approximately bogeyman, monkey, dwarf or ghost, by referring to the fact that the shell reminds of a hairy face. The word "copra" comes from English and Portuguese, borrowed from Tamil dialect, "koppara". It refers more specifically to shelled and dried coconut. Green or immature, the nut contains about half a litre of a milky liquid (coconut water or albumen). This liquid becomes flesh as it matures. The flesh is usually dried with sun or heat to be sold under the name of copra. Commercial coconut milk and cream are made from this flesh ground with water, then filtered. Coconut oil (or coconut butter as it is solid at room temperature) is extracted from copra or fresh flesh. 

Plant Description

History and Origin

Macadamia nuts have long been known to Australia’s Indigenous people. But it is only in 1858 that they were revealed to the whole world by two English botanists doing research in the North-Eastern country. Macadamia nuts were named after the Australian scientific John Macadam. Fresh nuts are particularly hard to crack open. You must use a nutcracker. After about three months of drying, the nut is easier to open. Its flavor is also stronger and it’s texture, greasy.