News of July 2024!
What happened in July 2024 at Phyto-info… we tell you everything!
Hello everyone 🌿
While last month, we were updating our yarrow, we dwelt a bit on other yarrow also mentioned in our reference books.
Did you know that the secret of the blue color of yarrow essential oil comes from chamazulene. It is a natural compound, a sesquiterpene that is particularly well known for its anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties, which explains in part the traditional use of yarrow to heal wounds. When the plant is distilled to obtain the essential oil, chamazulene comes into contact with oxygen in the air and is oxidized, causing a color change from yellow to a characteristic deep blue. Be careful with its use, yarrow essential oil is neurotoxic and abortive and, therefore, should not be used without medical advice.
One of the ychilles, musky, is rare in France, but it does well in Switzerland. It is an endemic plant of the Alps whose aerial parts are harvested by the locals mainly for their digestive properties.
In the Middle Ages, sneezeweed was used to make people sneeze, yes yes. At the time, it was believed that sneezing expelled evil spirits from the body. The method was simple, the plant was ground into powder and then either sniffed directly or blown into the nose using a small tube if the person was not too willing, the kind possessed by the Devil. Be careful, it is definitely not recommended nowadays because of the fungal infections that result from it.
We’ll let you discover the properties of the five yarrows that we added this month 🥰
Added plants 👏
- Musk milfoil (Achillea moschata)
- Dwarf white yarrow (Achillea nana)
- Black yarrow (Achillea atrata)
- Sneezeweed (Achillea ptarmica)
- English mace (Achillea ageratum)
Discover their traditional uses and terms of use on our platform.
General 👏 Assembly
Our general meeting took place on June 26, 2024. As with every meeting, we are brimming with ideas and things to do. But now, our eyes are always bigger than our stomachs, since not everything can be achieved mainly due to lack of time.
In the good news for this year, we have implemented our partial free access and we are very proud of it, since we continue to refuse to put ads on our platform. In addition, our first workshops and walks around medicinal plants were a success, we are delighted.
In the series J’ai les yeux plus gros que le ventre, our English version is not finished, we are still working on it. Fortunately, we can see the end of it.
A flagship project for the coming year will be to create content adapted to everyone’s wishes when it comes to choosing plants and to present this content in the form of a digital or paper book. In this book, you will find the information necessary for the preparations of the chosen plants as well as their traditional uses and precautions for use, the idea being to do a maximum of things with a minimum of plants, plants with which you feel confident and/or that you can easily find.
For more information on our GA, we invite you to read the minutes.
Biodiversity zone 👏
The garden in which we took our walks to discover medicinal plants this year is now classified as a biodiversity zone.
What is biodiversity?
“It’s all living species on Earth in all their diversity as well as the ecosystems in which they live. It is also the interactions of these species with each other and with their environments. Our dependence on biodiversity is strong, whether for access to food or water”.
Having access to this biodiversity area for our non-profit organization is a precious gift, it is an invitation to discovery in order to identify the different species of plants and their specificities. As registrations for workshops and walks are now closed for the year, we look forward to seeing you next spring for future explorations 🌱
For more information on biodiversity reserves, visit the Agir pour l’Environnement website.
🌿 🌻 🌾
This was the news of our month of July, if our search tool interests you, more information on phyto-info.com.
To discover our plant finder, head to this page.
And if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us 🤗
Next newsletter in a month! Stay tuned!