14 DAY TRIAL // Queen Isabel I of England asked this plant as a condiment and queen Victoria in her dressing table, while for Charles VI of France, this was his normal cushion filling.
To understand this royal passion, you have to pass nearby a lavender field. The about 30 species of lavender belong to Lavandula genus (from Latin "lavare" to wash), and are named so because even the Romans utilized lavender oil to perfume the bathing water.
During the Middle Ages, lavender was utilized for making a potion against pest, named the vinegar of the four thieves, because the tomb looters, using the brew, pillaged the pest victims without getting the infection. Lavender was also seen as a remedy against cold, headaches, paralysis, and neurosis. Lavender skullcaps were thought to increase intelligence!
Even during the First World War, some countries used lavender products to treat the soldiers' wounds. Some lavender oils, especially of common lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) (photo), seem to be effective fungicide (against fungi) and bactericide (against bacteria).
Some researchers found this product active on bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics. It has applications also in obstetrics: mother using lavender oil in bathing water presented less nuisances on three to five days after giving birth.
But is lavender really comestible, as it was used by queen Isabel and all the Tudors?
In those times it was used to spice game meat, barbecued meat, fruit salads, and dessert and it was eaten even sole. Currently, it is used to flavor crackers, cookies and ice creams. Some lavenders are not palatable as they have a scent of camphor; and in fact, can be a strong insecticide, which repeal mites, weevils, plant lice, and moths.
Ultimately, the popularity of this plant is increasingly growing and now it is cultivated in Australia, Europe, Japan, North America and New Zealand. "Lavender oil is like wine: it is different from one region to another, even it is from the same species, because is the result of soil, clime, timing, and harvesting technique", explains an Australian cultivator.
But, unlike the wine, the oil is extracted by distillation, not by compression. To get a liter, 250 kg of flowers, stems and leaves freshly cut are necessary. Everything is compacted in a large steel boiler, through whose base vapors are pumped and the vapors will attract the oil while passing through the plant material. The mix passes through a serpentine and after that reaches a collecting vase in which the oil split up from the water, goes up to the surface and is removed for storage in ceramic containers, where it will mature several months.
The oil is highly demanded for soaps, creams, and aromatic candles. The flowers are commercialized freshly cut or dry, and their heads are very appreciated in potpourris.
The most demanded lavender is a hybrid (Lavandula angustifolia x latifolia), whose annual production worldwide reaches 1,000 tonnes, followed by common lavender (L angustifolia), with 200 tonnes per year (and is the only one to lack the camphor scent) and spike lavander (L latifolia), with less than 200 tonnes per year.