Salvia officinalis

Salvia officinalis, the common sage or just sage, is a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with
woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the mint family
Lamiaceae and native to the Mediterranean region, though it has been naturalized in many
places throughout the world. It has a long history of medicinal and culinary use, and in
modern times it has been used as an ornamental garden plant. The common name "sage" is
also used for closely related species and cultivars.
 Salvia officinalis

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 2.3)

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Plantae

Clade: Tracheophytes

Clade: Angiosperms

Clade: Eudicots

Clade: Asterids

Order: Lamiales

Family: Lamiaceae

Genus: Salvia

Species: S. officinalis

Binomial name

Salvia officinalis

L.
 Names

Salvia officinalis has numerous common names. Some of the best-known are sage, common
sage, garden sage, golden sage, kitchen sage, true sage, culinary sage, Dalmatian sage, and
broadleaf sage. Cultivated forms include purple sage and red sage. The specific epithet
officinalis refers to plants with a well-established medicinal or culinary value.[1]

Taxonomy

Salvia officinalis was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It has been grown for centuries in
the Old World for its food and healing properties, and was often described in old herbals for
the many miraculous properties attributed to it.[2] The binary name, officinalis, refers to the
plant's medicinal use—the officina was the traditional storeroom of a monastery where herbs
and medicines were stored.[1][3] S. officinalis has been classified under many other scientific
names over the years, including six different names since 1940 alone.[4] It is the type species
for the genus Salvia.

Description
Sage leaves are covered with fine hairs called trichomes

Cultivars are quite variable in size, leaf and flower color, and foliage pattern, with many
variegated leaf types. The Old World type grows to approximately 60 cm (2 ft) tall and wide,
with lavender flowers most common, though they can also be white, pink, or purple. The plant
flowers in late spring or summer. The leaves are oblong, ranging in size up to 65 mm (21⁄2 in)
long by 25 mm (1 in) wide. Leaves are grey-green, rugose on the upper side, and nearly white
underneath due to the many short soft hairs. Modern cultivars include leaves with purple,
rose, cream, and yellow in many variegated combinations.[2]

History

Painting from Koehler's Medicinal Plants (1887)

Salvia officinalis has been used since ancient times for warding off evil, snakebites,
increasing women's fertility, and more. The Romans referred to sage as the "holy herb," and
employed it in their religious rituals.[5] Theophrastus wrote about two different sages, a wild
undershrub he called sphakos, and a similar cultivated plant he called elelisphakos. Pliny the
Elder said the latter plant was called salvia by the Romans, and used as a diuretic, a local
anesthetic for the skin, a styptic, and for other uses. Charlemagne recommended the plant
for cultivation in the early Middle Ages, and during the Carolingian Empire, it was cultivated in
monastery gardens.[6] Walafrid Strabo described it in his poem Hortulus as having a sweet
scent and being useful for many human ailments—he went back to the Greek root for the
name and called it lelifagus.[7]

The plant had a high reputation throughout the Middle Ages, with many sayings referring to
its healing properties and value.[8] It was sometimes called S. salvatrix (sage the savior).
Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen all recommended sage as a diuretic, hemostatic,
emmenagogue, and tonic.[7]Le Menagier de Paris, in addition to recommending cold sage
soup and sage sauce for poultry, recommends infusion of sage for washing hands at table.[9]
John Gerard's Herball (1597) states that sage "is singularly good for the head and brain, it
quickeneth the senses and memory, strengtheneth the sinews, restoreth health to those that
have the palsy, and taketh away shakey trembling of the members."[10] Gervase Markham's
The English Huswife (1615) gives a recipe for a tooth-powder of sage and salt.[11] It appears
in recipes for Four Thieves Vinegar, a blend of herbs which was supposed to ward off the
plague. In past centuries, it was also used for hair care, insect bites and wasp stings, nervous
conditions, mental conditions, oral preparations for inflammation of the mouth, tongue and
throat, and also to reduce fevers.[7]

Uses

Culinary use

The top side of a sage leaf – trichomes are visible

The underside of a sage leaf – more trichomes are visible on this side

A vase of salvia officinalis

Sage seeds are very small and almost spherical in shape

In Britain, sage has for generations been listed as one of the essential herbs, along with
parsley, rosemary, and thyme (as in the folk song "Scarborough Fair"). It has a savory, slightly
peppery flavor. Sage appears in the 14th and 15th centuries in a "Cold Sage Sauce", known in
French, English and Lombard cuisine, probably traceable to its appearance in Le Viandier de
Taillevent.[12] It appears in many European cuisines, notably Italian, Balkan and Middle
Eastern cookery. In Italian cuisine, it is an essential condiment for saltimbocca and other
dishes, favored with fish. In British and American cooking, it is traditionally served as sage
and onion stuffing, an accompaniment to roast turkey or chicken at Christmas or
Thanksgiving Day, and for Sunday roast dinners. Other dishes include pork casserole, Sage
Derby cheese and Lincolnshire sausages. Despite the common use of traditional and
available herbs in French cuisine, sage never found favor there.

Essential oil

Common sage is grown in parts of Europe for distillation of an essential oil, although other
species such as Salvia fruticosa may also be harvested and distilled with it. The essential oil
contains cineole, borneol, and thujone. Sage leaf contains tannic acid, oleic acid, ursolic acid,
carnosol, carnosic acid, fumaric acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, niacin, nicotinamide,
flavones, flavonoid glycosides, and estrogenic substances.

Research

Extracts of Salvia officinalis and S. lavandulaefolia are under preliminary research for their
potential effects on human brain function.[13][14] The thujone present in Salvia extracts may
be neurotoxic.[14]

Cultivars

In favourable conditions in the garden, S. officinalis can grow to a substantial size (1 square
metre or more), but a number of cultivars are more compact. As such they are valued as
small ornamental flowering shrubs, rather than for their herbal properties. Some provide low
ground cover, especially in sunny dry environments. Like many herbs they can be killed by a
cold wet winter, especially if the soil is not well drained. But they are easily propagated from
summer cuttings, and some cultivars are produced from seeds.

Named cultivars include:

'Alba', a white-flowered cultivar

'Aurea', golden sage

'Berggarten', a cultivar with large leaves, which rarely blooms, extending the useful life of
the leaves

'Extrakta', has leaves with higher oil concentrations

 'Icterina', a cultivar with yellow-green variegated leaves

'Lavandulaefolia', a small leaved cultivar

'Purpurascens' ('Purpurea'), a purple-leafed cultivar

'Tricolor', a cultivar with white, purple and green variegated leaves

'Icterina'[15] and 'Purpurascens'[16] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of
Garden Merit.[17]

'Berggarten'

'Icterina'
 'Purpurascens'

'Tricolor'

References

1. Harrison, Lorraine (2012). RHS Latin for gardeners. United Kingdom: Mitchell Beazley. p. 224.
ISBN 9781845337315.

2. Clebsch, Betsy; Carol D. Barner (2003). The New Book of Salvias (https://books.google.com/books?id
=NM0iwB8GrQYC&pg=PA216) . Timber Press. p. 216. ISBN 978-0-88192-560-9.

3. Stearn, William T. (2004). Botanical Latin (https://books.google.com/books?id=w0hZvTFJUioC&pg=

PA456) . Timber Press (OR). p. 456. ISBN 978-0-88192-627-9.

4. Sutton, John (2004). The Gardener's Guide to Growing Salvias. Workman Publishing Company. p. 17.
ISBN 978-0-88192-671-2.

5. Greer, John Michael (2017). The Encyclopedia of Natural Magic (First ed.). Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn
Publications. p. 185. ISBN 9780738706740.

6. Watters, L. L. (1901). An Analytical Investigation of Garden Sage (Salvia officinalis, Linne). New York:
Columbia University.
 7. Kintzios, Spiridon E. (2000). Sage: The Genus Salvia. CRC Press. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-90-5823-005-8.

8. An Anglo-Saxon manuscript read "Why should man die when he has sage?" Kintzios, p. 10

9. "Le Menagier de Paris" (http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Menagier/Menagie

r.html) . Hinson, Janet, translator. 1393.

10. Grieve, Maud (1971). A Modern Herbal: The Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties,
Cultivation and Folk-lore of Herbs, Grasses, Fungi, Shrubs, & Trees with All Their Modern Scientific
Uses, Volume 2.

11. Markham, Gervase (1615). The English House-wife.

12. Le Viandier de Taillevent: 14th Century Cookery, Based on the Vatican Library Manuscript (http://www.
telusplanet.net/public/prescotj/data/viandier/viandier425.html) . Translated by Prescott, James.
Eugene, Oregon: Alfarhaugr Publishing Society. 1989. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-9623719-0-5.

13. Miroddi M, Navarra M, Quattropani MC, Calapai F, Gangemi S, Calapai G (2014). "Systematic review of
clinical trials assessing pharmacological properties of Salvia species on memory, cognitive
impairment and Alzheimer's disease" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6493168) .
CNS Neurosci Ther. 20 (6): 485–95. doi:10.1111/cns.12270 (https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fcns.1227
0) . PMC 6493168 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6493168) . PMID 24836739 (h
ttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24836739) .

14. Lopresti AL (2017). "Salvia (Sage): A Review of its Potential Cognitive-Enhancing and Protective
Effects" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5318325) . Drugs in R&D. 17 (1): 53–64.
doi:10.1007/s40268-016-0157-5 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs40268-016-0157-5) . PMC 5318325
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5318325) . PMID 27888449 (https://pubmed.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/27888449) .

15. "RHS Plant Selector - Salvia officinalis 'Icterina' " (https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/91576/Salvia-officina

lis-Icterina-(v)/Details) . Retrieved 5 March 2021.

16. "RHS Plant Selector - Salvia officinalis 'Purpurascens' " (https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/153600/Salvia

-officinalis-Purpurascens/Details) . Retrieved 5 March 2021.

17. "AGM Plants - Ornamental" (https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/agm-lists/agm-ornamentals.pdf)

(PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 94. Retrieved 12 October 2018.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Salvia officinalis.

Salvia officinalis (http://www.flowersinisrael.com/Salviaofficinalis_page.htm) Israel

Native Plants

Salviae officinalis folium, European Medicines Agency (https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/me

dicines/herbal/salviae-officinalis-folium)
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