Centaury (Centaurium spp, C. umbellatum or Erythraea centaurium)
Folk Names: Bitter Herb, Centaury Gentian, Center of the Sun (Worcestershire), Centory, Century, Christ's Ladder, Common Centaury, European Centaury, Febrifugia, Fel Terae (Gall of the Earth), Feverwort, Filwort, Graveolentia Centaurea, Lesser Centaury, Red Centaury, Steps of Christ (Isle of Man)
Description: Centaury is a European and North African annual or biennial, depending upon where it is grown. It has been naturalized to North American, from Quebec to Michigan, south to Georgia and Indiana, and along the western coast from northwest California north to Washington and east to Idaho. Centaury may be found in damp meadows and forest clearings, and it prefers sandy soils. The yellowish root is fibrous and woody. A stem rises four to twenty inches from a rosette of ovate basal leaves. It is quadrangular to hexagonal, is hollow when older, and branched near top. The stem leaves are opposite, sessile, and ovate-oblong to lanceolate. The leaves are pale green, smooth and shiny, with undivided margins. Rose-red to blue or purple, 5 petaled, funnel-shaped flowers appear in cymes from June to September. The corolla is cleft in five and the flower also has five stamens. One variety has a white corolla. After shedding their pollen, the anthers have a unique way of twisting about which serves to distinguish centaury from the similar gentian. The flowers open only in good weather, and usually not after midday. They close at night.
Effects: strong
Planet: sun
Element: fire
Associated Deities: Chiron
Traditions:
Centaury was originally called Chironia for the most famous centaur, Chiron, who lived on Mt Pelion as a trainer of heroes and other learned men. He is said to have cured himself with this flower when poisoned by an arrow dipped in the blood of Hydra.
Magic:
An incense containing centaury drives off snakes and reduces anger and other negative energies. It adds power to any mixtures meant for meditation and visualization.
Known Combinations:
Medieval witches are thought to have mixed it in their incenses to increase psychic powers. They experienced strange feelings, inexplicable thoughts, and strange ideas. Traditionally the powdered herb was mixed with the blood of a female lapwing or black plover and added it to lamp oil, and so it may be helpful to call upon these animals. Modern practitioners mix it with honey and rub it on candles.
Medical Indications: (Caution: Excessive use will cause nausea. A strong decoction is emetic and laxative.) Parts Used: flowering herb (collected in July)
Centaury is an appetizer and digestive, cholagogue, febrifuge, and carminative. It contains erythrocentaurin, which stimulates the flow of saliva and gastric juices and secretions of bile. A strong infusion is diaphoretic, while a light infusion acts as a tonic. Tea made from the flowers stimulates salivary, stomach, and intestinal glands, relieving constipation and gas and promoting proper digestion. It acts to ease heartburn and may help jaundice. Centaury also treats colic, suppressed menstruation, and anemia. Taken over time, it may help you to loose weight.
Lotion containing the plant is used on blemishes, freckles, and spots. The fresh plant, bruised, is applied to new wounds and old ones which will not heal.
Nutrition:
no notable nutritional uses
Mercantile Uses:
The flowers are used for blue dye.