CALAMUS (VAYAMBU) POWDER

CALAMUS (VAYAMBU) POWDER

100GRAM

BOTANICAL NAME :Bacopa monnieri (L.)

Acorus calamus (also called sweet flag or calamus, among many common names) is a tall perennial wetland monocot of the Acoraceae family, in the genus Acorus.

Sweet Flag is a perennial herb, 30 to 100 cm tall. In habit it resembles the Iris. It consists of tufts of basal leaves that rise from a spreading rhizome. The leaves are erect yellowish-green, radical, with pink sheathing at their bases, sword-shaped, flat and narrow, tapering into a long, acute point, and have parallel veins. The leaves have smooth edges, which can be wavy or crimped. The sweet flag can easily be distinguished from Iris and other similar plants by the crimped edges of the leaves, the fragant odour it emits when crushed, and the presence of a spadix.

USES

A. calamus has been an item of trade in many cultures for thousands of years. It has been used medicinally for a wide variety of ailments, and its aroma makes calamus essential oil valued in the perfume industry. The essence from the rhizome is used as a flavor for pipe tobacco. When eaten in crystallized form, it is called "German ginger". In Europe Acorus calamus was often added to wine, and the root is also one of the possible ingredients of absinthe. It is also used in bitters. In Lithuania Ajeras (Sweet flag) is added to home baked black bread.

CULTURAL USES

In Britain the plant was cut for use as a sweet smelling floor covering for the packed earth floors of dwellings and churches, and stacks of rushes have been used as the centrepiece of rushbearing ceremonies for many hundreds of years. It has also been used as a thatching material for English cottages.

In modern Egypt it is thought to have aphrodisiac properties.

For the Penobscot people this was a very important root. One story goes that a sickness was plaguing the people. A muskrat spirit came to a man in a dream, telling him that he (the muskrat) was a root and where to find him. The man awoke, found the root, and made a medicine which cured the people. In Penobscot homes, pieces of the dried root were strung together and hung up for preservation. Steaming it throughout the home was thought to "kill" sickness. While they were travelling, a piece of root was kept and chewed to ward off illness.

RETAIL PACKING AVAILABLE :100GM