Zamarrilla (Teucrium polium)

The Zamarrilla is a small plant that barely reaches 60 cm. high. It is white or golden, with many upright stems, the leaves are opposite, without corner, also whitish or yellowish flowers are clustered at the tip of the stems. The whole plant emits a special aroma and its leaves have a slightly bitter taste, which becomes greater in the flowering tops. Plant is very variable, so it can easily be confused. One grows on slopes and hills of the lowlands, in the bushes and thickets of the mountains the whole Peninsula and Balearic Islands.

FLOWERING

The Zamarrilla flowers in spring and summer, from May. Interesting collection of flowers and leaves, which should take the time of peak flowering, when the plant is rich in active principles. After harvesting, are dried in drier at a temperature not too high, otherwise it could break down the compounds of medical utility.

APPLICATIONS

This showy plant is considered mostly tonic and stimulant and is used like other species of the genus. Its composition include small amounts of essence and substance of less interest. Since there are so many varieties of the plant can not generalize a unique composition, but from a therapeutic standpoint it matters little because its virtues are not in a particular substance but at the total of the parts used. The ancients also used to ease the pain of chronic rheumatism, accelerate menstruation, also as a diuretic, and even became part of some medicines' semimágicos.

ADMINISTRATION

Infusion. Obtained from the flowers and leaves, putting in a quart of boiling water 25 g. of flowering tops and a handful of dried leaves. It should drink three cups a day, before meals. To prepare this infusion is recommended getting the yellow kind because it is more aromatic than white. Decoctions can also be prepared similarly, letting the mixture boil for several minutes.

SUMMARY

FAMILY: Labiatae
HABITAT: Balearics and southern Spain
FLOWERING: Spring and summer
PART USED: Leaves and flowers
CASTILIAN: Polio, hierba crispa
CATALAN: Herba capsigranyera

USES

Antidiarrheal Leve, Mild tonic, Mild Stimulant.