Parsley Health Article

Description

Parsley (Petroselinum crispum and P. sativum) is a member of the Apiaceae family of plants. Relatives of this common culinary herb include the garden vegetables carrot, parsnip, and celery. Parsley belongs to the same family as poison hemlock (Conium maculatum L.), a deadly narcotic herb. Parsley is native to the Mediterranean area but is now naturalized and cultivated throughout the world. Nicolas Culpeper, the seventeenth-century English herbalist and astrologer, placed parsley under the dominion of the planet Mercury. Common names for this herb include parsley breakstone, garden parsley, rock parsley, persely, and petersylinge. A variety known as Hamburg parsley (P. crispum, "Tuberosum"), first cultivated in Holland, has a root as much as six times as large as garden parsley.

In ancient times parsley was dedicated to Persephone, the wife of Hades and goddess of the underworld. Parsley is slow to germinate. Folk legend explains this characteristic with the myth that parsley must first visit Hades seven times before it may freely germinate and flourish on the earth. It was also believed that the herb would flourish only in gardens where a strong woman presides over the household. Parsley was used as a ceremonial herb in ancient Greek and Roman cultures. The herb was sprinkled on corpses to cover the stench, and planted on the graves of loved ones. Roman gladiators ate parsley before facing foes in the arena. Victorious Greek athletes were crowned with parsley. In the Middle Ages this lovely herb was known as merry parsley and was credited with lethal powers. It was believed that one could bring certain death to an adversary by pulling a parsley root from the earth while calling out the enemy's name.

Parsley is a self-seeding biennial that thrives in rich, moist soil in full sun or partial shade. It grows from a single spindle-shaped taproot producing smooth, many-branched and juicy stems. The bright green leaves are feather-like in appearance, tri-pinnate and finely divided. Some varieties are flat-leafed, others are more compact and curly. Diminutive five-petaled flowers are yellow-green and borne in dense, flat-topped clusters. They bloom in midsummer. The gray-brown seeds are tiny, ribbed and ovate (egg-shaped). Parsley can grow as much as 3 ft (1 m) tall in its second year as the flower-bearing stems become nearly leafless and reach for the sun.