by Svetlana Konnikova                                                                    

Bright and modest geranium (Geraniaceae) is one of my favorite flowers. I love its crimson-colored, gentle flowers. Every year I buy several pots with geraniums and place them inside of my house and outdoors. They blossom 6-8 months. If you’ll keep a geranium plant in your house, it’ll cleanse the air of dust and bacteria.

“I remember how my Grandma invented her own natural treatments for sleeplessness and headaches. The simplest remedy was to keep pots of geraniums on the window sills. The secret was that geranium plants absorb all harmful sunstances and microbes from the air–even humidity and smoke. Scientists in Europe confirmed that phytoncides of this flower efficiently remove microbes and its aroma promotes sound sleep.”

In addition, geraniums beautifully adorn any landscape, backyard, building or balcony.    

This flower’s aroma has a soothing  effect on people. Europeans use it to treat nervous disorders, shortness of breath, poor circulation and chronic bronchitis. Geraniums are  high in tannins and provide astrigent remedies important in traditional medicine for the emergency treatments of diarrhea and injuries.           

 Native North Americans used cut-leaved , Cranesbill (Geranium maculatum) to treat diarrhea, dysentery and hemorrhaging for many years and passed their experience to American settlers. Many of the medicinal remedies are used today.

Chinese use geranium to treat rheumatic pain and gastrointestinal infections associated with diarrhea.

American variety of wild geranium is called cranesbill (Geranium maculatum), a highly astrigent, tonic and anticeptic herb. It helps to stop bleeding, controls discharges and promotes healing. Usually a whole plant and roots are used in preparation.  This plant is very useful for children and elders as internal natural medicine for diarrhea, for dysentary, colitis, and in epidemics of cholera. Externally geranium is very helpful in treating purulent wounds, inflammations of the mouth, gums and throat, hemorrhoids and vaginal discharge.                                                        

The most useful combinations of geranium with other herbs:                                       

  1. 1. with marigold (Bidens Tripartita, whole plant)  can be used for hemorrhage in the digestive tract;

2. with birthroot (bethroot, wake robin,Trillium errectum) makes a douche for vaginal discharge; (*native North Americans  preferred the white-flowered variety of Trillium (Liliaceae) for treating sore nipples, unducing labor, controlling hemorrhage, vaginal discharge, and heavy menstruation. This sweet, astrigent, warming herb is expectorant, controls bleeding, and benefits the female reproductive system.

3. with such two plants as a) Avens, herb Bennet (Geum urbanum (Avens, Rosaceae, whole plant, roots), which has been used by ancient doctors since Roman times. This astrigent, anticeptic herb reduces inflammation, lowers fever, controls bleeding and is used as a tonic for digestive system ;  and b) Agrimony, (Agrimonia eupatoria),  which was most used as a wound herb from Anglo-Saxon times. Today agromony did not loose its importance and makes a basic ingredient of  the eau d’arquebusade, a French herbal lotion which is used today for various complaints. Originally this healing water was used to apply to wounds caused by an arquebus, a 15th century long-barrelled gun.  

4. with a) Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria, see description above) and b) Althea (Althaea officinalis), the healing properties were first recorded in the ninth century B.C. and were widely used in Greek and Russian herbal medicine. Powdered roots are used as soft lozenges (small, medicated candies) for throat infections and for treating coughs;  and c) Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria, whole plant and flowers), which is well known as one of the three most sacred herbs of the Druids.

This interesting to know:

  • Salicylic acid was first isolated from meadowsweet and later this substance was synthesized as “aspirin,” a name derived from the plant’s older name, Spiraea ulmaria.  Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile ) can be added as a substitute for meadowsweet. This Latin name is given to several daisylike plants, but only two specicies are important as medicinal herbs, C. nobile, Roman chamomile and Matricaria recutita, which is the wild German chamomile. Both are used for similar purposes, and can be added in this combination for better treatment of digestive upsets.  
  • Chamomile tea is one of the most popular tisanes, immortalized in Beatrix Potter’s Tale of Peter Rabbit.  Today a cup of hot chamomile tea before bedtime is a favorite herbal tea for adults and children around the world.

“Science, or para-science, tells us that geraniums bloom better if they are spoken to. But a kind word every now and then is really quite enough. Too much attention, like too much feeding and weeding and hoeing, inhibits and embarrasses them.”

Sybil Frances Grey (1867-1943), England

Thomas Cooper Gotch, Girl in a Cornish Garden, 1889

Photo: 1) Geranium in a stone pot, 2) Geranium pots on the balconies by S. Konnikova, Copyright 2009.

Source: Svetlana Konnikova, Mama’s Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living, Aurora Publishers, 2008, p.245

Deni Bown, Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses, The Herb Society of America, Dorling Kindersley, 1995