Salvia officinalis, common sage or sage, is a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae) and native to the Mediterranean region, though it has been naturalized in many places throughout the world. It has a long history of culinary use, and in modern times it has been used as an ornamental garden plant. The common name "sage" is also used for closely related species and cultivars.
Description
thumb|Painting from Koehler's Medicinal Plants (1887)
Cultivars are quite variable in size, leaf and flower color, and foliage pattern, with many variegated leaf types. The Old World type grows to approximately tall and wide, with lavender flowers most common, though they can also be white, pink, or purple. The plant flowers in late spring or summer. The leaves are oblong, ranging in size up to long by wide. Leaves are grey-green, rugose on the upper side, and nearly white underneath due to the many short soft hairs. Modern cultivars include leaves with purple, rose, cream, and yellow in many variegated combinations. The common sage gives its name to the grayish-green color sage, due to the distinctive color of its leaves.
Taxonomy
Salvia officinalis was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It has been grown for centuries in the Old World for its food and healing properties, and was often described in old herbals for the many miraculous properties attributed to it. S. officinalis has been classified under many other scientific names over the years, including six different names since 1940 alone. It is the type species for the genus Salvia.
Etymology
The specific epithet officinalis refers to plants with a well-established culinary value or assumed use in folk medicine. and 'Purpurascens' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
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File:Salvia officinalis Berggarten.JPG|'Berggarten'
File:Salvia officinalis 'Icterina'.jpg|'Icterina'
File:Salvia purpurea.JPG|'Purpurascens'
File:Salvia officinalis3.jpg|'Tricolor'
</gallery>
Uses
Historical uses
Salvia officinalis has been used since ancient times for treating snakebites, increasing women's fertility, and more. The Romans referred to sage as the "holy herb," and employed it in their religious rituals. Theophrastus wrote about two different sages, a wild undershrub he called sphakos, and a similar cultivated plant he called elelisphakos. Pliny the Elder said the latter plant was called salvia by the Romans, and used as a diuretic, a local anesthetic for the skin, a styptic, and for other uses. Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen all recommended sage as a diuretic, hemostatic, emmenagogue, and tonic. It was sometimes called S. salvatrix (sage the savior). Emperor Charlemagne recommended the plant for cultivation in the early Middle Ages, and during the Carolingian Empire, it was cultivated in monastery gardens. The 9th-century monk Walafrid Strabo described it in his poem Hortulus as having a sweet scent and being useful for many human ailments—he went back to the Greek root for the name and called it lelifagus.
thumb|Sage being gathered in a scene from the [[Tacuinum Sanitatis]]
Sage appears in recipes for Four Thieves Vinegar, a blend of herbs which was supposed to ward off the plague during the Black death epidemic of the 14th-century. The 1393 woman's guidebook Le Menagier de Paris, in addition to recommending cold sage soup and sage sauce for poultry, recommends infusion of sage for washing hands at table, while Gervase Markham's The English Huswife (1615) gives a recipe for a tooth-powder of sage and salt. John Gerard's Herball (1597) states that sage "is singularly good for the head and brain, it quickeneth the senses and memory, strengtheneth the sinews, restoreth health to those that have the palsy, and taketh away shakey trembling of the members."
In past centuries, sage was also used for hair care, insect bites and wasp stings, nervous conditions, mental conditions, oral preparations for inflammation of the mouth, tongue and throat, and also to reduce fevers. It appears in many European cuisines, notably Italian, Balkan and Middle Eastern cookery. In Italian cuisine, it is an essential condiment for saltimbocca and other dishes, favored with fish. It is also fried to make salvia fritta.
In British and American cooking, it is traditionally served as sage and onion stuffing, an accompaniment to roast turkey or chicken at Christmas or Thanksgiving Day, and for Sunday roast dinners. Other dishes include pork casserole, Sage Derby cheese and Lincolnshire sausages. It is commonly paired with fall produce such as pumpkin or butternut squash, and it can be fried or frizzled to create a garnish for dishes. Despite the common use of traditional and available herbs in French cuisine, sage never found favor there.
Essential oil
Common sage is grown in parts of Europe for distillation of an essential oil, although other species such as Salvia fruticosa may also be harvested and distilled with it.
Research
As of 2017, S. officinalis was under preliminary research for its possible effects on cognitive performance in both healthy individuals and those with cognitive decline, although its long-term effects remain undetermined.
Salvia essential oils contain α and β-thujone, a neurotoxin that can cause convulsions in animals and severe intoxication in humans, leading the European Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products and European Medicines Agency to recommend a daily limit of 6 mg for supplemental use.