A spicy plant with a name from the old money: the real centaury and the Latin name Centaurium erythraea. This is also the explanation of the name. ‘Centum’ in Latin means 100 and ‘aurum’ means gold. The plant has so many good qualities that it is worth 100 gold pieces or even a thousand ducats (guilders). Hence real centaury in the Netherlands and Belgium. In Latin, Erythraea means reddish and that is the rose-red color of the flower.
- Types of centaury
- Real centaury
- Description really centaury
- Flower
- Medicinal
Types of centaury
Real centaury (Centaurium erythraea) is a plant of the gentian family (Gentianaceae) and the genus centaury (Centaurium). Other centaury herbs in the Netherlands and Belgium are:
- Beach centaury – Centaurium littorale.
- Beautiful centaury – Centaurium pulchellum.
The color of the true centaury is a lighter pinkish red than that of the beautiful and beach centaury. The flowers are larger than the flowers of beautiful centaury and about the same size as those of beach centaury. True centaury is salt-avoiding but, once the salinity has decreased due to dehydration, can sometimes occur together with beach centaury.
Real centaury
The plant is native and is found all over Europe. In the Netherlands and Belgium, the plant is quite common in moist places such as meadows, dune valleys, limestone slopes, blue grasslands and sandy soils. The plant likes the sun and prefers a moist, moderately nutrient-poor and slightly acidic to calcareous soil. The plant is protected from animal damage because the real centaury has a bitter taste.
Description really centaury
When flowering, the real centaury grows to a height of half a meter. The plant is biennial and has no winter buds. The root is delicate and in the spring the stems emerge from a rosette of leaves. The leaves in the rosette are one to two centimeters wide, ovate, elongated, blunt and have three to seven light veins. The leaves on the stem are elongated, ovate to finely lanceolate, have a smooth edge and a blunt to pointed end. They are four times as long as they are wide and have three to five veins. The branching stems emerge from the rosette, which are slightly darker in color than the stem leaf and somewhat square. The higher the stem leaves on the stem, the more chance there is three veins, lower on the stem the leaf has five veins. The leaves are sessile and hairless, just like the entire plant.
Flower
The stem has clusters of soft pink to pink-red flowers at the top and sometimes white. The androgynous flower (a flower with both male and female sex organs) is one to one and a half centimeters in diameter and the plant blooms from June to September.
The petals
The flower consists of five to six petals (slips) that are five to six millimeters long. The petals are lanceolate, pointed or round, slightly protruding and fused into a tube. The flowers only open when the sun is shining and close again when the sun is gone. The flower tube is surrounded by green sepals that are almost as long at the beginning of flowering. When the flower, which blooms for about five days, has finished flowering and when the fruit starts to grow, the sepals reach to the middle or even lower than the middle of the tube.
Stamens turn helically
The flower tube contains five stamens, a style, an ovary and two stigmas. When the stamens have lost their pollen, they turn helically. The flower of the real golden mill herb does not have honey glands but sap-rich tissue. For example, many insects are attracted to pollinate. The fruit is a capsule. The very small seeds are long-lived (more than five years) and dicot (sprouts with two germ layers).
Medicinal
The active substances are mainly bitter substances (amara). Bitter substances promote the secretion of stomach acid and bile and therefore promote appetite and digestion. It is an herb with a bitter taste. Bitter dust is also found in the well-known dandelion, for example. The pink flowers of real centaury also indicate a blood-purifying and blood-forming effect. Real centaury therefore activates the blood circulation and the production of new blood. It also strengthens the muscles. Only the above-ground parts of the herb are professionally collected for tincture, herbal preparations or herbal tea. In addition to the bitter substance, real centaury contains:
- essential oils, volatile or essential oil. Aromatherapy is mainly based on the use of essential oil;
- flavonoids that provide the color. Most flavonoids act as antioxidants and make free radicals harmless;
- glycosides. The glycone (sugar) of saponins is usually glucose or galactose. The aglycones (non-sugars) are called sapogenins;
- valeric acid that acts on the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor. Gamma amino butyric acid is an amino acid that is a neurotransmitter in the human body. GABA receptors play an important role in the nervous system in suppressing signals;
- xanthones, which promote well-being.
It was also thought that the true centaury could have a positive effect on liver disorders. Scientific research has since shown that an extract of true centaury does indeed protect the liver against all kinds of pathogenic influences.