Page 16 - Baking Europe Journal - Winter 2022

INGREDIENTS
16 MEDICINAL HERBS

The health benefi ts of

BAKING

WITH HERBS

Written by:
practitioners of the Greco-Arabic
herbal medical tradition in Asia that
over millennia we have become
accustomed to consuming certain
medicinal plants in our diet and no
longer experience the more palpable
eff ect on the system that a less
familiar and more treatment-specifi c
Dr Graeme Tobyn, PhD. herb might induce when taken to
University of Central Lancashire remedy a particular complaint.

This does not diminish their healing
sing herbal ingredients in fennel seeds I enjoyed when visiting potential: specifi c to each herb or
bread and other baked the region. spice, beyond their aid to digestion,
goods is nothing new and are many potential benefi ts to health
already well established. A Perhaps the medicinal value of such and wellbeing that are only now being
quick scan of the internet brings up products is not as well appreciated as explored.
many herbs and spices which are it should be? If such ingredients are
already added to bread in traditional so commonly found in products you Culinary medicine is being described
style or novel creation, from rosemary might fi nd in a café or at the dining as a new evidence-based fi eld in
focaccia and gingerbread to table, you might be forgiven for medicine that blends the art of food
Borodinsky rye bread with coriander thinking they that they only and cooking with the science of
seed or cornbread with jalapenos. contribute to taste and do not have medicine. In a study from 2017 on the
any therapeutic eff ect. Culinary herbs therapeutic potential of spices in
Personal favourites of mine include and spices are aromatic on account cardiovascular health, the authors
the light rye bread with caraway, of their volatile oil content. These oils systematically searched the literature
which I purchased from Jewish help to relax the gut and aid the and identifi ed recent scientifi c
bakeries when I lived in London and digestion of the food they are added fi ndings on four common spices viz.
the Southern Italian biscuits with to. I have encountered the view from Greater cardamom (Amomum

“Culinary herbs and spices are aromatic on

account of their volatile oil content. These oils

help to relax the gut and aid the digestion of

the food they are added to.”

BAKINGEUROPE Winter 2022/2023
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