Sage Uses and Benefits

Is sage plant a herb for food or for medicine? Well, like most herbs that you know, it’s both. And it has numerous healing powers that I'd like to share with you all. Let's find out about sage uses and benefits.

What Are the Health Benefits of Sage Plant?

Sage, also called as Salvia in Latin which means "healing plant" has amazing impact on your health.

Listed below are 9 health benefits of sage:

1. Cognition Boosting – Even small quantities of sage can relieve you from mild symptoms memory loss. It helps to improve your memory and concentration. Consuming sage can immensely help if you're engaged in intellectually challenging activities.
2. Natural anti-inflammatory – Sage prevents inflammation, the root cause of many diseases. Chewing fresh sage leaves is one way to get the disease-fighting compounds into your system. Or you can brew your own sage tea.
3. Natural anti-oxidant – Free radicals are culprits that attack your body’s healthy cells and make them unhealthy. They are the cause of oxidative stress in your body. Sage’s phenolic components such as luteolin, epigenin and rosemarinic acid help neutralize free radicals and keep you healthy.
4. Natural anti-microbial – Sage helps your body fight and eliminate microbes. Sage ointments can be applied topically on infected areas.
5. Strengthens the Bones – Vitamin K present in sage helps you develop bone density and reduce age-related brittleness of bones. For folks with osteoporosis or low bone health, sage-augmented diet can provide 27% of their total daily Vitamin K requirement.
6. Helps Maintain Healthy Skin – You can prevent skin problems such as psoriasis, eczema, pimples and acne by  including sage in your diet.
7. Helps Control Diabetes – Sage can help treat type-2 diabetes. Like the drug, it regulates the release of stored glucose in your liver and prevents blood-sugar fluctuation. It also clears excess fatty acids in your blood, improving the insulin insensitivity in type-1 diabetes.
8. Helps Maintain Oral Health – Anti-microbial properties of sage can help you fight microbes. Gargling with sage can help  you prevent throat, mouth and gum infections, dental plaque, abscess and cavities.
9. Aids Digestion – Gastritis and diarrhea are 2 frustrating gut ailments you can have. Rosemarinic acid is one of the sage’s compounds that can put your gut health back on track. It helps reduce intestinal inflammation and gastric spasms.

Quickie: Sage is an aromatic perennial evergreen sub-shrub. Native to the Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern region. But now found almost all over. It belongs to the Salvia genus of the mint family, Lamiaceae. Where herbs such as herbs rosemary, thyme, basil and oregano also belong to. Salvia officinalis or garden sage has greyish-green leaves, woody stems and purplish-blue flowers.

What Is the Science Behind Sage Healing Remedies?

Sage uses and benefits are many. Let us see what gives it healing properties. Sage contains multiple phytochemical compounds such as flavonoids, terpenoids and essential oil with medicinal properties. Its chief health-protective compounds include rosemarinic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ellagic acid and rutin. They help protect your heart and liver too. In short, sage is anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-microbial, neuro-protective and many more.

Studies reveal that sage is a remarkable plant with rich array of nutrients and phytochemical compounds. 

You can check out this table below which reveals nutrients every 100 grams of sage carries, according to USDA sources.

Sage also contains copper, Vitamins A, B6, C, E and K. 1 teaspoon (7 grams) of sage powder is able to supply the reference daily intake (RDI) of 10% of Vitamin K, 1.1% each of Iron and Vitamin B6.

Other Uses of Sage Plant

Yes, sage can be a choice condiment in your kitchen. You can use it to flavor food, drinks, and as an add-on to the aroma and taste. You could imagine roast poultry stuffing, pineapple salad, butter and oil, beans and nuts - and some sage.

You must be wondering, what does sage taste like? Its aroma and taste is intense, peppery and earthy, you only need to use small quantities of it in foods.

Research has confirmed that drinking 300 ml cup of sage tea twice daily is safe and beneficial. The drink improves lipid profile, increases antioxidant defenses and lymphocyte Hsp70 protein expression. It also lowers LDL or bad cholesterol and increases HDL or good cholesterol. (Source)

How to Use Sage?

Are you not impressed with the many sage uses and benefits? There are more. After you've read the 9 health benefits of sage plant and how it can be a culinary delight, it only makes sense to include sage in your food or drink. Do keep in mind its intense aroma, so you don't have to use a lot.

Here a few ways of using sage:

• Spice up your soups or broths by sprinkling sage powder as garnish.
• Use 1 tsp of powder in a glass of hot water or tea to make sage tea (or 4 grams to 300 ml will be ideal)
• Give a twist in taste to your meat stuffing or curries with sage powder
• Add finely chopped leaves to butter and enjoy your sage butter
• Garnish your omelettes with finely chopped sage leaves or powder
• Season your veggies and mashed potatoes with chopped or whole leaves or powder

Zizira operates from Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, in the Northeast part of India – a region known for its verdant landscape, natural springs that irrigate fields, and unique herbs and spices. The climate in Meghalaya will be suited for sage.

Btw, over 80% of the population of our state depend on agriculture but struggle to market their produce. Zizira is striving to open markets for them.

To help them improve their livelihood Zizira is trying to guide them to grow high value herbs like Sage. We are experimenting with sage to see if it grows well in Meghalaya.

Do you have any examples of sage uses and benefits? Please share with us.