Calendula officinalis

Calendula officinalis, known as Pot Marigold or Scotch Marigold, is a plant in the Calendula genus. It was used in ancient Greek, Roman, Arabic and Indian cultures as a medicinal herb as well as a dye for fabrics, foods and cosmetics.

The leaves and petals of the Pot Marigold are edible, with the petals added to dishes as a garnish and in lieu of saffron. The leaves can be sweet but are more commonly bitter, and may be used in salads.

Calendula officinalis is a cultivated herb and can be grown easily in sunny locations in most kinds of soils.

Botany

Calendula officinalis is an aromatic annual plant, that belongs to the Asteraceae family. Typically, it grows to about half a meter in height. The stems are straight and ramified. The leaves are oblong-lanceolate, hairy on both sides and 5 to 15 cm long with toothed margins. The inflorescences are thick capitula or flower-heads (3-8 cm) surrounded by two rows of hairy bracts. The tubular, hermaphrodite, central flowers are generally, of a more intense orange-yellow colour than the female, tridentate, peripheral flowers. The flower-heads appear all year long. The fruit is a thorny curved achene.

Pharmacology

Calendula officinalis is used for the treatment of skin disorders and pain, and as a bactericide, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory. The petals and pollen contain triterpenoid esters (an anti-inflammatory) and the carotenoids flavoxanthin and auroxanthin (antioxidants, and the source of the yellow-orange coloration). The leaves and stems contain other carotenoids, mostly lutein (80%) and zeaxanthin (5%), and beta-carotene. Plant extracts are also widely used by cosmetics, presumably due to presence of compounds such as saponins, resins and essential oils.

Gallery

<gallery caption="Calendula officinalis" widths="140px" heights="100px" perrow="4"> Image:Calendula_officinalis_3.jpg|C. Officinalis in the process of opening File:Calendula officinalis-1.JPG|Calendula officinalis at Noida Flower Show 2009 File:Calendula officinalis-2.JPG|Calendula officinalis at Noida Flower Show 2009 [...] </gallery>

Translation

The phrase "Calendula officinalis" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog.

Translation(s) in other languages: Arabic: أذريون (نبات), Bulgarian: Невен, Catalan: Boixac de jardí, Czech: Měsíček lékařský, Danish: Have-Morgenfrue, German: Ringelblume, Estonian: Harilik saialill, Esperanto: Kalendulo, Persian: گل همیشه‌بهار, French: Souci officinal, Upper Sorbian: Smjerdnička, Croatian: Neven, Icelandic: Morgunfrú, Kashubian: Nôcetka, Latvian: Kliņģerīte, Lithuanian: Vaistinė medetka, Hungarian: Körömvirág, Dutch: Goudsbloem, Japanese: キンセンカ, Norwegian (Bokmål): Ringblomst, Polish: Nagietek lekarski, Quechua: Uchuq'aspa, Russian: Ноготки лекарственные, Albanian: Kalendula mjekësore, Slovak: Nechtík lekársky, Slovenian: Vrtni ognjič, Serbian: Невен (биљка), Serbo-Croatian: Neven (biljka), Finnish: Tarhakehäkukka, Swedish: Ringblomma, Urdu: گل اشرفی, Samogitian: Nadatka, Chinese: 金盞花.