However tucked into some of these herbs are amazing stories that don’t get told. And I think that affects our real appreciation of the invaluable bounty that nature provides us with.

So lets step away from today’s latest technological gizmo and spend a few minutes back in history.   This is a story which will make you look at the humble lemon grass herb with whole new eyes. We are going to step back a few centuries to southern Asia.  Let’s go there.

In ancient times there was no paper, or pens or worse still – even a system of recording information.   Information was passed on by word of mouth.   Possibly people had much better memories for passing on information verbally than they do today.  I don’t know. Ever played the game where people whisper messages down a line and by the end the message is totally distorted?   One thing was true was that obviously the system was open to malicious abuse.

Over time signs were devised and became alphabets which enabled the ancients  to record verbal information.    What an amazing invention!   Now the ancients needed a medium on which to write their information.

They began to find different materials on which to record their sign language. Metal was used and sheets made out of bronze even gold or silver, became the paper of their age.   However while durable the disadvantages were probably time and cost and even the threat of tablets being stolen for their metal value. People began to experiment with palm leaves and found that they could carefully print information on to specially prepared palm leaves,   They used a stylus very carefully to imprint their message and then treated the palm leaf manuscripts with tumeric or lampblack to make the script stand out.  However the sheets became brittle -until they discovered that if they treated the sheets with the essential oil from lemon grass, the sheets remained pliable, protected from damp as the oil repels moisture, and also from insects as the oil contains an insect repellent.

These documents treated with lemon grass could last three to four centuries.

Just imagine what a huge difference that made to societies of the time. For the first time information could be transmitted accurately between people living in different places.  It served politically because agreements could be written down.  More importantly the ancients began to record all their discoveries in the fields of medicine, anatomy, agriculture, art and architecture, carpentry, shipbuilding, metalwork, music, astrology, astronomy, martial arts, veterinary science,  yoga and others.  This was an enormous cultural leap forward.   The scribes were creating respositories of information.

These records give us huge insights into the life and times of our ancestors.  However in the 19th century when the printing press became widely used, the use of palm leaves fell away.

Many of the palm leaf documents were forgotten, abandoned or even destroyed.   Today scientists and historians are recovering these precious documents and their contents is being recorded  for posterity by modern methods.  Many of the documents are being restored and are becoming part of UNESCO’s  Memory of the World Programme which has been created to preserve valuable historical documents from diverse cultures and in diverse languages.  Already some of these palm leaf manuscripts have become part of the Memory of the World Register.

This has been possible because treating the palm leaves with lemon grass ensured that they would survive for centuries.   We owe a huge debt of gratitude to this simple herb.

Next time you enjoy a cup of lemon grass  tea from your home herb garden, perhaps think a little of those scribes writing out books on palm leaves so long ago.

Good herbs gardening!