Lovage

Lovage grows up to 2 metres tall, with glossy, deeply divided leaves resembling celery and umbels of small yellow-green flowers in summer. The fruits split into two oblong, ridged, brown seeds roughly 5 to 7 millimetres long, curved and slightly flattened. When crushed, they release a strong smell of celery, lemon, anise and savory broth. The flavour is warm, bitter-sweet and savory. Seeds are sold whole for pickling and seasoning, and the fresh or dried leaves and chopped roots are also used. Fresh seeds are used for sprouting herb gardens, and the plant returns every year for decades.

Lovage's exact native range is debated, but it is usually placed in the mountains of southern Europe, with likely origins in the Mediterranean region and western Asia including Iran. It was spread through monastery and cottage gardens across Europe. The scientific name Levisticum comes from Latin and is thought to derive from Ligusticum, a plant of Liguria in Italy, and English speakers later changed lovage from the Old French luvesche into a word that looked like love-ache or love-parsley. The folk association with love and the plant's use in love potions grew from this wordplay.

Lovage was well known to the Romans, who used its seeds and roots in sauces. Apicius included it in recipes, and it was valued as a flavouring for meat dishes and for aiding digestion. Medieval monastic gardens, including the capitulary of Charlemagne, listed it as a plant to be grown, and it became a classic herb for soups and stews in Germany, Britain and Scandinavia.

In folk tradition, lovage was believed to protect travellers and to act as a love charm, with bundles of leaves placed in bath water or shoes. Herbalists used a decoction of the root and seeds as a digestive aid and a diuretic, and Culpeper and others praised it for many ailments, although these uses were not rigorously tested.

Lovage became the basis of a German household nickname, Maggikraut, because its flavour resembles that of Maggi seasoning, though the commercial sauce does not require the herb. During the twentieth century the plant fell somewhat out of fashion but has returned with interest in heritage herbs and foraged flavours. Lovage seed is also widely used in Eastern European pickling blends and in Italian liqueur recipes.

Lovage seeds are used like celery seed in pickles, brines, breads, cheese crackers, salad dressings, soups and sausages, and as a savory addition to spice rubs. Ground seeds can replace celery salt. Leaves flavour soups, potato dishes, egg dishes and stocks, and the chopped stems can be candied or used like celery. Roots are cooked as a vegetable or used in teas and liqueurs in traditional practice. A tea of leaves or seeds has been used as a folk digestive drink. Because the flavour is strong, small amounts go a long way.

Lovage has a long history in European folk medicine for digestion and as a mild diuretic, and its essential oil contains phthalides and terpenes similar to those in celery seed. Modern research is limited, and the German Commission E has approved root preparations only for flushing the urinary tract, not for treating disease. As a culinary seasoning in small amounts it is considered unproblematic for most people. Stronger preparations should be treated as medicinal products rather than foods.