Description
Sage Clary seeds have a mucilaginous coat, which is why some old herbals recommended placing a seed into the eye of someone with a foreign object in it so that it could adhere to the object and make it easy to remove. This practice is noted by Nicholas Culpeper in his Complete Herbal (1653), who referred to the plant as “clear-eye”. The distilled essential oil is used widely in perfumes and as a muscatel flavoring for vermouths, wines, and liqueurs. It is also used in aromatherapy as clary sage essential oil. Linalyl acetate is also found in clary sage and used to soothe skin and treat skin inflammation with strong scientific evidence that supports this.
Flowering in late spring to summer, clary sage prefers partial shade and is available as seeds, plugs or pots.