Up until about 8 years ago I really had no desire to use rosemary in my kitchen due its very strong flavor, but now I use it all the time. Rosemary has a warm, bitter, and astringent taste. Unlike many other herbs that lose their potency when dried, rosemary retains its taste even in the dried form I had to create a relationship with it. My first kitchen use for rosemary was on roasted potatoes and I used it very sparingly. The result was perfect. I then began to dabble with adding it to my tea and again it was about moderation. I am no longer avoiding rosemary but welcoming it with open arms.

Rosemary is not just for the kitchen. I have incorporated this herb into a lot of herbal remedies because of its broad spectrum of medicinal properties. I would like to start with rosemary's ability to help with hair growth. A comparative study published in 2015 shows that rosemary oil is effective in treating alopecia by boosting hair growth. At six months, a significant increase in hair count was noted for the group treated with rosemary oil. It also promotes healing by increasing microcirculation of the scalp and decreases hair loss after shampooing. I now incorporate my infused rosemary oil into my herbal shampoo, and I see a decrease in the amount of hair I lose.

Rosemary also can work as a natural preservative. Rosemary is specifically powerful against bacterial infections. It is linked to preventing staph infections, which are highly contagious and can cause lethal boils and blisters. It also eradicates various gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria completely. Due to its antibacterial qualities, rosemary intake has been shown to prevent the growth of H. pylori bacteria, a dangerous pathogen that is associated with gastritis, and stomach ulcers. This is another good reason why I put rosemary oil into my herbal shampoo, and other remedies that contain water, is because where there is water bacteria can grow so by adding rosemary, I am give a longer shelf life to my remedies.

Another big reason for me as well as a lot of other herbalists to use rosemary as much as possible is due to research showing it can help fight dementia and Alzheimer’s. One of the earliest documented uses of rosemary was as a cognitive stimulant. As per a research study, rosemary prevents beta-amyloid plaques and suppresses acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities. These actions are associated with the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, ataxia, and dementia. It has also been linked to stimulating cognition in the
elderly as well as those suffering from other acute cognitive disorders. 

This is not all that rosemary can help with, but it is the most important to my apothecary of remedies.