| |  | | Clary Seeds Used to Clean Eyes
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: Guadalupe
Posted on: June 26, 2005
I’m 55 years old and have been looking for a seed that my grandfather used to give me to clean my eyes and remove the redness. I was about the age of around 15 or 16 and I use to use them when I eyes were red and itchey, he used to grow this flower or plant. I don’t remember of really seeing what the plant looked like. It was a seed that I would place in the eye entering the eye opening closest to the nose. This seed would go around the eye between the eyeball and the skin around it and would come back where I had inserted it, it would be covered with a white to a gray colored slim and my eyes would look whiter and feel refreshed. The seed was the size of about a black pepper seed (a small seed). I hope you can help find this seed.
I believe the seed you are looking for is one of the sages. Many sages have seeds that produce mucilage when soaked in water and that soft mucilage is excellent for picking up small foreign matter that may be irritating the eyes thus causing redness. The sage most famously used for the eyes is clary (Salvia sclarea). The word "clary" is a derivation of "clear eye" which attests to its long use for treating minor eye problems. Here is what Herbalpedia (available from Richters) says about clary:
"The clary seeds form a thick mucilage when soaked for a few minutes and placed in the eye, helps to remove small irritating particles. A tea of the leaves is also used as an eyewash."
Clary seeds are available from Richters; please visit:
http://www.richters.com/Web_store/web_store.cgi?product=X1800
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