Share of newborn children in Germany who have at least one parent of foreign origin (green).

Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) introduced from Croatia; Salvia pratensis (meadow sage) indigenous plant from Germany

Source: Florian Göttsche: „Bevölkerung mit Migrationshintergrund“, in: Statistisches Bundesamt/Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin/Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (ed.): Datenreport 2018. Ein Sozialbericht für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 2018, p. 28

Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary)
Lamiaceae (mint family)

Small evergreen shrub, 50–200 cm in height, leaves acicular and narrow, rolled downward at the edges; flowers white to bluish in false whorls, shoots and leaf underside gray and downy. Dispersal by ants.

Grows wild in Mediterranean shrubland (Garigue). Popular spice, fragrance, medicinal and ornamental plant, main component of colognes.

Native to the Mediterranean, the natural area extends in the north to Provence, the southern edge of the Alps and Croatia. In Germany often cultivated in plant pots, hardy only in regions with mild winter weather.

Salvia pratensis (meadow sage)
Lamiaceae (mint family)

Perennial herbaceous half-rosette plant, 50–80 cm in height, leaves oblong-lanceolate, wrinkled, with a typical sage smell due to essential oils; flowers blue, rarely white or pink, in false whorls. Dispersal by ants, more rarely by other animals.

Grows in rough pastures, especially on non-fertilized or less fertilized, rather dry soil. Decline due to the intensification of grassland use. By now frequently planted on inner city traffic islands as an attractive wild shrub.

Indigenous to most of Germany, the natural area covers wide areas of Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, missing in Northern Europe. Naturalized neophyte in eastern North America.

Children With a Foreign Parent

Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim was Swabian on his father’s side, and Swiss on his mother’s side. The association NHV Paracelsus, named after him, which annually determines a »medicinal plant of the year«, however has its headquarters in Chemnitz. In 2011, rosemary was chosen, which is »as helpful to an aging population as it is to younger patients with symptoms of exhaustion and fatigue«. (1)

Its invigorating and antibacterial property is partly due to rosmarinic acid, with chemists stressing that it is a »caffeic acid ester«. In fact, a tea made from fresh rosemary shoots (1/2 teaspoon, infused for 5 minutes) can raise blood pressure like coffee – and even with extended effects. (2)

Much more important for all parents worldwide who are dealing with coughing children, of course, is the information that rosmarinic acid is found in many other herbs, but particularly in sage and thus in countless cough syrups. (3) In Croatia sage is in fact considered the mother of all herbs. At the Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation in Split, all 25 varieties of sage growing in Croatia are cultivated together. (4) The only species of sage that grows wild in our country, the meadow sage, is unfortunately not useful in cough syrups for children due to a lack of active ingredients.

(1) http://www.nhv-theophrastus.de
(2) http://www.kraeuterweisheiten.de/rosmarin.html
(3) According to the online herbal reference book (in German) under: https://www.kraeuter-buch.de/glossar/rosmarinsaeure-248.html
(4) https://www.br.de/br-fernsehen/sendungen/alpen-donau-adria/ada-dalmatien-salbei-100.html