Best Heirloom Tomatoes part 2

I wrote part 1 of this post earlier, but it started to get too long so I have continued it here.

Like I said in my first post all seeds were sown the same day on 9 August 2014 without heat, all seedlings were transplanted into the vegetable garden about 7 weeks later when the majority were 15 to 20 cm tall (they were all planted out on the same day, some were larger than others).  I have included the date the first fruit ripened after the variety name.  They are listed in order that their first fruit ripened.
_________________________________________________________________________________

I had one bed of tomatoes that did not go too well, the drippers I put in got clogged a little and I did not notice for a while.  There are also a lot of tree roots in this bed which may have robbed the tomatoes of nutrients and water.  I lost a few plants in this bed and came close to losing all of the others.  All of the plants in this bed fruited later than the rest, I think it was the bed itself that caused this.

Purple Cherokee

Purple Cherokee (21/02/2015) large purple/pink/red tomatoes, some round, some a little odd shaped.  Fruit took a long time to ripen.  Very distinctive taste.  People often say this tomato has a smoky taste or taste of good red wine, I had never understood that until tasting them myself, wow.  A little salt adds more depth to their taste - Unbelievable!  This plant produces a medium to large yield of large fruit, it has regular leaf and is indeterminate.

Not quite round tomatoes

Dwarf multiflora (21/02/2015) the plant flowered early but the fruit took a very long time to ripen considering their size.  Masses of flowers and fruit formed at each truss.  This is a great tomato for small spaces as it is small but still productive.  Dark yellow/light orange fruit that is not quite round often has a small amount of green stripes.  It had a nice strong tomato taste with a zing.  I have plants to cross this with a micro tomato and create something interesting.  This multiflora plant produces a large yield over a short season, it is dwarf, has regular leaf and is indeterminate.

Black Cherry

Black Cherry (25/02/2015) for a cherry tomato this plant took a long time to ripen, all the tomatoes in that bed took a lot longer, I think it may have been the bed itself rather than the plants.  Black Cherry is said to be one of the best tasting tomatoes ever bred.  This was a great tasting cherry tomato, flesh was reasonably sweet while the seeds were reasonably sour.  I preferred Snow White over Black Cherry as did everyone who tried them both this year.  This plant produced a medium yield over the season, it has regular leaf and is indeterminate.

This fruit is boxy but good

Red Paste Type (03/03/2015) red boxy tomatoes, very nice looking, kind of like delicious red Christmas ornaments.  High yield but slow to ripen, great tasting tomato.  Some fruit can be slightly hollow, others on the same plant were solid.  This plant produces a large yield late in the season, it has regular leaf and is indeterminate.

I didnt take a picture of the JBT cross?

Japanese Black Trifelle cross (10/03/2015) Brown tomato, amazing taste, Japanese Black Trifelle crossed with a mystery tomato.  This fruit tasted great, almost as good as Malakhitovaya Shkatulka (which is possibly the best tasting tomato in the world).  This variety is still segregating, I plan to develop something decent from it in the future.  For some reason I did not take any pictures of the fruit but it doesnt matter too much as it may change as the variety becomes more stable.  This plant has regular leaf at the moment and is indeterminate.

Did not save seeds from this one

Grubs Mystery Green cross? (12/03/2015) green round fruit, possible cross as regular leaf (this variety is known to throw regular leaf occasionally so it may not be a cross), great tasting tomato almost as good as Malakhitovaya Shkatulka.  Fruit ripened green but were sometimes completely red even on the same plant or branch.  This plant has regular leaf and is indeterminate.  I wont grow this again as I did not save seed, I prefer potato leaf which is meant to be part of this variety.

OSU Blue starting to get colour

OSU Blue (12/03/2015) amazing deep colour like no other tomato before it.  Black/violet/blue on top of red.  The colours intensify when the temperatures are low but the UV light remains high.  Parts of the fruit that do not receive light stay red so words/logos etc can be on the fruit by placing a sticker of that shape on the unripe tomato and removing the sticker when the fruit is ripe.  You can even spell out your childs name using one letter per tomato.  In cooler temperatures even the leaves and stems take on a slight purple tinge.  This plant has regular leaf and is indeterminate.

White Wonder

White Wonder - the whitest tomato I have ever grown

White Wonder (13/03/2015) Inconsistent fruit size, some larger some smaller.  Most whites are pale yellow, this was very white, by far the whitest of the whites that I have grown.  Amazing looking round fruit with a mild taste, far nicer than store bought but the taste was nothing too amazing.  This plant has regular leaf and is indeterminate.

Grubs Mystery Green

Grubs Mystery Green (03/04/2015) a delicious, nice sized round tomato that is green when ripe, less of a red blush than Malakhitovaya Shkatulka.  This is another great tasting tomato!  It produced a small yield late in the season, I assume this is due to the bed in which it was growing rather than the variety.  I prefer MS to this but they are both great tasting varieties.  This plant has potato leaf and is indeterminate.

A few others I have may never ripen, they were in the dodgy bed and loaded with fruit.  The ducks got in a few times and stole most of it but there was still enough left that I thought could ripen.  Last night something got in and ate all but one tomato, that tomato is in an exclusion bag.  The plants look almost dead, I think it may be time to call this years tomatoes finished.  That one tomato may still ripen, and I do have some very late planted micro tomatoes which are in pots currently flowering that may fruit, but I think I can write other posts for them if need be.


Where to get heirloom tomato seeds
Some of these varieties are rather common, others are pretty rare.  There are a few good heirloom seed companies around as well as some dodgy ones.  Ironically one of the largest and well known heirloom seed companies is also probably the worst.  I may sell some of these seeds, if you are interested please look on my For Sale page.  I am working hard to develop a few new varieties that are not listed here, it will take me a few years to stabilise them properly.  If I ever develop anything great I will also try to list it on my for sale page or I may even start a proper website or get a store or something by then.

Read More..

What about the toxicology of burning bay leaf wood as a source of fuel

On the 18th of January 2015, a blog visitor known as TheRegulator posted a real interesting question in the most famous blog entry Ive written so far, the one on the toxicity of Bay Leaf. His/Her question was:

"I would like to pose a question of a different focus regarding bay leaf. Your article, questions and comments all focus on the leaf. But what about the toxicology of burning bay leaf wood as a source of fuel? The burning of certain tree woods are more toxic than others. One specie of tree, for example, is so toxic that the inhalation, ingestion or touch poses a health risk."

Incredibly juicy this question!!! Had I some more free time and Id be researching this topic like a mole on steroids, but my work has forced me to look very briefly into it. TheRegulator could have helped by stating exactly the name of the species that is known to release extremely toxic fumes when burned. But I did not quit and I found it.

I investigated, during the very limited free time I have in between the final year of my PhD, nappies and my own business, and I found some nice literature on the topic:

Polyciclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - molecules present in Laurus Nobilis leaves that have been utilised as indicators of air pollution in Tuscany (for example). The mean PAH foliar levels in laurel leaves are well correlated with PAH air concentration [1], thus providing a good estimate of the PAHs respiratory burden. But this did not provide me with the necessary information. I was inclined to believe that any toxicity derived from burning bay leaf wood would have to do with the combustion of the oils/volatile compounds found in its composition. But apart from L. Nobilis antibacterial and fungicidal properties [2] I could not find any information pointing to toxicity of combustion fumes. In fact, Laurus Nobilis is my favourite bronchopulmonary disinfectant.

But then suddenly my research offered me some interesting and scary results. Camphor Laurel!!!! Camphor Laurel, scientifically known as Cinnamomum camphora, when burned produces significant amounts of many chemicals believed to be toxic and even carcinogenic [3]. There are studies that report this plants combustion smokes as responsible for many animal deaths, especially in Australia [3]:

A less lethal species, the Cherry Laurel - Prunus laurocerasus can also be seen as incredibly dangerous if combusted as it contain cyanolipids that release cyanide and benzaldehyde (toxic agents).

There are anecdotal reports all over the internet of common people burning laurel prunings without any issues. But what laurel prunings??? That is the RIGHT question! Most of us are worried about the hydrogen cyanide that is released during the combustion, due to cyanogenic glycosides present in the leaves of the Cherry Laurel. During its combustion/maceration, the cyanogenic glycosides will become hydrogen cyanide, glucose and benzaldehyde [4]. Cyanide kills by starving the central nervous system of oxygen and has been used by entomologists to kill insects without inflicting physical pain. Benzaldehyde...

In summary:

Combustion fumes from Camphor laurel wood = Extremely dangerous, especially if youre in Australia!

Combustion fumes from Prunus laurocerasus wood = Very dangerous. Avoid whenever possible;

Combustion fumes from Laurus Nobilis wood = Unlikely to cause any harm if handled properly, but it is better to avoid exaggeration.

[1] Lodovici, M., Akpan, V., Casalini, C., Zappa, C., Dolara, P. (1998). "Polyciclic aromatic hydrocarbons  in Laurus Nobilis leaves as a measure of air pollution in urban and rural sites of Tuscany". Chemosphere, 36(8), pp.1703-1712.

[2] Bay Laurel, Laurus Nobilis, leaves, [http://quickbooker.org/kunden/wildherbsofcrete_com/pages/portraits-of-our-essential-oils-from-wild-herbs-of-crete/laurus-nobilis.php], last visited on the 21st of January 2015, last update unknown.

[3] Camphor Laurel - NSW Scientific Committee - final determination, [http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/determinations/camphorlaurelktp.htm], last visited on the 21st of January 2015, last update on the 28th of February 2011.

[4] The MAK collection for Occupational Health and Safety, Benzaldehyde, [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/3527600418.mb10052e0017/pdf], last visited on the 21st of January 2015, last updated on the 15th of october 1998.

1st image kindly taken from frametoframe, [http://frametoframe.ca/2013/10/poison-garden-blarney-castle-ireland/].

2md image taken from Camphor Laurel Menace, [http://www.camphorlaurel.com.au/].

Read More..

How to graft tomato to a potato

Question:  What do you call a plant that is a tomato and a potato grafted together?  A tomtato?  A potmato?
Answer:  I dont know and I dont care.


Grafting Tomato scion to Potato rootstock

Potatoes and tomatoes are both closely related, they can be grafted to each other easily enough.  With a little effort a chilli, tomatillo, potato, tomato, ground cherry, eggplant and a few other things including some agricultural weeds can graft onto one another as they are all closely related.  If you could be bothered they could all be grafted onto a strong rootstock and a multi-grafted vegetable garden shrub could be created.

Many varieties of each of these plants are perennial, so in theory if a hardy perennial root stock was chosen a grafted perennial vegetable plot in one plant could be the result.  Yields would be low for each plant and care would need to be taken to ensure one graft did not take over the others, but it would be easy enough to create.  Perhaps I should make one next year just to prove how simple it is.

About 20 years ago I grafted the top of a tomato plant to the bottom of a potato plant.  I did not have grafting tape or grafting clips but I did misappropriate some plumbing tape from school and used that.  I had never grafted anything, I had never seen anyone graft, I had no one to answer questions or guide me, I had no books to read (and as far as I knew the internet did not exist) but I had heard about grafting so decided to give it a go.  How hard could it be?

I had hopes of getting two crops for the same amount of space and water.  It kind of worked, I guess.  I certainly got a crop of tomatoes, but the non grafted one in the next row cropped better.  At the end of the season I certainly got a crop of potatoes, but the non grafted potatoes returned a far larger crop.  Both crops tasted just as they should and looked normal.  The grafted plant used quite a lot more water than I would have expected, much more than the tomato plants or the potato plants in the other rows.  I considered it to be a failure due to the extra work resulting in lower crops an higher water for the same amount of space, in hind sight it was probably a success as the plant lived and cropped and I learned from the experience.

Recently I have seen these grafted tomato/potato plants being sold.  One very arrogant man claims that he is a genius who invented this process about 5 years ago.  Too late, I did it 20 years ago when I was a teenager and I seriously doubt that I was the first to try this successfully.

A few people claim that this method of grafting increases yields from both plants, unfortunately from my experience I do not believe them.  You will get both crops, but the crops are both smaller.  Larger crops from a grafted plant such as this is illogical.  If you do not have much space and can only grow one plant then this trade off may be well worth it.  I dont see the need to make erroneous claims, people will still buy the plants if you tell them the truth.  I sell a lot of interesting vegetables, there is no need to exaggerate as people who want them will buy them.

It would be interesting to see just how poorly these grafted potato tomato plants crop.  I should run some field trials to see if growing potato and tomato in the same pot will yield differently to a grafted tomato potato.  I wish I did not have to go to work so I had more time to do interesting experiments like this.

I also have read about someone from a large plant/seed/gardening company who claims to have been the first to have ever thought of the idea 15 years ago (but never actually tried it until more recently), again I not only thought of this but successfully tried it earlier than that!  If a teenager with no experience, no resources, no education or mentor can do this it cant be that difficult and I wish people would stop trying to big note themselves with such simple things.  I honestly believe that people have been trying this and succeeding for a few hundred years but it has not gone anywhere as the yields are too low to bother.  This type of grafting is simple, it is unproductive which makes it uncommon, being uncommon means that people have not seen it before and are often taken in by these lies.  Perhaps next Spring I should run some grafting courses and teach people how to create these grafted plants at home.

Tomato flowers

Reisetomate tomato flowers

Grafting Potato scion onto Tomato rootstock

Enough of my rant (for now), I dont want to talk about grafting the top of a tomato the the bottom of a potato.  I want to talk about the opposite.

This year I grafted the top of a potato plant (called the scion) to the roots of a tomato (called the rootstock).  You may ask why the devil would anyone do that, the resultant grafted plant would produce neither tomatoes or potatoes so would be a waste of time and space.  Well it is simple, I wanted potato seed.

Modern potatoes are grown from existing potatoes, they are genetic clones of their parent, it is essentially the same plant.  Seed potatoes are just small potatoes, a stem fragment from the parent.

I wanted to grow potatoes from seeds, true seeds, each and every one of them would be unique.  Some would be dreadful, some mediocre and perhaps some would be great.  I wanted to see if I could create a new variety that is better suited to my needs and will grow better in my climate.  To do that the potato plant needs to flower, then it needs to grow fertile seeds, often a potato left to itself refuses to flower.  Grafting onto a tomato will help to make this happen.

When I was a child we had an unknown variety of potato that would set seed each year.  I used to grow these seeds and nothing great ever came from them.  Each seed grown plant was different, they grew differently, some had slightly different colours, but the parent stock was dodgy and did not have the genetic potential to grow anything truly great.  I used to think it was my fault that nothing exceptional came out of that and felt like a failure, now that I am better educated I know that I actually achieved a lot back then.

I have a variety of potato that never flowers in my climate.  I dont know if it flowers anywhere.  Many modern potatoes no longer flower.  It is a great variety, it is easy enough to buy, but it struggles to crop well in this climate.  When I have grown this variety in other climates and without exaggeration it has cropped about 20 times higher than it crops here (I weigh things and keep pointlessly accurate records).  Planting certified virus free seed potato into new soil does not help, this variety struggles in my climate as it is not really suited to growing here.  But it tastes so good which makes me want to grow it.

If I could get some seed from this potato there is a chance I could grow a similar tasting potato that crops well here.  To do that I need it to flower and set viable seed.  This is a decent parent plant and has the genes to produce some exceptional new varieties of potato, but in the 7 or so years I have grown it I have never seen any flowers.

This year I grafted that potato scion onto tomato rootstock to induce flowering and hopefully convince it to grow fruit and set viable seeds.  As the potato will not be putting any energy into tuber formation it will be more likely to flower and more likely to have the energy to set viable seed.  I chose the most vigorous tomato I have and grafted them using tongue approach grafting or inarching as it is the simplest and most fool proof way to graft.  This is how grafting happens most often in nature, it is simple, fast to do and once done it is very low maintenance.  I could have chosen other forms of grafting but why make things harder than they have to be.

Picture thanks to http://extension.umass.edu/floriculture/fact-sheets/grafting-techniques-greenhouse-tomatoes

I grew a tomato seedling in a pot and the potato plant in the soil.  When the plants were both the right size (ie it had nothing to do with size, it was when I could find the time) I put a small cut into each stem part way through.  I then joined the two together and bound them with plumbers tape.  I still do not have grafting clips or grafting tape, but the plumbing tape works well enough for me, this time I bought the tape instead of helping myself to it.  Then I left the plants with two tops and two sets of roots so that the graft union could heal.  Perhaps my description is not that useful, the picture above shows roughly how I did it, but my plants were larger and much older than in the picture.

After the graft had taken (ie several weeks later when I found time) I cut off the top of the tomato and the bottom of the potato and was left with a grafted plant with tomato roots and potato leaves.  The potato plant went on to continue growing and eventually produced a crop (which is why it was in the soil to begin with) and the top of the tomato was used as a cutting so nothing was wasted.  I had a grafted plant in a pot which I planted into the vegetable garden.

I then had a plant with the roots of a tomato and the top of a potato.  I left the grafting tape on for another week or two then unwrapped it, the union was strong enough by this time and the tape was getting too tight.  The tape could possibly be removed earlier but this works for me so I have not experimented with other methods.

We are hoping to sell our house so I only grafted the one plant.  I did not want to put in a lot of time to graft a lot of plants only to sell and move leaving behind treasures like this that would not be appreciated.  Unfortunately we still are yet to find the right buyer, had I known this I would have planted a lot differently this year, hind sight is great.

This grafted plant flowered well, extremely well.  Considering that I have grown this potato variety for so many years and never seen a flower I think it is safe to conclude that grafting the top of a potato to the roots of a tomato actually does help the plant to flower.

There are a lot of different pollinators around my garden, I never saw them on the potato flowers but they may have been there when I was not looking.  I tried to pollinate the flowers in the same way that one pollinates tomato flowers, I think it worked.

Potato Flowers - the grafting worked

The plant started to produce fruit.  This is exactly what I had hoped would happen.  Then the ducks got in to the vegetable garden, they stomped around the garden a bit, broke a lot of plants, ate some leaves off things, messed around stealing vegetables and ate some fruit off the trees.

The grafted potato/tomato plant was still alive but all the fruit was missing, I dont know if the ducks ate the fruit or if they rolled away somewhere.  If they rolled away there is a chance they may grow next year but I doubt I will find them or even know that they are not just the normal potatoes.  The grafted plant continued flowering for a while but those flowers all aborted and did not produce any fruit, probably due to the heat.

If I try this again the next time I will try to graft a few more plants to help provide a little insurance against this kind of thing.  Nothing much can be done now apart from wait.

Since writing this post I have wondered if I should dig up the grafted plant and try to overwinter it.  I know the tomato rootstock can survive if I protect it from frost but I am not sure about the potato part.  I wondered if it was worth my time even trying, perhaps it would flower and set seed better, perhaps it would simply die, I dont know anyone who has tried to keep a plant like this alive for several years.  Come to think of it, I dont know anyone who has created a grafted plant like this one.

Once again the ducks got into the vegetable garden, they kind of made up my mind for me.  The top of the plant is now dead/missing, the roots are possibly still alive, if they sprout leaves I will let the frost kill it when it is time.  This type of grafting is worth another try if I have any land next year as it seemed to help the potato to flower, once I get this potato variety to produce viable seed then the fun part begins.  Perhaps I should get a different type of potato that flowers and fruits readily and cross them.  For now I am happy that grafting helps flowering and fruit set.

Read More..

Tomatoes Potato Leaf vs Regular Leaf

People often talk about regular leaf tomatoes or potato leaf tomatoes, I get a few questions about this so I figured I would write a post explaining what is meant by these terms.  I have also seen one place sell a variety of tomato that they call "potato leaf tomato" and I find this confusing as there are many varieties of potato leaf tomatoes, I am growing 4 of them this year myself.

Have a look at these two leaves, they are both leaves from tomato plants.  Please ignore the yellowing, that has nothing to do with leaf type, that leaf is a bit older.

Potato Leaf compared with Regular Leaf

It is not too difficult to tell them apart, the leaf on the left looks like the leaf on a potato plant, the leaf on the right looks like the leaf on most varieties of tomato.

Regular Leaf (RL) tomato

Regular Leaf (often abbreviated RL)

This is the typical leaf type that most people are familiar with, most varieties of tomato are regular leaf.  The leaf edges are serrated quite a bit.  There are a lot of variations on this basic theme in terms of the width/length of leaf depending on the specific variety, climate and growing methods.  There are a few other variations such as angora, variegated etc but they are not easy to come across in Australia so I wont talk about them.  Some leaves are very narrow and are sometimes called dissected, others are wispy or droopy or look like the foliage of a carrot.  These are easily recognised from a distance even by my 5 year old as the leaves of a tomato plant.  All of this is referred to as Regular Leaf (RL).

Potato Leaf (PL) tomato

Potato Leaf (often abbreviated PL)

These leaves usually have very few interruptions of the leaf edge.  They are fat and large leaves. Newly germinated seedlings sometimes dont show their PL nature until they are a few inches tall, others show it as soon as they grow their true leaves.  PL leaves often have a thicker cuticle than RL leaves or a higher density of trichomes (which are tiny little hairs on the leaf).  Some claim that makes them more tolerant of foliage diseases but I have seen no proof of this.   Leaf shape can be different on a single plant with some showing more or less smooth edges, all of this is normal for PL.  Scientists have divided the PL leaf forms into various different classes but few of them are available in Australia and it makes no real difference so I wont write anything about them.

What is the deal with growing Potato Leaf tomatoes?

Some people claim that potato leaf tomatoes taste better, unfortunately that is a half truth.  Almost all Potato Leaf tomatoes are heirlooms and generally heirloom tomatoes taste great.  Some tomato varieties have a Potato Leaf version as well as a Regular Leaf version, I can not taste any difference.

People often claim that Regular Leaf tomatoes do not cross pollinate while Potato Leaf tomatoes will cross readily.  Unfortunately this is not at all true.  Most modern bred varieties of tomato will not cross pollinate easily (literatures states around 5% crossing without intervention when being grown side by side), almost all heirloom tomatoes do cross pollinate, some far more than others.  As most Potato Leaf tomatoes are heirlooms people have got themselves confused here.  The tomato I grow that crosses most readily is Reisetomate, it is a regular leaf plant.  It cross pollinates so much that I even grow it in a separate garden to all my other tomatoes.  Try not to be fooled, Potato Leaf does not necessarily mean heirloom, just as heirloom does not necessarily mean Potato Leaf.

Potato Leaf is considered to be a recessive trait.  When breeding new varieties if Potato Leaf is crossed with Regular Leaf then all the seedlings will be Regular Leaf.  This makes it useful to see early on  if the cross has worked or if the flower self pollinated and the plant is worth growing on or not.  If growing different varieties of tomato then Potato Leaf can also indicate early on if that particular seed has remained pure.  If a potato leaf variety grows regular leaf the chances are high that it has crossed.  Some potato leaf varieties do occasionally throw a regular leaf plant even when they have not crossed, so things do get a little confusing here as there is a little more to it than a simple dominant/recessive trait.

"Julia Child" a great potato Leaf tomato variety

I have heard theories about potato leaf being more resistant to insects and regular leaf being more resistant to insects and visa versa, but I have found nothing conclusive that back up this.  Potato leaf would possibly restrict airflow more than regular leaf, so it is possible that potato leaf would face more mold problems in damp environments but again I have no proof that confirms or denies this.  I live in an area of low humidity, so it doesnt matter to me in the slightest.

I have also heard anecdotal evidence that potato leaf varieties are more hungry than regular leaf as they require more resources in order to build more leaf, again I am yet to find any research that either backs or refutes this claim.  It kind of makes sense to me, but some of the largest tomato plants I have ever seen have been regular leaf, I assume they used a lot of resources to grow that large.  I have one regular leaf tomato that grows a large shrub to about 8 feet in every direction, it is surely using a lot of resources to build all of that stem.

Some people think the Potato Leaf plants look nicer, I certainly think they look more ornamental and would not look out of place in a flower garden.  To be honest, I wish that I had more potato leaf tomato varieties as I simply like the look of them.

At the end of the day though the leaf shape makes no real difference to me and I doubt it makes any real difference to taste, growth rates or anything other than aesthetics, so I base my planting decisions on the taste of the fruit and performance of the plant.

I do sell seeds of some heirloom tomatoes as well as perennial vegetables on my for sale page, you should have a look if you are interested.

Read More..

Multiple sclerosis and bay leaf could that be a factor

On the 2nd of March Danielle King asked me about MS, that I suspect is a short name for multiple sclerosis and reactions to bay leaf in her diet. I am no medical doctor as I already told her, but I like browsing through the available information to know more and help others know more about their own conditions. Having said that, if youre ever concerned about your health or the health of any of your relatives, especially in such serious intricate ailments like MS, it is always very important to rush to your doctor and get an appropriate follow-up of your symptoms with professional medical advice.

Defining Multiple Sclerosis?

To start with lets define what is Multiple Sclerosis; the National Health Service (NHS) website explains it as a disease in the brain and spinal cord that will ultimately affect muscular movement, affect sight (loss of vision) and cause ataxia (affecting coordination and balance) and cause spasticity and tiredness [1]. There are different types of patients suffering from MS, 8 out of 10 with MS will show the relapsing remitting type where symptoms are milder or can periodically disappear but the relapse events can flare-up and last for weeks to months. Later on in life, half of the people suffering from MS develop secondary progressive MS where symptoms gradually become worse and remission periods become rarer. There is a less common type of MS disorder known as Primary Progressive MS where symptoms gradually get worse and there are no periods of remission [1]. 

If you want to know more about causes, patients and outlook, please visit this link.

What did I find on the available scientific literature about Bay leaf and Multiple Sclerosis?

Unfortunately not much, if anyone has access to better articles or better servers where articles are located, please by all means, just let me know. I found some studies on anti-alcohol substances from natural resources explaining that bay leaf (Laurus nobilis) showed very strong inhibitory activity on ethanol absorption in rats [2]. This same article by Yoshikawa et al. talks about a few pharmacological properties of bay leaf. Focusing solely on the leaves one can learn about the inhibitory effects on NO production (I suspect NO stands for nitrogen monoxide) and also anti-diabetic effects, for example. 

In another article Yalcin et al tell us about the different compounds found in the essential oil of Laurus nobilis from the Northern Cyprus mountains [3]. If we look into a few of them and cross along with the information on pharmacological properties of these, maybe we can deduct something important. Bear in mind that a deduction is merely a deduction and not a clinical trial at all!!! Thus, verifying the different compounds composing this oil monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes form a bigger part of the constituents:

- it is reported by David Stewart, PhD, R.A, that monoterpenes are capable of reprogramming miswritten information in the cellular memory [4]; sesquiterpene molecules deliver oxygen to cells just like haemoglobin in blood, thus creating an oxygenated moiety that inhibits the growth of cancer cells, and are also capable of erasing or deprogramming miswritten codes in DNA.

But what caught my attention was Dr. Stewarts comment that I fully transcribe hereby:

"The American Medical Association (AMA) has said that if they could find an agent that would pass the blood-brain barrier, they would be able to find cures for ailments such as Lou Gehrigs disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimers disease, and Parkinsons disease. Such agents already exist and have been available since Biblical times. The agents, of course, are essential oils-particularly those containing the brain oxygenating molecules of sesquiterpenes."

In other articles I found online regarding atherosclerosis (very different from multiple sclerosis for the former is a form of obstruction of arteries by fatty atheromas/plaques, a combination of turmeric and bay leaf is associated to reduced plaque build [5] in a hypercholesterolemic Zebrafish model, and blood sugar levels [6] in patients with diabetes Mellitus (very limited study though).

In conclusion:

I honestly believe that maybe what you feel is an allergic reaction to bay leaves as face eczema, contact dermatitis and occupational asthma have been reported before [7].

I dont want to conclude anything at all, but to provide information for you to do your own interpretation. A GP might be able to indicate better why you have face flushes and feel sick after having your bowl of soup with bay leaves in it. From the top of my head, unless you are using a copious amount of leaves in your soup, inadvisable though, I see no direct link between the information I was able to find and your complaints, unless we focus on side-effects. These, related to consumption of bay leaves, are overall very few when consumed in food. 

[1] NHS Choices, Multiple slerosis, [http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/multiple-sclerosis/Pages/Introduction.aspx], last visited on the 19th of March 2014, last update on the 18th of March 2013.

[2] Yoshikawa, M., Shimoda, H., Uemura, T., Morikawa, T., Kawahara, Y., Matsuda, H. (2000). "Absorption inhibitors from bay leaf (Laurus Nobilis): structure requirements sesquiterpenes for the activity". Bioorganic and medicinal chemistry, 8, pp. 2071-2077.

[3] "Yalcin, H., Anik, M., Sanda, M. A., Cakir, A. (2007). "Gas chromatography/Mass spectrometry analysis of Laurus nobilis essential oil composition of Northern Cyprus". Journal of medicinal food, 10(4), pp.715-719

[4] The blood-brain barrier, [http://www.rnoel.50megs.com/pdf/theblood.htm], last visited on the 19th of March 2014, last update unknown.

[5] Jin, S., Hong, J-H., Jung, S-H., Cho, K-H. (2011). "Turmeric and Laurel Aqueous extracts exhibit  in vitro anti- atherosclerotic activity and in vivo hypolipidemic effects in a Zebrafish model". Journal of Medicinal Food, 14(3), pp. 247-256.

[6] Aljamal, A. (2011). "Effects of bay leaves on the patientswith Diabetes Mellitus". Research Journal of Medicinal Plant, 5(4), pp. 471-476.

[7] Healthline, Bay leaf (Laurus Nobilis), [http://www.healthline.com/natstandardcontent/bay-leaf], last visited on the 19th of March, last update unknown.

1st image taken from Irish American Mom, Bay leaf and thyme sprigs in soup, [http://www.irishamericanmom.com/2012/02/06/potato-and-leek-soup/dscf7537/], last visited on the 19th of March 2014.

2nd image taken from Circulation research, [http://circres.ahajournals.org/content/104/8/952/F1.expansion.html] on the 19th of March 2014.

Read More..