Leave Chia seeds in water for a long while and you’ll get a wonderful, gooey mucilage that can help your digestion, reduce inflammation and boost your immuntiy.
Chia (Salvia hispanica) is in the Mint (Lamiaceae) family and shares this feature with other members of the family such as Basil. Basil seeds are used in the Middle East as an additive to many drinks because their mucilage helps make them more soothing.
Mucilages are fascinating. Their chemistry is pretty simple (polysaccharides that swell when wet) but their powerful effects on our body are myriad and fascinating and reflect our development from embryo to the gorgeous bags of bacteria that are our mature bodies.
It is easy to see their how contact with a mucous membrane can soothe it, especially if that membrane is in our mouth or upper digestive tract where direct contact is inevitable but how do they work with intestines, bladder or even our nasal membranes, from which we are often working to remove mucus.
It’s all to do with the development of our nervous system and mucous membranes from when we are a tiny embryo, possibly since inception. They all grow and develop from a single source, differentiating as the embryo matures but staying connected. The nerves that serve the membranes also develop at the same time and they all keep in touch!
So when a bit of mucilage touches one mucous membrane, messages are sent to all of them so that they all know that one is being soothed and all respond and the body reduces inflammation, inncreases mucous production and whatever else is necessary to heal themselves. One of the terms for this is ‘reflex action’.
You can learn a lot more about mucus and mucilage at Food Underfoot because one of the plants we investigate is famous for its mucilage. Can you guess which plant it is?
Other herb pages on Ligaya Garden
We cover a lot of ground on many herb related topics here on our website. There are whole pages devoted to different topics as well as frequent posts. Some of the links are –
