Hyssop, Lovage, Sage, Savory, Sweet Honey Leaf (Stevia)

This chapter deals with five sub-tropical-temperate herbal spices that are used popularly in the continental cuisine all over the world. Hyssop, lovage, sage, savory and stevia are the five leaf herbs discussed here. In India, they are all grown in the hill stations and also as a winter herb in most parts of the central and north India. Among them, Stevia (sweet honey leaf) is grown commercially in many parts of India and from which the non-calorific sweetener (sugar substitute) stevioside is manufactured. The treatment of these five spices (spicy herbs) are based mainly on the concise reviews by the author in the Encyclopedia of Herbs and Spices (2-volume set), published by CABI (Ravindran 2017). The agronomic and nutritional aspects of these herbs are more or less similar and hence are not dealt with here as anyone having some experience in growing aromatic herbs will be able to grow them without much problems. The rest of the aspects such as taxonomy, botany, chemistry, functional properties, etc. differ much from spice to spice and such aspects are presented in these short reviews. Each herb is discussed under the following heads: Introduction, taxonomy (including nomenclature), botanical description, chemical properties, functional properties, medicinal uses, culinary uses, and toxicological aspects. The references are given separately for each crop so that searching will be easier.