Parsley

Source=Leaves of the parsley plant, Petroselinum crispum
Flavor=Mildly peppery
Best used=Fresh; dried a very poor substitute
Cooking use=As a garnish, in sauces, soups and salads

Parsley is a rich source of vitamin C and yields a fixed oil, an essential oil, and tannins. The seeds contain both a fixed and volatile oil, the latter being comprised of apiol, myristicin, tetramethoxybenzene, -pinene, and other compounds . The leaf or herb oil is considered superior to seed oil, as the volatile characteristics are more similar to parsley leaves. The fixed oil of parsley contains petroseline plus oleic, linoleic, palmatic, and other fatty acids. The seeds, leaves, and essential oils of parsley are utilized as condiments or seasonings. Fresh leaves are used for garnishing such food dishes as meat, fish, and vegetables. Fresh, dried, and dehydrated leaves flavor a wide array of food products, including salads, sauces, soups, stews, eggs, and processed foods. Parsley-seed oil is employed as a fragrance in perfumes, soaps, and creams. The plant is sometimes grown as an ornamental edging plant. As a medicinal plant, parsley has traditionally been used as an antispasmodic, carminative, diuretic, emmenagogue, and stomachic. The plant has also been used as a remedy for asthma, conjunctivitis, dropsy, fever, and jaundice. The essential oil of parsley seed has been reported to stimulate hepatic regeneration.
Medicinal Action and Uses---Diuretic, demulcent and refrigerant. Its chief employment is in gravel, stone, dropsy and generally for complaints of the bladder and kidneys. Acting directly on the parts affected, it is found very valuable, even in apparently incurable cases. It operates violently, but safely, by urine and also removes obstructions of the liver, being therefore useful in jaundice.
It is prescribed in the form of an infusion a handful of the herb to a pint of boiling water - taken daily in half-teacupful doses, three or four times daily. When used alone, it forms a useful remedy in all these complaints, its best action is seen, however, when compounded with other diuretics, such as Broom, Buchu leaves, Wild Carrot, Juniper Berries, Parsley Root and Pellitory-of-the-Wall. To soothe and help the passage of the irritating substance, it is also often combined with a demulcent such as Comfrey, Marshmallow or Sweet Flagroot, Hollyhock or Mullein flowers, Gum Arabic, or Slippery Elm Bark.
Some of the older herbalists considered it best when fresh gathered. Culpepper, after telling us of its powers in expelling stone, tells us that: 'it is a very good salad herb and it were well that the gentry would pickle it up as they pickle up Samphire for their use all the winter because it is a very wholesome herb, and may be kept either dried or in a syrup. You may take a drachm of the powder of it in sherry wine: it will bring away gravel from the kidneys insensibly and without pain. It cures strangury.