This morning I received an email from the Divine Ms. M, my go-to person for all things gardening and herbal, and she made these points:
I don’t have my sources in front of me, but IMHO (and you are the cook) woodruff should be used sparingly/for flavor and removed/not eaten (ie cloves). Not that you said “make a salad!”… but it is a bit toxic. It contains coumarin, which is of course an anticoagulant (if someone is taking heart meds), and “The FDA now considers Sweet Woodruff safe only
as an addition to alcoholic beverages, and not for internal consumption which can cause, in high amounts, vomiting, dizziness, as well as liver damage and retardation of growth.”
Please heed this information. Though most herbs used in cooking are completely safe, it doesn’t mean that eating them by the bushel is a good idea. Our lovely M also pointed out that rosemary, seemingly innocuous, is toxic at high doses. Of course, people aren’t keeling over regularly from adverse reactions to rosemary. Rosemary nor woodruff tastes good enough that you would want to eat a bowl of it.
’nuff said.
