It is true that Calamus was banned as a food additive in 1968 by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Another herb that seems to have been labeled as toxic by the powers that be. The reason behind this is unclear though, as there is no scientific evidence or any verified reports of Calamus toxicity. To the contrary, in fact — this study investigated acute and chronic toxicity of Calamus in rats after 90 days, and found the following:
“The present investigation demonstrates that the traditional medicine, the ethanolic extract of Acorus calamus lack potential toxicity, as it neither cause any lethality nor changes the general behavior in both the acute and chronic toxicity studies.”
Shah, et al.: Toxicity of Acorus calamus 35 International Journal of Green Pharmacy | January-March 2012 |
In general, Calamus is an uplifting and energizing herb. Calamus has a long history of medicinal and culinary use. Perhaps the main reason it has been labeled toxic could be attributed to the fact that in large doses calamus has been known to be mildly hallucinogenic.
You certainly are safe with our blends, as they contain only a small percentage of Calamus — less than 1% by weight.
It has been claimed that in large quantities, Lobelia can cause nausea and vomiting. In small quantities, however, Lobelia can be beneficial. It can act as a replacement for tobacco for those trying to quit cigarettes, as the herb binds to the same pleasure receptors in the brain as nicotine. The blends that contain Lobelia are the OG Bear Blend, Dream Lodge, Vizion, Mintz, Amazon, Shaman, and Kin Nik Nik. The amount of Lobelia contained in these blends is less than 1% of the total formula of the blend, and the Lobelia in a tin of Bear Blend is far below a level that could induce nausea.
We are one of the very, very few places online where you can purchase traditional Nymphaea Caerulea otherwise know as Egyptian Blue Lotus.
The Blue Lotus that everyone else is selling as Blue Lotus is in fact NOT the traditional Egyptian Blue Lotus that they are claiming it is. That is right, the blue lotus out there is mostly a fraud.
This was brought to our attention by the farmers that we work with in Sri Lanka. It turns out that the bright blue purple “Blue Lotus” that everyone is selling as a traditional egyptian blue lotus is in fact Nympheae Nouchali which grows very prevalently in southeastern Asia. This flower, also known as Blue Water Lily, is in fact the national flower of both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
However, this flower is not the acclaimed Sacred Egytptian Blue Lotus that was painted on tombs in Egypt and prized as a ceremonial plant for centuries. The Egyptian Blue Lotus, which goes by the latin name Nympheae Caerulea, is a completely different plant, it turns out.
The easiest way to tell the difference?
The petals of the flower are a little more elongate or not as wide as the Nouchali and the flower is bluish white. While the Nouchali flowers are bright blue purple. Nouchali definitely looks prettier. But it is not the Egyptian Blue Lotus.
Also, it turns out, that Nympheae Caerulea is much more difficult to grow as it is not nearly as prolific as the Nouchali. The Nouchali flowers tend to grow up to ten plus flowers per plant while the caerulea will sometimes only have two or three flowers per plant. So, it is much more time consuming to cultivate.
As far as their uses in traditional and sacred ceremonies, Caerulea is still the flower that is used. Although both flowers share slightly psychoactive properties, the caerulea is much more potent that the Nouchali.
The difficulty here, is that there is really no one policing the misnaming of these plants. If you go on Google or Etsy right now and search for Blue Lotus, you will find nearly hundreds of merchants selling Nyphaea Nouchali as Caerulea. But buyer be warned, most of these are selling the wrong plant incorrectly?
Why? Well, I don’t think most merchants are trying to lie. Like us, they were probably incorrectly informed by their suppliers about the correct Latin names of the. And this incorrect information may have originated all the way back at the farm where even the farmers themselves were working with incorrect information. We don’t really know.
But the good news is that we are now working with a cooperative of farmers in Sri Lanka who are carefully distinguishing between these two very different species and providing us with the correct herbs.
On our website you will see two different products – Egyptian Blue Lotus (which is not the official traditional Egyptian blue lotus) and Blue Water Lily (or Nympheae nouchali). And, you will now notice, that the blue lotus is a little bit more expensive due to its rarity.
