The medical plan composition: COSSMA

Medicinal plants are an important ingredient for skin care. The following plants were chosen for Weleda’s Skin Food series one century ago: marigold (Calendula officinalis), camomile (Chamomilla recutita), wild pansy (Viola tricolor), and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis). This article presents an anthroposophical understanding of this plant composition. This first part will focus on marigold and camomile.

The skin cream known as Skin Food was created by Weleda in 1926 for application on the face and body. It is based on Anthroposophical principles that continue to inspire the development of Weleda cosmetics to this day. The recipe has proven effective and remained almost unchanged since the beginning.

Study of the development of leaf forms

Studying the plant form and its development is a necessary part of the holistic understanding of medicinal plants and their healing effects. When the development of a plant form is actively recreated inwardly, it can lead to an experience of the forces that have created that plant form and are therefore active within the plant. In particular, if this is done comparatively using various plants, the unique characteristic qualities of the plants can be inwardly experienced. There are plenty of illustrative examples of this approach in anthroposophical natural science, which builds on Goethe’s studies.¹
To begin with, plants appeal to human beings most directly through their flowers, and it is through their flowers that they can be recognised and identified with the greatest certainty. However, studying foliar development and the change of form from leaf to leaf as they appear on the plant (the metamorphosis of leaves) is particularly well-suited for recognising and comparing the life forces that are active in plants and that are specific to each species.²When the leaves of a flowering plant are removed from the main shoot and laid out next to each other in order, from bottom to top, we see how during plant growth the leaf forms change in size and shape through time (Image 1). Thereby the following laws, which occur in all species to a greater or lesser extent, are revealed.
The lower leaves are mostly round and relatively simple, and they have a distinct petiole. As growth proceeds the leaves further up the stem become bigger. They also show a species-specific increasingly differentiated leaf margin and even pinnation. The uppermost leaves are mostly smaller again. They become delicate and pointed, the bottom of the leaves becomes more pronounced, and the petiole disappears. It can therefore be said that leaf metamorphosis proceeds from simple, rounded leaves that are pushed outwards from the main stem, via larger expanded leaves, towards ever more differentiated, structured, and pointed leaves that are closer to the stem. The typical rhythm of expansion and contraction that was described by Goethe can be observed here. Through the contraction of the leaves, as they become smaller and more delicate, a decline of vital forces prior to flowering can be experienced.
When the leaves are observed next to each other (Image 2), the transformation of the shapes can be seen even more distinctly. Bockemühl (1987) studied many plant species in diverse growth conditions in this way. He described the metamorphosis of leaf form as an interplay not only of the two forces of expansion and contraction described above but of four underlying gesture-like formative movements:
• Elongating (petiole or stalk formation)
• Spreading (widening of the leaf lamina)
• Differentiating (structuring of the leaf lamina)
• Pointing (leaf reaching to a tip) In the foliar sequence shown in Image 2, these four formative gestures can be experienced in approximately similar proportions, whereby each one penetrates the following one in a fluid transition. Examining these formative movements provides access to the potential that each plant offers. Based on this foundation, we have studied the four medicinal plants that are united through their extracts in Skin Food.

Leaves of a wild poppy plant (Papaver rhoeas), as they grew on the plant. The shoot has been removed.

Leaves of a main shoot of shepherd‘s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris), removed from bottom to top and laid out next to each other.

Marigold flower.

Camomile flower.

Leaves of a main shoot of marigold, removed from bottom to top, exhibited left to right.

Leaves and green shoot of camomile. The leaves have no surface area and end in fine tips.

Leaf metamorphosis of camomile. Selected leaves from the main shoot of a plant (from J. Bockemühl, Leitfaden zur Heilpflanzenerkenntnis, Verlag am Goetheanum, 1996).

1 Marigold (Calendula officinalis)

With its big, dark green, succulent leaves, marigold appears lush. The leaves emit a resinous-dark scent that has, at the same time, a citrus-fresh character. The radiant yellow-orange flowers are beautiful, with a fine, sweet fragrance. If we observe the leaf metamorphosis of marigold, we see that the leaves are predominantly round in shape and that even the petiole forms a plane. There is no differentiating of the leaf margin. The leaves give a youthful, and even childlike, vital impression. Spreading is the main formative movement in the leaves of marigolds.

2 Camomile (Chamomilla recutita)

Camomile flowers have a light yellow cone in the centre and white ray florets extending horizontally. When brushed or lightly pressed together, the flowers emit a sweet, tangy, aromatic scent. Camomile forms very delicate leaves right from the beginning. It seems that the filling out of the leaves is absent and only leaf veins have remained, which at first multiply and then contract to fine tips. In a way, the leaves look like nerves. In camomile, the formative gesture of pointing is prevalent. Observers experience a complementary, opposite movement here as compared to the one elicited by the bulky and less sophisticated leaf development of marigold. The polar opposite leaf metamorphosis of marigold and camomile plants are both represented in Weleda Skin Food: marigold shows childlike vital forms, and camomile shows very delicately chiseled out, dissolved, ripe forms.

References:

1 Wolfgang Schad (Ed.), Gotheanistische Naturwissenschaft, Bd.

2 Botanik, Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 1982 2 Jochen Bockemühl, Leitfaden zur Heilpflanzenerkenntnis, Verlag am Goetheanum, 1996

photos: Goetheanum/ Weleda