Salvia apiana

A website for the Department of Biology at the University of San Diego contains the following information about Salvia apiana, a well-known and popular smudging plant: “White sage is an important and sacred plant for Native Americans. 

This plant provides both food and medicine for the Kumeyaay. 

The seeds of the white sage can be toasted, ground up and used as a main ingredient for a meal called pinole.

The young stalk of white sage is also peeled and eaten. The leaves of this plant are used to remedy a cold or flu. 

The Kumeyaay burn these leaves in a sweat-house to help purify out the toxins associated with an illness. 

Leaves are also burned in living spaces to act as a form of fumigation.”

A team of scientists from the Medical University of Gdansk, Poland led by Agata Krol, published a major review of Salvia apiana in the journal Planta Medica in 2022. The study sought to summarize the biological activities of this plant (known most commonly as white sage) as a phytomedicine with great potential that has exhibited antioxidative, antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties. The authors mention the ethnomedicinal and religious importance of S. apiana, called khapsikh by the Chumash Indians of the coastal chaparral region of southern California. According to the authors, “White sage is deeply rooted in tribal culture as an apotropaic herb [and] is believed to have a great power of cleansing the spirit, restoring its balance, drawing a blessing upon people, or even carrying the prayers to God.” S. apiana was also used by traditional Chumash healers together with Datura meteloides in social initiation ceremonies for children. Additionally, white sage is an important bee-food, and the unusual morphology of its flowers indicate its co-evolution with large insects, especially Xyclopa bees.