Salvia officinalis is the scientific name for common garden sage. Salvia is taken from the Greek word that means "salvation." The term officinalis comes from officina, which was the name for the chamber where medicinal herbs were kept at the monastery. Put together, the botanical name loosely translates to mean an official herb to restore health and well-being. Sage has undergone botanical name changes several times, however, although each modification also referenced its life-saving virtues. At one time, the plant was referred to as S. salvatrix, or "sage the savior."
The use of sage probably began in ancient Egypt, from which the herb was likely introduced to Rome and later to Europe. Pliny the Elder recommended sage for various maladies, not the least of which was, as herbalist Nicholas Culpeper relates, to "cureth stinging and biting serpents" and to "help the memory, warming and quickening the senses."
Culpeper also suggested sage for disorders relating to the blood when he wrote that sage is "Good for diseases of the liver and to make blood. A decoction of the leaves and branches of Sage made and drunk, saith Dioscorides, provokes urine and causeth the hair to become black. It stayeth the bleeding of wounds and cleaneth ulcers and sores. Three spoonsful of the juice of Sage taken fasting with a little honey arrests spitting or vomiting of blood in consumption. It is profitable for all pains in the head coming of cold rheumatic humours, as also for all pains in the joints, whether inwardly or outwardly. The juice of Sage in warm water cureth hoarseness and cough."
