Sapphires in the cereal

John Ruskin declared that 'blue is everlastingly appointed by the deity to be a source of delight'. Thankfully, our wild cornflowers have come back from the brink to be that source, reports Ian Morton

- Ian Morton

THE cornflower deserves greater regard than it usually receives. A native of the Old World, at least since the Iron Age, it was valued down the centuries. In pharaonic Egypt, it symbolized resurrection and the belief that deceased potentates would return seasonally as the fertility god Osiris to sprout with the next corn crop; a garland of cornflowers around the neck of the mummified Tutankhamun had lost little of its hue in 3,000 years.

Ancient Greece recognized its medicinal value, attributing this discovery to Chiron: the mythological centaur used cornflowers to heal wounds caused by arrows, the tips of which had been dipped in the venomous blood of the Hydra. This Classical link led to the plant's 18th-century genus classification as Centaurea; its species designation is C. cyanus, the Greek for dark blue.

The plant's beneficial qualities were perceived in England by 12th-century monks, who brewed cornflower wine for coughs and colds, to treat kidney complaints, to counteract vertigo, and to function as an antibiotic, diuretic, purgative and astringent. Medieval herbalists Gerard and Culpeper acknowledged this tradition by recommending the cornflower for stomach problems.

These old ways were not without substance. Botanical science has identified an assemblage of flavonoids, ascorbic acids, quercetin, apigenin, and caffeine. It was also understood that the plant benefited eyesight-to sharpen their night vision, Second World War pilots were given bilberry jam, which contains similar beneficial phenolic compounds.