Althaea (plant) often added to salads or are boiled and fried. The roots and stem also secrete mucilage, which is used to soften the skin, and is used in cosmetic treatments. The Roman poet Horace refers to his own diet in his Odes, which he describes as very simple: "As for me, olives, endives, and smooth mallows provide sustenance." The root has been used since Egyptian antiquity in a honey-sweetened confection useful in the treatment of sore throat. The later French version of the recipe, called "pâte de guimauve" (or "guimauve" for short), included an eggwhite meringue and was often flavored with
Fumaria officinalis Fumaria officinalis Fumaria officinalis, the common fumitory, drug fumitory or earth smoke, is a herbaceous annual flowering plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae. It is the most common species of the genus "Fumaria" in Western and Central Europe. It is an herbaceous annual plant that grows weakly erect and scrambling, with stalks about long. It has slender green leaves. Its pink flowers appear from April to October in the northern hemisphere, or May to September in the UK. They are two lipped and spurred, with sepals running a quarter the length of the petals. The plant commonly has more than