About Galium odoratum (L.) Scop.
Galium odoratum (L.) Scop. is a herbaceous plant that grows 25–50 cm (10–19+1⁄2 in) long, often growing flat along the ground or supported by other plants. Its leaves are simple, lanceolate, glabrous, 2–5 cm (3⁄4–2 in) long, and grow in whorls of six to nine. Small flowers, 4–7 mm in diameter, grow in cymes; each flower is white, with four petals joined at the base. The fruits are 2–4 mm in diameter, borne singly, and covered in tiny hooked bristles that help with seed dispersal by sticking temporarily to clothing and animal fur. The plant's characteristic sweet scent comes from the compound coumarin. This species is native to most of Europe, ranging from Spain and Ireland to Russia, as well as Western Siberia, Turkey, Iran, the Caucasus, China, and Japan. It is also sparingly naturalized in scattered locations across the United States and Canada. Galium odoratum prefers partial to full shade and moist, rich soils, and requires frequent watering during dry summers. It can be propagated via crown division, separation of rooted stems, or by digging up barely submerged perimeter stolons. It works well as a groundcover or border accent in woody, acidic gardens where other shade plants do not grow well, and deer and chickens avoid eating it in the northeast United States. Industrial use of this plant to flavor sweets was prohibited in Germany in 1974, because coumarin, the flavor compound found in sweet woodruff, was found to be toxic to rats and mice in studies. However, coumarin from this plant has not been found to be harmful to humans even in large doses, as it follows a different metabolic pathway in humans. The sweet woodruff flavor remains popular for German sweets, but it is now produced artificially with 6-methyl coumarin. Products made for adults, such as alcoholic drinks, are still permitted to contain coumarin in limited quantities. Galium odoratum is widely cultivated for its flowers and sweet-smelling foliage. As its specific epithet odoratum indicates, the plant has a strong scent, with the sweet fragrance coming from coumarin. This scent becomes stronger when the plant wilts, and persists after drying. Dried Galium odoratum is used in potpourri and as a moth deterrent. It has been, and in part still is, used to flavor May wine (called Maibowle or Maitrank in German), sweet juice punch, syrup for Berliner Weisse beer, brandy, jelly, jam, the Georgian soft drink Tarhun, ice cream, and herbal tea. Sweet woodruff-flavored jellies, both with and without alcohol, are also very popular. In Germany, where the plant is called Waldmeister, it was and to some extent still is also used to flavor sherbet powder, which features prominently in Günter Grass's 1959 novel The Tin Drum.
