On the boundry between a food and a herb. It is grown as fodder and also for oats, eaten as a cereal or in bread and cookies. It is known to medical-herbalists as a "tropho-restorative". Nutritive, mild stimulant, nervine, sedative, hypnotic. Oats, rich in vitamin E, minerals, and protein, are a food tonic for the heart, nerves, and thymus gland. Oat bran, now available in bread, helps reduce cholesterol. A decoction of the ripe plant treats depression, menopausal estrogen deficiency, persistent colds, and the debility of shingles and muscular sclerosis. Rolled oats make oatmeal. Fine oatmeal is an exfoliating body rub and a soothing wash for dry skin and eczema.
Oats, rich in vitamin E, minerals, and protein, are a food tonic for the heart, nerves, and thymus gland. Oat bran, now available in bread, helps reduce cholesterol. A decoction of the ripe plant treats depression, menopausal estrogen deficiency, persiste
