Serghina - سرغينة / protection against evil eye / purifying / prosperity

Serghina, sarghine (botanical name: corrigiola thelephifolia) is a plant with small white flowers and fibrous, gnarled roots from the caryophyllaceae family. Moroccan herbalists know it very well. They affirm that its first use is medicinal, since fortifying, diuretic, tonic, deodorizing and antibacterial. The women in Fez prepare the sarghina roots themselves with an ancestral technique. They wash them with orange blossom water, color them red, yellow or green, cut them into small pieces and leave to dry in the shade for several days. Those who market them sell this incense with powerful scents in small cups with small pieces of alum and agalloche wood "oud el kmari".

According to popular beliefs, fumigations of the root of this plant have magical properties, particularly against the evil eye. Some very old Arab medicine treatises cite the therapeutic virtues of the serghina decoction or "perfume of the Berbers", in particular its aphrodisiac power, specifying that it is good to breathe its fumigations because it strengthens the brain, treats coryza, perfumes and deodorizes the body. We understand better why it is offered in the trousseau of brides. Our mischievous ancestors have rocked us with stories of magic. It is our turn today to pay tribute to them by protecting the cultivation and export of this small plant which, it seems, only grows here.