GOLDEN is yellow sweetclover (Melilotus officinalis), a herbaceous plant of the legume family, known for its characteristic sweet aroma caused by coumarin content. The flowers are bright yellow, small, and gathered in long racemes, which give the plant an attractive appearance. Sweetclover prefers open meadows, fields, and road banks, but easily adapts to various soil types due to its ability to improve their structure and enrich with nitrogen. This makes it valuable both in agriculture and in ecosystems where it contributes to maintaining soil fertility.
In medicine, yellow sweetclover is widely used due to its anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and blood-thinning properties. It improves blood circulation, relieves spasms and pain, has a sedative and diuretic effect, and also aids in healing wounds and ulcers. Thanks to these properties, it is used for varicose veins, thrombophlebitis, headache, insomnia, hypertension, bronchitis, flatulence, and rheumatism. Externally, sweetclover is often used in compresses, poultices, and baths to relieve pain and accelerate tissue regeneration.
Sweetclover seeds are an important product both for honey production and the food industry. They are easily grown from April to May at a sowing depth of 2–3 cm, and the sowing rate is considered to be from 14 to 20 kg per hectare. Honey obtained from the nectar of sweetclover has a light amber or white color and a thin vanilla aroma, making it popular among lovers of natural products. Moreover, sweetclover leaves are sometimes added to food, tobacco, and alcoholic beverages to give them a characteristic taste.
The two-year growth of sweetclover reaches 2 m in height, and the root taproot penetrates deeper to 1.5 m, providing drought resistance and winter conditions. The fruit is an ovoid pod with a awn-like beak, seeds are yellowish-green, oval-elongated, which ripen in October. All these characteristics make yellow sweetclover a universal plant, used both in medicine and agriculture, as well as a valuable source of aromatic and food products.
