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, persiste
