C

 

CALENDULA

(CALENDULA OFFICINALIS)

Marigolds, Pot Marigold

These being so plentiful in every garden, and so well known that they need no description. [Native to south-central Europe and North Africa. Widely cultivated in herb gardens since ancient times.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is an herb of the Sun, and under Leo. They strengthen the heart exceedingly, and are very expulsive, and a little less effectual in the small-pox and measles than saffron. The juice of Calendula leaves mixed with vinegar, and any hot swelling bathed with it, instantly gives ease, and assuages it. The flowers, either green or dried, are much used in possets, broths, and drink, as a comforter of the heart and spirits, and to expel any malignant or pestilential quality which might annoy them. A plaster made with the dry flowers in powder, hog’s-grease, turpentine, and rosin, applied to the breast, strengthens and succors the heart infinitely in fevers, whether pestilential or not.

MODERN USES: In both traditional and modern use, calendula—as a lotion, tincture, ointment, or a wash of the cooled tea—is applied externally to speed the healing of sprains, bruises, cuts, minor infections, sores, slow-to-heal wounds, and burns. It is also used as a gargle to reduce the inflammation of a sore throat or the oral mucosa. Effects include helping to rebuild cellular tissue at the site of a wound, reducing swelling and discharges, and lessening scarring from burns, abscesses, or abrasions. Calendula and its preparations have anti-inflmmatory and immunostimulant activity.

 

CARAWAY

(CARUM CARVI)

Carraway

It is on account of the seeds principally that the Caraway is cultivated.

DESCRIPTION: It bears diverse stalks of fine cut leaves, and at the top small umbels of white flowers, which turn into small blackish seed, smaller than the Aniseed, and of a quicker and hotter taste.

PLACE: It is usually sown with us in gardens. [It is cultivated and found in fields and wastelands throughout Europe and Asia; naturalized in cool, temperate regions of North America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: This is also a Mercurial plant. Caraway seed has a moderate sharp quality, whereby it breaks wind and provokes urine, which also the herb doth. The root is better food than the parsnip; it is pleasant and comfortable to the stomach, and helps digestion. The seed is conducing to all cold griefs of the head and stomach, bowels, or mother, as also the wind in them, and helps to sharpen the eye-sight. The powder of the seed put into a poultice, takes away black and blue spots of blows and bruises. The herb itself, or with some of the seed bruised and fried, laid hot in a bag or double cloth, to the lower parts of the belly, eases the pains of the wind cholic.

The roots of Caraway eaten as men do parsnips, strengthen the stomach of ancient people exceedingly, and they need not to make a whole meal of them neither, and are fit to be planted in every garden. Caraway comfits once only dipped in sugar, and half a spoonful of them eaten in the morning fasting, and as many after each meal, is a most admirable remedy, for those that are troubled with wind.

MODERN USES: “It breaks wind,” says Culpeper, who describes caraway seed’s widespread traditional use to relieve digestive gas, dyspepsia, and diarrhea. Among its pharmacological activities include anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, antimicrobial, antioxidant, carminative, and immunomodulatory effects. Up to 2 grams of seeds are chewed or crushed and made into tea. Traditional use as a diuretic is scientifically confirmed. CAUTION: Rare allergic reactions may occur. May be confused with poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) with fatal consequences.

 

CARNATIONS, CLOVE PINK

(DIANTHUS CARYOPHYLLUS)

Clove Gilliflowers

It is vain to describe an herb so well known. [Native to the Balkans, and introduced to European gardens and naturalized.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: They are gallant, fine, temperate flowers, of the nature and under the dominion of Jupiter; yea, so temperate, that no excess, neither in heat, cold, dryness, nor moisture, can be perceived in them; they are great strengtheners both of the brain and heart, and will therefore serve either for cordials or cephalics, as your occasion will serve. There is both a syrup and a conserve made of them alone, commonly to be had at every apothecary’s. To take now and then a little of either, strengthens nature much, in such as are in consumptions. They are also excellently good in hot pestilent fevers, and expel poison.

MODERN USES: Clove pink gets its name from the similarity of the flower’s fragrance to cloves. Cultivated in England before the twelfth century, the “Clove Gillyflower” is the wild progenitor of the modern carnation, which has endless variations through hybridization and selection and is barely recognizeable as the plant of Culpeper’s time. It was used to flavor ale and wine. Culpeper’s contemporaries used the flowers to treat nervous complaints, as a spirit-lifting cordial, and to comfort the heart. By the late eighteenth century, it was used only for flavoring and coloring other medicines; use has fallen into obscurity except as a pleasantly fragranced ornamental flower. The essential oil is antibacterial, antiviral, and used as a traditional remedy for wound healing and to treat gum and throat infections. One study found that the essential oil is toxic to the larvae of the mosquito that carries West Nile virus. CAUTION: Some are allergic to carnations, an occupational hazard in the floral industry.

 

CARROTS

(DAUCUS CAROTA)

Garden Carrots are so well known, that they need no description; but they are of less physical use than the wild kind (as indeed almost in all herbs the wild are the most effectual in physic, as being more powerful in operation than the garden kinds).

PLACE: The wild kind grows in diverse parts of this land plentifully by the field-sides, and untilled places. [Native throughout Europe; widely naturalized in both eastern and western North America as well as parts of Africa.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Wild Carrots belong to Mercury, and therefore break wind, and remove stitches in the sides, provoke urine and women’s courses, and helps to break and expel the stone; the seed also of the same works the like effect, and is good for the dropsy, and those whose bellies are swelling with wind; helps the cholic, the stone in the kidneys, and rising of the mother; being taken in wine, or boiled in wine and taken, it helps conception. The leaves being applied with honey to running sores or ulcers, do cleanse them.

I suppose the seeds of them perform this better than the roots; and though Galen commended garden Carrots highly to break wind, yet experience teaches they breed it first, and we may thank nature for expelling it, not they; the seeds of them expel wind indeed, and so mend what the root mars.

MODERN USES: Wild carrot root is used in herbal traditions as a diuretic, primarily to treat kidney and bladder conditions, particularly urinary calculi and difficulty urinating. The root of the cultivated carrot provides the benefit of high carotenoid content, which transforms into vitamin A when metabolized in the liver. CAUTION: Some individuals may be allergic to wild carrot. Given the similarity in the appearance of wild carrot and poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) leaves, there are many cases of poisoning.

 

CATNIP

(NEPETA CATARIA)

Nep, or Catmint

DESCRIPTION: Common Garden Catnip [has] four-square stalks, with a hoariness on them, a yard high or more, full of branches, bearing at every joint two broad leaves [with soft white hairs], and of a strong sweet scent. The flowers grow in large tufts at the tops of the branches.

PLACE: It is only nursed up in our gardens. [Found throughout most of Europe and western Asia; naturalized through North America and elsewhere.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is an herb of Venus. Catnip is generally used for women to procure their courses, being taken inwardly or outwardly, either alone, or with other convenient herbs in a decoction to bathe them, or sit over the hot fumes thereof; and by the frequent use thereof, it takes away barrenness, and the wind, and pains of the mother. It is also used in pains of the head coming of any cold cause, catarrhs, rheums, and for swimming and giddiness thereof, and is of special use for the windiness of the stomach and belly. It is effectual for any cramp, or cold aches, to dissolve cold and wind that afflict the place, and is used for colds, coughs, and shortness of breath. The juice thereof drank in wine, is profitable for those that are bruised by an accident. The green herb bruised and applied to the fundament and lying there two or three hours, eases the pains of the piles; the juice also being made up into an ointment, is effectual for the same purpose. The head washed with a decoction thereof, it takes away scabs, and may be effectual for other parts of the body also.

MODERN USES: Bruised catnip leaves release essential oils and attract cats. This “catnip response” usually affects the approximately 70 percent of felines that have an inherited autosomal dominant gene, including house cats and large cats such as lions and tigers. Lasting for about fifteen minutes, it includes sniffing, licking, head-shaking, chin-rubbing and head-over rolling, but this effect is only produced by smelling the herb, not eating it. Catnip is not a human euphoric. The tea is used as a folk remedy for colds, flu, diarrhea, bronchitis, and menstrual disorders. It is antispasmodic, diaphoretic, carminative, and an emmenagogue.

 

CELANDINE

(CHELIDONIUM MAJUS)

DESCRIPTION: This hath diverse tender, round stalks, very brittle and easy to break, with large tender broad leaves, of a dark blueish green colour, full of yellow sap, when any is broken, of a bitter taste, and strong scent. At the flowers [are] four [petals], after which come small long pods, with blackish seed therein.

PLACE: [Found in fields, wastelands, and near gardens throughout Europe. Widely naturalized in Asia, northwestern Africa, and cool, temperate areas of North America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: This is an herb of the Sun, and under the Celestial Lion, and is one of the best cures for the eyes; for, all that know anything in astrology, know that the eyes are subject to the luminaries; let it then be gathered when the Sun is in Leo, and the Moon in Aries, applying to this time; let Leo arise, then may you make into an oil or ointment, which you please, to anoint your sore eyes with. I can prove it doth both my own experience, and the experience of those to whom I have taught it, that most desperate sore eyes have been cured by this only medicine; and then, I pray, is not this far better than endangering the eyes by the art of the needle? The herb or root boiled in white Wine and drank, a few Aniseeds being boiled therewith, opens obstructions of the liver and gall, helps the yellow jaundice; and often using it, helps the dropsy and the itch, and those who have old sores in their legs, or other parts of the body. The distilled water, with a little sugar and a little good treacle mixed therewith (the party upon the taking being laid down to sweat a little) has the same effect. The juice dropped into the eyes, cleanses them from films and cloudiness which darken the sight, but it is best to allay the sharpness of the juice with a little breast milk. It is good in all old filthy corroding creeping ulcers wheresoever, to stay their malignity of fretting and running, and to cause them to heal more speedily: The juice often applied to tetters, ring-worms, or other such like spreading cankers, will quickly heal them, and rubbed often upon warts, will take them away. The juice or decoction of the herb gargled between the teeth that ache, eases the pain, and the powder of the dried root laid upon any aching, hollow or loose tooth, will cause it to fall out. The juice mixed with some powder of brimstone is not only good against the itch, but takes away all discolourings of the skin whatsoever: and if it chance that in a tender body it causes any itchings or inflammations, by bathing the place with a little vinegar it is helped.

MODERN USES: A member of the poppy family (Papaveraceae), celandine has been evaluated for anti-inflammatory, choleretic, antimicrobial, antioxidant, antispasmodic, pain-relieving, and liver-protective properties. Various alkaloids and proteins in the plant’s yellow exudate are believed to be responsible for the medicinal effects. Until recently (see Caution), preparations of celandine had been used in phytomedicine for the treatment of bile duct disorders, dyspepsia, flatulence, and irritable bowel syndrome. Externally it has been applied to warts and corns. Still widely used in Eastern Europe. CAUTION: At least fifty reports of liver toxicity associated with celandine have led to a recommendation by the European Medicines Agency that use of the herb should be discouraged. Culpeper describes celandine use for cataracts, a use which dates at least to the thirteenth century, but has no modern scientific basis.

 

CELANDINE, LESSER

(FICARIA VERNA; SYN. RANUNCULUS FICARIA)

Pilewort, Fogwort

I wonder what ailed the ancients to give this the name Celandine, which resembles it neather in nature nor form; it acquired the name of Pilewort from its virtues, and it being no great matter where I set it down, so I set it down at all, I humoured Dr. Tradition so much, as to set him down here.

DESCRIPTION: This Celandine or Pilewort (which you please) doth spread many round pale green leaves, set on weak and trailing branches which lie upon the ground, and are flat, smooth, and somewhat shining, standing on a long foot-stalk, among which rise small yellow flowers.

PLACE: It grows for the most part in moist corners of fields and places that are near water sides, yet will abide in drier ground if they be a little shady. [Found throughout much of Europe and western Asia; naturalized and rapidly expanding its range in cool, moist woods and streamsides in North America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is under the dominion of Mars, and behold here another verification of the learning of the ancients, viz. that the virtue of an herb may be known by its signature; for if you dig up the root of it, you shall perceive the perfect image of the disease which they commonly call the piles. The decoction of the leaves and roots wonderfully helps piles and hemorrhoids, also kernels by the ears and throat, called the king’s evil [unusual swelling of lymph nodes or scrofula], or any other hard wens or tumours.

Here’s another secret for my countrymen and women: Pilewort made into an oil, ointment, or plaster, readily cures both the piles, or hemorrhoids, and the king’s evil. The very herb borne about one’s body next the skin helps in such diseases, though it never touch the place grieved; let poor people make much of it for those uses; with this I cured my own daughter of the king’s evil, broke the sore, drew out a quarter of a pint of corruption, cured without any scar at all in one week’s time.

MODERN USES: Lesser celandine has been used for centuries as a folk treatment for hemorrhoids. Pharmacological studies (mostly in Eastern Europe) suggest anti-inflammatory, astringent, antibiotic, and anti-hemorrhagic activity. The leaves, high in vitamin C, are harvested before the plant flowers in early spring and are traditionally eaten in small quantities. CAUTION: A 2015 case report attributed liver toxicity to the use of the plant.

 

CELERY

(APIUM GRAVEOLENS)

Smallage

This is also very well-known, and therefore I shall not trouble the reader with any description thereof. [It is the wild source of the familiar vegetable celery.]

PLACE: It grows naturally in dry and marshy ground; but if it be sown in gardens, it there prospers very well.

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is an herb of Mercury. [Celery] is hotter, drier, and much more medicinal than parsley, for it much more opens obstructions of the liver and spleen, rarefies thick phlegm, and cleanses it and the blood withal. It provokes urine and women’s courses, and is singularly good against the yellow jaundice, tertian and quartan agues [malaria] if the juice thereof be taken, but especially made up into a syrup. The juice also put to honey of roses, and barley-water, is very good to gargle the mouth and throat of those that have sores and ulcers in them, and will quickly heal them. The same lotion also cleanses and heals all other foul ulcers and cankers elsewhere, if they be washed therewith. The seed is especially used to break and expel wind, to kill worms, and to help a stinking breath.

MODERN USES: Celery stems are best known as a familiar vegetable, but less appreciated are celery’s traditional attributes as an aphrodisiac, diuretic, antispasmodic, and anti-inflammatory. Used as a folk medicine for the treatment of asthma, bronchitis, gout, and rheumatism. Celery seeds are used as a carminative to relieve gas and as a digestive stimulant, mild sedative, and anti-inflammatory for gout. CAUTION: Celery is known to cause severe allergic reactions in some individuals due to the high amounts of phototoxic compounds it contains.

 

CENTAURY

(CENTAURIUM ERYTHRAEA; SYN. EYRTHRAEA CENTAURIUM)

DESCRIPTION: This grows up most usually but with one round and somewhat crusted stalk, about a foot high or better; the flowers thus stand at the tops as it were in one umbel, are of a pale red. The whole plant is of an exceeding bitter taste.

PLACE: They grow ordinarily in fields, pastures, and woods. [Native to Europe, western Asia, northwestern Africa; naturalized in North America in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes region.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: They are under the dominion of the Sun, as appears in that their flowers open and shut as the Sun, either shews or hides his face. This herb, boiled and drank, purges choleric and gross humours, and helps the sciatica; it opens obstructions of the liver, gall, and spleen, helps the jaundice, and eases the pains in the sides and hardness of the spleen, used outwardly, and is given with very good effect in agues. It helps those that have the dropsy, or the green-sickness, being much used by the Italians in powder for that purpose. It kill the worms in the belly, as is found by experience. The decoction thereof, viz. the tops of the stalks, with the leaves and flowers, is good against the cholic, and to bring down women’s courses, and eases pains of the mother, and is very effectual in all pains of the joints, as the gout, cramps, or convulsions. A dram of the powder taken in wine is a wonderful good help against the biting and poison of an adder. It is singularly good both for green and fresh wounds, as also for old ulcers and sores, to close up the one and cleanse the other, and perfectly to cure them both, although they are hollow or fistulous; the green herb especially, being bruised and laid thereto. The decoction thereof dropped into the ears, cleanses them from worms, cleanses the foul ulcers and spreading scabs of the head, and takes away all freckles, spots, and marks in the skin, being washed with it; the herb is so safe you cannot fail in the using of it, only giving it inwardly for inward diseases. It is very wholesome, but not very toothsome.

MODERN USES: Centaury is widely regarded as a bitter tonic for the digestive system. It’s a major ingredient in a proprietary combination phytomedicine—along with lovage (Levisticum officinale) and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)—used for the prevention and treatment of urinary tract infections. The product is available in Belarus, Russia, and the Ukraine. Preparations of the plant, which contain the bitter component gentiopicrin, have been evaluated for antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory activity, among other effects. Primarily used to treat dyspeptic discomfort by stimulating gastric secretions.

 

CHAMOMILE

(MATRICARIA CHAMOMILLA; SYN. MATRICARIA RECUTITA, CHAMOMILLA RECUTITA)

Camomile

It is so well known everywhere, that it is but lost time and labour to describe it. [Native to the Mediterranean region and Eastern Europe, now widespread in Europe and East Asia, and naturalized in eastern North America. Widely cultivated elsewhere.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: The virtues thereof are as follows. A decoction made of Chamomile, and drank, takes away all pains and stitches in the side. The flowers of Chamomile beaten, and made up into balls with Gill, drive away all sorts of agues, if the part grieved be anointed with that oil, taken from the flowers, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, and afterwards laid to sweat in his bed, and that he sweats well. This is Nechessor, an Egyptian’s, medicine. It is profitable for all sorts of agues that come either from phlegm, or melancholy, or from an inflammation of the bowels, being applied when the humours causing them shall be concocted; and there is nothing more profitable to the sides and region of the liver and spleen than it. The bathing with a decoction of Chamomile takes away weariness, eases pains, to what part of the body so ever they be applied. It comforts the sinews that are over-strained, mollifies all swellings: It moderately comforts all parts that have need of warmth, digests and dissolves whatsoever has need thereof, by a wonderful speedy property. It eases all pains of the cholic and stone, and all pains and torments of the belly, and gently provokes urine. The flowers boiled in posset-drink provokes sweat, and helps to expel all colds, aches, and pains whatsoever, and is an excellent help to bring down women’s courses. Syrup made of the juice of Chamomile, with the flowers, in white wine, is a remedy against the jaundice and dropsy. The oil made of the flowers of Chamomile, is much used against all hard swellings, pains or aches, shrinking of the sinews, or cramps, or pains in the joints, or any other part of the body. Being used in clysters, it helps to dissolve the wind and pains in the belly; anointed also, it helps stitches and pains in the sides.

MODERN USES: Chamomile is an herbal remedy that has stood the test of time. Dried chamomile flower heads are used in tea to relieve dyspepsia, gastritis, diarrhea, and mild anxiety. Although native to Europe, chamomile is used worldwide and is among the most commonly available herbal teas. It has antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory, and mild sedative actions, and is widely considered to be a gentle sleep aid. Chamomile extract (500 milligrams three times daily) has been evaluated in a clinical trial with positive outcomes for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. CAUTION: Rare allergic reactions have been linked to misidentification with other plant species.

 

CHESTNUT TREE

(CASTANEA SATIVA)

Chesnut Tree

It were as needless to describe a tree so commonly known as to tell a man he had gotten a mouth.

PLACE: [Originating in deciduous mountain woodlands in southern Europe and western Asia, from Portugal to the Caspian Sea, the European sweet chestnut spread through Europe in ancient times, and was planted in woodlands and forests. By Roman times as many as eight different cultivated varieties were recognized.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: The tree is abundantly under the dominion of Jupiter, and therefore the fruit must needs breed good blood, and yield commendable nourishment to the body; yet if eaten over-much, they make the blood thick, procure headache, and bind the body; the inner skin, that covers the nut, is of so binding a quality, that a scruple of it being taken by a man, or ten grains by a child, soon stops any flux whatsoever. The whole nut being dried and beaten into powder, and a dram taken at a time, is a good remedy to stop the terms in women. If you dry Chestnuts, (only the kernels I mean) both the barks being taken away, beat them into powder, and make the powder up into an electuary with honey, so have you an admirable remedy for the cough and spitting of blood.

MODERN USES: Though sweet chestnut nut is little used today medicinally, various by-products of its production, including the inner and outer husks and the leaves, are of research interest because of the potential antioxidant, antibacterial, anticarcinogenic, and heart-protective compounds that have been isolated from different plant parts. Traditionally the leaf tea was used to treat bronchitis, coughs, diarrhea, dyspepsia, and other conditions. The nuts of various species of Castanea have long been used for food in Europe, Asia, and North America. Billions of American chestnuts (Castanea dentata) died as the result of a blight in the early twentieth century; therefore, they are not as familiar a food as they once were to the American palate. CAUTION: Chestnut (Castanea spp.) should not be confused with the potentially toxic horse chestnut (Aesculus spp.).

 

CHICKPEA, GARBANZO BEAN

(CICER ARIETINUM)

Chick-Pease

DESCRIPTION: The garden sorts whether red, black, or white, bring forth stalks a yard long, whereon do grow many small and almost round leaves. At the joints come forth one or two flowers, pea-fashion, either white or whitish, or purplish red.

PLACE AND TIME: They are sown in gardens, or fields as peas, being sown later than peas, and gathered at the same time with them, or presently after.

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: They are both under the dominion of Venus. They are less windy than beans, but nourish more; they provoke urine, and are thought to increase sperm; they have a cleansing faculty, whereby they break the stone in the kidneys. To drink the cream of them, being boiled in water, is the best way. It moves the belly downwards, provokes women’s courses and urine, increases both milk and seed. One ounce of Chickpeas, two ounces of French barley, and a small handful of Marshmallow roots, clean washed and cut, being boiled in the broth of a chicken, and four ounces taken in the morning, and fasting two hours after, is a good medicine for a pain in the sides. The white Chickpeas are used more for [food] than medicine, yet have the same effect, and are thought more powerful to increase milk and seed. The wild Chickpeas are so much more powerful than the garden kinds, by how much they exceed them in heat and dryness; whereby they do more open obstructions, break the stone, and have all the properties of cutting, opening, digesting, and dissolving; and this more speedily and certainly than the former.

MODERN USES: Chickpeas fall into the “your food should be your medicine” category. High in fiber, calcium, magnesium, proteins, and vitamin K, they’re eaten in cultures around the world.

 

CHICKWEED

(STELLARIA MEDIA)

It is so generally known to most people, that I shall not trouble you with the description thereof, nor myself with setting forth the several kinds, since but only two or three are considerable for their usefulness.

PLACE: They are usually found in moist and watery places, by wood sides, and elsewhere. [Chickweed is a cosmopolitan annual weed found throughout Europe, Asia, North America, and elsewhere.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is a fine soft pleasing herb under the dominion of the Moon. It is found to be effectual as Purslane to all the purposes whereunto it serves, except for meat only. The herb bruised, or the juice applied (with cloths or sponges dipped therein) to the region of the liver, and as they dry, to have it fresh applied, doth wonderfully temperate the heat of the liver, and is effectual for all imposthumes [abscesses] and swellings whatsoever, for all redness in the face, wheals, pushes, itch, scabs; the juice either simply used, or boiled with hog’s grease and applied, helps cramps, convulsions, and palsy. [It] is of good effect to ease pains from the heat and sharpness of the blood in the piles, and generally all pains in the body that arise of heat. Boil a handful of Chickweed, and a handful of red rose leaves dried, in a quart of muscadine, until a fourth part be consumed; then put to them a pint of oil of trotters or sheep’s feet; let them boil a good while, still stirring them well; which being strained, anoint the grieved place therewith, warm against the fire, rubbing it well with one hand: and bind also some of the herb (if you will) to the place, and, with God’s blessing, it will help it in three times dressing.

MODERN USES: Chickweed is a winter annual, usually emerging then going to seed early in the growing season. Fresh leaves are used as a salad green. Preparations of the fresh and dried leaf are widely used for skin conditions that cause redness or inflammation, much as Culpeper describes. It is believed to possess anti-inflammatory, diuretic, expectorant, cooling, and nutritional attributes. Its juice is a folk medicine to treat obesity. When evaluated in a laboratory model, it was found to prevent fat storage by inhibiting enzymes, resulting in a slowing of the absorption of fats and carbohydrates. More research is needed.

 

CHICORY

(CICHORIUM INTYBUS)

Succory

DESCRIPTION: [Chicory] bears blue flowers. The wild Chicory [has dandelion-like leaves at the base], from among which rises up a stalk, where stand the flowers, which are like [those of dandelions, only blue]. Take notice that the flowers are gone in on a sunny day, therefore delight in the shade. The whole plant is exceedingly bitter.

PLACE: This grows in many places [such as] untilled and barren fields [and roadsides]. [Native to Eurasia; a widespread weed elsewhere in North America, South America, and Australia.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is an herb of Jupiter. Chicory is drier and less cold than Endive, so it opens more. A handful of the leaves, or roots boiled in wine or water, and a draught thereof drank fasting, drives forth choleric and phlegmatic humours, opens obstructions of the liver, gall and spleen; helps the yellow jaundice, the heat of the [kidneys], and of the urine; the dropsy also; and those that have an evil disposition in their bodies, by reason of long sickness, evil diet, &c. which the Greeks call Cachexia. A decoction thereof made with wine, and drank, is very effectual against long lingering ague [fevers]; and a dram of the seed in powder, drank in wine, before the fit of the ague [fever], helps to drive it away. The distilled water of the herb and flowers (if you can take them in time) hath the like properties, and is especially good for hot stomachs, and in [fevers], either pestilential or of long continuance; for swoonings and passions of the heart, for the heat and headache in children, and for the blood and liver. The said water, or the juice, or the bruised leaves applied outwardly, allay swellings, inflammations, St. Anthony’s fire, pushes, wheals, and pimples, especially used with a little vinegar; as also to wash pestiferous sores. The said water is very effectual for nurses’ breasts that are pained by the abundance of milk. The wild Succory, as it is more bitter, so it is more strengthening to the stomach and liver.

MODERN USES: Preparations of the bitter chicory root are used to stimulate digestion. Chicory is also a diuretic, laxative, and mild sedative. Used to relieve a feeling or fullness or bloating, slow digestion, and loss of appetite. Pharmacologically, it has anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and immunostimulant effects; liver-protective activity; and a low-density lipoprotein inhibiting effect. The leaves and flowers are used as vegetables, and the roasted root is a well-known additive to (or substitute for) coffee. The use of chicory root in coffee began as a means to stretch coffee supplies during wartime.

 

CHINESE LANTERN

(ALKEKENGI OFFICINARUM; SYN. PHYSALIS ALKEKENGI)

Winter-Cherries

DESCRIPTION: The Chinese Lantern rises a yard high, [with] long green leaves, like nightshades, whitish flowers of five [petals], berries enclosed with thin skins, which change to reddish [and lantern-like with a red berry within].

PLACE: [Widespread and naturalized near gardens and field edges throughout most of Europe, western Asia, Japan, and China; widely cultivated and escaped from gardens.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: This also is a plant of Venus. They are of great use in physic. The leaves being cooling, may be used in inflammations, but not opening as the berries and fruit are; which by drawing down the urine provoke it to be voided plentifully when it is stopped or grown hot, sharp, and painful in the passage; it is good also to expel the stone and gravel out of the kidneys and bladder, helping to dissolve the stone, and voiding it by grit or gravel sent forth in the urine; it also helps much to cleanse inward imposthumes [abscesses] or ulcers in the bladder, or in those that void a bloody or foul urine. The distilled water of the fruit, or the leaves together with them, or the berries, green or dry, distilled with a little milk and drank morning and evening with a little sugar, is effectual to all the purposes before specified, and especially against the heat and sharpness of the urine. I shall only mention one way, amongst many others, which might be used for ordering the berries, to be helpful for the urine and the stone; which is this. Take three or four good handfuls of the berries, either green or fresh, or dried, and having bruised them, put them into so many gallons of beer or ale when it is new tunned up. This drink taken daily, has been found to do much good to many, both to ease the pains, and expel urine and the stone, and to cause the stone not to engender. The decoction of the berries in wine and water is the most usual way; but the powder of them taken in drink is more effectual.

MODERN USES: Chinese lantern is a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) researched for possible anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antioxidant benefits. The fruits and seeds have been used in various herbal traditions (especially in China and India) for fevers, inflammation, difficulty urinating, and other urinary disorders. CAUTION: Green fruits contain solanine glycoalkaloids, which may have an irritant effect on the gastrointestinal system.

 

CHIRON’S ALL-HEAL

(OPOPANAX CHIRONIUM)

All-Heal

It is called All-heal, Hercules’s All-heal, and Hercules’s Woundwort. Some call it Panay, and others Opopane-wort.

DESCRIPTION: Its root is long, thick, and exceeding full of juice, of a hot and biting taste, the leaves are great and large, and winged almost like ash-tree leaves; towards the top come forth umbels of small yellow flowers.

PLACE: [A plant of well-drained, gravelly soils of the southern Mediterranean and Balkans.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is under the dominion of Mars, hot, biting, and choleric; and remedies what evils Mars inflicts the body of man with, by sympathy, as vipers’ flesh attracts poison, and the loadstone iron [magnetite]. It kills the worms, helps the gout, cramp, and convulsions, provokes urine, and helps all joint-aches. It helps all cold griefs of the head, the vertigo, falling-sickness, the lethargy, the wind cholic, obstructions of the liver and spleen, stone in the kidneys and bladder. It provokes the terms [menstruation], expels the dead birth. It is excellent good for the griefs of the sinews, itch, stone, and tooth-ache, the biting of mad dogs and venomous beasts, and purges choler [bile] very gently.

MODERN USES: A gum resin from Chiron’s all-heal was common in ancient pharmacies but fell into disuse by the mid-nineteenth century.

 

CHIVES

(ALLIUM SCHOENOPRASUM)

Cives

Called also Rush Leeks, Civet, and Sweth.

PLACE: [A familiar garden plant, chives grow wild in chalky, rocky soil throughout the colder regions of the Northern Hemisphere.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: I confess I had not added these, had it not been for a country gentleman, who by a letter certified me, that amongst other herbs, I had left these out; they are indeed a kind of leek, hot and dry in the fourth degree as they are, and so under the dominion of Mars; If they be eaten raw, (I do not mean raw, opposite to roasted or boiled, but raw, opposite to chemical preparation) they send up very hurtful vapours to the brain, causing troublesome sleep, and spoiling the eye-sight, yet of them prepared by the art of the alchemist, may be made an excellent remedy for the stoppage of the urine.

MODERN USES: One of the most widely grown culinary herbs, chives are best described as healthful rather than medicinal, aiding in toning the digestive system. They have a tendency toward reducing blood pressure as well as antimicrobial and antioxidant effects. The fresh green hollow leaves or fresh flowers are used.

 

CINQUEFOIL

(POTENTILLA REPTANS)

Five-Leaved Grass

DESCRIPTION: It spreads and creeps, with long slender strings, and shoots forth many [five-parted] leaves, and bears many small yellow flowers.

PLACE: It grows by wood sides, hedges, the path-way in fields, and in the borders and corners of them almost through all this land. [A weed found in fields and wastelands in much of Europe, Asia, eastern North America, and Australia—in short, wherever Europeans have settled.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: This is an herb of Jupiter, and therefore strengthens the part of the body it rules and if you give but a scruple (which is but twenty grains) of it at a time, either in white wine, or in white wine vinegar, you shall very seldom miss the cure of an ague, be it what ague soever, in three fits, It is an especial herb used in all inflammations and fevers, whether infectious or pestilential; or among other herbs to cool and temper the blood and humours in the body. As also for all lotions, gargles, infections, and the like, for sore mouths, ulcers, cancers, fistulas, and other corrupt, foul, or running sores. The juice hereof drank, about four ounces at a time, for certain days together, cures the quinsy and yellow jaundice; and taken for thirty days together, cures the falling sickness. The roots boiled in milk, and drank, is a most effectual remedy for all fluxes in man or woman, whether the white or red, as also the bloody flux [dysentery]. The roots boiled in vinegar, and the decoction thereof held in the mouth, eases the pains of the toothache. The juice or decoction taken with a little honey, helps the hoarseness of the throat, and is very good for the cough of the lungs. The distilled water of both roots and leaves, is also effectual to all the purposes aforesaid; and if the hands be often washed therein, and suffered at every time to dry in of itself without wiping, it will in a short time help the palsy, or shaking in them. The root boiled in vinegar, helps all knots, kernels, hard swellings, and lumps growing in any part of the flesh, being thereto applied; as also inflammations, and St. Anthony’s fire, all imposthumes [abscesses], and painful sores with heat and putrefaction, the shingles also, and all other sorts of running and foul scabs, sores and itch. The same also boiled in wine, and applied to any joint full of pain, ache, or the gout in the hands or feet, or the hip gout, called the Sciatica, and the decoction thereof drank the while, doth cure them, and eases much pain in the bowels. The roots are likewise effectual to help ruptures or bursting, being used with other things available to that purpose, taken either inwardly or outwardly, or both; as also bruises or hurts by blows, falls, or the like, and to stay the bleeding of wounds in any parts inward or outward.

Some hold that one leaf cures a quotidian, three a tertian, and four a quartan ague [malaria] and a hundred to one if it be not Dioscorides; for he is full of whimsies. The truth is, I never stood so much upon the number of the leaves, nor whether I give it in powder or decoction. If Jupiter were strong, and the Moon applying to him, or his good aspect at the gathering, I never knew it miss the desired effect.

MODERN USES: The roots (and to a lesser extent the leaves) of this and other species of Potentilla have long been valued as astringents and anti-inflammatory herbs for the treatment of diarrhea, bleeding (internal and external), hemorrhoids (the powdered herb in appropriate topical formulations), and sore throat and bleeding gums (a tea is used as a rinse or gargle).

 

CLARY SAGE

(SALVIA SCLAREA)

Clear-Eye, Clary

DESCRIPTION: Our ordinary garden Clary has four square stalks, with broad, rough, wrinkled, whitish, or hoary green leaves of a strong sweet scent. The flowers grow somewhat like the flowers of Sage, but of a whitish blue colour.

PLACE: This grows in gardens.

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is under the dominion of the Moon. The seed put into the eyes clears them from motes, and such like things gotten within the lids to offend them, as also clears them from white and red spots on them. The mucilage of the seed made with water, and applied to tumours, or swellings, disperses and takes them away; as also draws forth splinters, thorns, or other things gotten into the flesh. The leaves used with vinegar by itself, or with a little honey, doth help boils, felons, and the hot inflammation that are gathered by their pains, if applied before it be grown too great. The powder of the dried root put into the nose, provokes sneezing, and thereby purges the head and brain of much rheum [watery discharge] and corruption. The seed or leaves taken in wine, provokes to venery. It is of much use both for men and women that have weak backs, and helps to strengthen the kidneys: used either by itself, or with other herbs conducing to the same effect, and in tansies often. The fresh leaves dipped in a batter of flour, eggs, and a little milk, and fried in butter, and served to the table, is exceedingly profitable for those that are troubled with weak backs, and the effects thereof. The juice of the herb put into ale or beer, and drank, brings down women’s courses, and expels the after-birth.

MODERN USES: A tea of fresh or dried clary sage leaves is a pleasant beverage used as a digestive tonic for relieving dyspepsia and gas. The essential oil is antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiviral, and is also antifungal against Candida albicans. Grown commercially in France as a perfume ingredient. CAUTION: All essential oils are used in minute doses.

 

CLEAVERS

(GALIUM APARINE)

It is also called Aperine, Goose-shade, Goose-grass, and Cleavers.

DESCRIPTION: The common Cleavers have diverse very rough square stalks, rising up two or three yards high; the leaves are usually six, set in a round compass like a star, with very small white flowers. They will cleave to anything that will touch them.

PLACE: It grows by the hedge and ditch-sides in many places of this land, and is so troublesome an inhabitant in gardens, that it ramps upon, and is ready to choke whatever grows near it. [Widely distributed as a weed throughout the temperate regions of the world, including Europe, most of Asia, all of North America, and western South America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is under the dominion of the Moon. The juice of the herb and the seed together taken in wine, helps those bitten with an adder, by preserving the heart from the venom. It is familiarly taken in broth to keep them lean and lank, that are apt to grow fat. The distilled water drank twice a day, helps the yellow jaundice, and the decoction of the herb, in experience, is found to do the same, and stays lasks [diarrhea] and bloody-fluxes [dysentery]. The juice of the leaves, or they a little bruised, and applied to any bleeding wounds, stays the bleeding.

The juice also is very good to close up the lips of green wounds, and the powder of the dried herb strewed thereupon doth the same, and likewise helps old ulcers. Being boiled in hog’s grease, it helps all sorts of hard swellings or kernels in the throat, being anointed therewith. The juice dropped into the ears, takes away the pain of them.

It is a good remedy in the Spring, eaten (being first chopped small, and boiled well) in water-gruel, to cleanse the blood, and strengthen the liver, thereby to keep the body in health, and fitting it for that change of season that is coming.

MODERN USES: A tea or tincture of the fresh or dried cleavers herb is used as a diuretic and for the treatment of skin disorders and high blood pressure; it also has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and heart-protective effects. In traditional Chinese medicine the herb is used to detoxify tissue, treat irritated or blocked urinary passages and blood in the urine, and as a folk medicine in the treatment of leukemia. Cleavers is also being evaluated for anti-cancer activity. CAUTION: Hooked hairs on stems may cause contact dermatitis.

 

COLTSFOOT

(TUSSILAGO FARFARA)

Called also Coughwort, Foal’s-foot, Horse-hoof, and Bull’s-foot.

DESCRIPTION: Yellowish flowers [appear before the rounded leaves shaped like the foot of a colt].

PLACE: It grows as well in wet grounds as in drier places. [Native to Europe, a widespread weed in cooler regions of North America and Asia.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: The plant is under Venus, the fresh leaves or juice, or a syrup thereof is good for a hot dry cough, or wheezing, and shortness of breath. The dry leaves are best for those that have thin rheums and distillations upon their lungs, causing a cough, for which also the dried leaves taken as tobacco, or the root is good. The distilled water hereof simply, or with Elder flowers and Nightshade, is a singularly good remedy against hot agues, to drink two ounces at a time, and apply cloths wet therein to the head and stomach, which also does much good, being applied to any hot swellings and inflammations. It helps St. Anthony’s fire, and burnings, and is good to take away wheals and small pushes that arise through heat; as also the burning heat of the piles, or privy parts, cloths wet therein being thereunto applied.

MODERN USES: Coltsfoot leaves and flowers are traditionally used as a demulcent, emollient, and expectorant, primarily in the treatment of coughs and upper respiratory tract infections. Used for pulmonary ailments such as bronchitis, laryngitis, asthma, and whooping cough; also for sore throat. CAUTION: Coltsfoot contains liver-toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which can cause veno-occlusive disease of the liver. A small amount of the alkaloids has a cumulative effect over time, and the condition is only diagnosed with a liver biopsy. Acute poisoning can be caused by overconsumption of pyrrolidine alkaloid-containing plants. As a result, Germany banned the use of coltsfoot in 1992. The risks outweigh the benefits.

 

COMFREY

(SYMPHYTUM OFFICINALE)

This is a very common but a very neglected plant. It contains very great virtues.

DESCRIPTION: The common Great Comfrey has diverse large hairy green leaves, so hairy or prickly, that if they touch any tender parts of the hands, face, or body, it will cause it to itch. At the ends stand many flowers one above another, which are somewhat long and hollow like the finger of a glove, of a pale whitish colour.

PLACE: They grow by ditches and water-sides, and in diverse fields that are moist, for therein they chiefly delight to grow. [Native to Europe; widely cultivated, naturalized, and persistent after cultivation (weedy) in North America and elsewhere.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: This is an herb of Saturn, and I suppose under the sign Capricorn, cold, dry, and earthy in quality. What was spoken of Clown’s Woundwort [Marsh Woundwort] may be said of this. The Great Comfrey helps those that spit blood, or make a bloody urine. The root boiled in water or wine, and the decoction drank, helps all inward hurts, bruises, wounds, and ulcer of the lungs, and causes the phlegm that oppresses them to be easily spit forth. It helps the defluction of rheum [watery discharge] from the head upon the lungs, the fluxes of blood or humours by the belly, women’s immoderate courses, as well the reds as the whites, and the running of the kidneys happening by what cause soever. A decoction of the leaves hereof is available to all the purposes, though not so effectual as the roots. The roots being outwardly applied, help fresh wounds or cuts immediately, being bruised and laid thereto; and is special good for ruptures and broken bones; yea, it is said to be so powerful to consolidate and knit together, that if they be boiled with dissevered pieces of flesh in a pot, it will join them together again. It is good to be applied to women’s breasts that grow sore by the abundance of milk coming into them; also to repress the over much bleeding of the hemorrhoids, to cool the inflammation of the parts thereabouts, and to give ease of pains. The roots of Comfrey taken fresh, beaten small, and spread upon leather, and laid upon any place troubled with the gout, doth presently give ease of the pains; and applied in the same manner, gives ease to pained joints, and profits very much for running and moist ulcers, gangrenes, mortifications, and the like, for which it hath by often experience been found helpful.

MODERN USES: Traditionally, comfrey leaves and root have been used as an expectorant, emollient, astringent, and demulcent, both internally and externally. The root has been used to treat diarrhea, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, and coughs. It has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and wound-healing properties. Modern topical preparations (salves and creams)—with toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids removed—have been evaluated with positive results in multiple clinical trials for the topical treatment of pain, inflammation, swelling of muscles and joints in degenerative arthritis, acute myalgia in the back, sprains, contusions, and strains after sports injuries and accidents. CAUTION: Like coltsfoot, comfrey contains liver-toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which can cause veno-occlusive disease of the liver. A small amount of the alkaloids has a cumulative effect over time, and the condition is only diagnosed with a liver biopsy. Acute poisoning is caused by overconsumption of pyrrolidine alkaloid–containing plants. Only modern pyrrolizidine alkaloid–free preparations are considered safe for external use.

 

CORNFLOWER

(CYANUS SEGETUM; SYN. CENTAURIUM CYANUS)

Bachelor’s Button, Blue-Bottle

It is called Syanus, I suppose from the colour of it; Hurt-sickle, because it turns the edge of the sickles that reap the corn; Blue-blow, Corn-flower, and Blue-bottle.

DESCRIPTION: The flowers are of a bluish colour, consisting of an innumerable company of flowers set in a scaly head.

PLACE: They grow in cornfields, amongst all sorts of corn. If you take them up and transplant them in your garden, especially towards the full moon, they will grow more double than they are, and many times change colour. [Native to Europe and the Middle East; widely naturalized elsewhere.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: As they are naturally cold, dry, and binding, so they are under the dominion of Saturn. The powder or dried leaves of the Blue-bottle, or Corn-flower, is given with good success to those that are bruised by a fall, or have broken a vein inwardly, and void much blood at the mouth; being taken in the water of Plantain, Horsetail, or the greater Comfrey, it is a remedy against the poison of the Scorpion, and resists all venoms and poison. The seed or leaves taken in wine, is very good against the plague, and all infectious diseases, and is very good in pestilential fevers. The juice put into fresh or green wounds, doth quickly solder up the lips of them together, and is very effectual to heal all ulcers and sores in the mouth. The distilled water of this herb has the same properties, and may be used for the effects aforesaid.

MODERN USES: Folkloric uses for cornflowers include a tea for fevers, menstrual disorders, and candida, as well as a bitter simulant for the liver and gallbladder. Seldom used.

 

COSTMARY

(TANACETUM BALSAMITA; SYN. BALSAMITA MAJOR, CHRYSANTHEMUM BALSAMITA)

Alcost, Balsam Herb

[A widespread native plant and/or weed of Eurasia, originating in southeastern Europe and southwest Asia.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is under the dominion of Jupiter. The ordinary Costmary, as well as Maudlin, provokes urine abundantly, and moistens the hardness of the mother; it gently purges choler [bile] and phlegm, extenuating that which is gross, and cutting that which is tough and glutinous, cleanses that which is foul, and hinders putrefaction and corruption; it dissolves without attraction, opens obstructions, and helps their evil effects, and it is a wonderful help to all sorts of dry agues. It is astringent to the stomach, and strengthens the liver, and all the other inward parts; and taken in whey works more effectually. Taken fasting in the morning, it is very profitable for pains in the head that are continual, and to stay, dry up, and consume all thin rheums or distillations from the head into the stomach, and helps much to digest raw humours that are gathered therein. It is very profitable for those that are fallen into a continual evil disposition of the whole body, called Cachexia, but especially in the beginning of the disease. It is an especial friend and helps to evil, weak and cold livers. The seed is familiarly given to children for the worms, and so is the infusion of the flowers in white wine given them to the quantity of two ounces at a time; it makes an excellent salve to cleanse and heal old ulcers, being boiled with oil of olive, and Adder’s tongue with it, and after it is strained, put a little wax, rosin, and turpentine, to bring it to a convenient body.

MODERN USES: Costmary is little used today. The leaves contain phenolic compounds with antioxidant activity. The essential oil from the leaves has been shown to have antimicrobial activity and experimental liver-protective effects. Costmary is used in folk medicine, particularly in Iran. Elsewhere in Asia Minor, it’s a culinary herb, digestive carminative, and heart tonic. Also known as “Bible-leaf” because traditionally the leaves were dried flat and placed between book pages as a bookmark.

 

COTTON-THISTLE

(ONOPORDUM ACANTHIUM)

Down Thistle

DESCRIPTION: This has large leaves covered with long hairy wool, or Cotton Down, set with most sharp and cruel spines, from the middle of whose head of flowers, thrust forth many purplish crimson [threadlike flowers].

PLACE: It grows in diverse ditches, banks, and highways, [generally everywhere where Britons have settled, including most of North America and elsewhere].

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Mars owns the plant, and manifest to the world, that though it may hurt your finger, it will help your body; for I fancy it much for the ensuing virtues. Pliny and Dioscorides write, That the leaves and roots thereof taken in drink, help those that have a crick in their neck; whereby they cannot turn their neck but their whole body must turn also (sure they do not mean those that have got a crick in their neck by being under the hangman’s hand.) Galen saith, that the root and leaves hereof are of a healing quality, and good for such persons as have their bodies drawn together by some spasm or convulsion, as it is with children that have the rickets.

MODERN USES: Also known as Scotch thistle, cotton thistle has medicinal attributes that include fever-reducing, cough-suppressing, and expectorant activities; and diuretic and stomachic effects. Externally, the juice of the plant has been long used as a folk cancer remedy. In a study from 2016, potential anticancer activity was attributed to a class of chemical compounds known as sesquiterpene lactones found in the leaves. Leaf extracts contain a compound, onopordopicrin, which has mild antibacterial activity. The sesquiterpenes and additional compounds such as lignans and flavonoids have been linked to anti-inflammatory activity. Traditionally the young, peeled stalks were boiled and eaten as a wild food.

 

COUCH GRASS

(ELYMUS REPENS; SYN. ELYTRIGIA REPENS, AGROPYRON REPENS)

Dog’s-Grass, or Cough Grass

DESCRIPTION: It is well known, that the grass creeps far about underground, with long white joined roots, very sweet in taste. Watch the dogs when they are sick, and they will quickly lead you to it.

PLACE: It grows commonly through this land in diverse ploughed grounds to the no small trouble of the husbandmen, as also of the gardeners.

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: ’Tis under the dominion of Jupiter, and is the most medicinal of all the Quick-grasses. Being boiled and drank, it opens obstructions of the liver and gall, and the stopping of urine, and eases the griping pains of the belly and inflammations; wastes the matter of the stone in the bladder, and the ulcers thereof also. The roots bruised and applied, do consolidate wounds. The seed doth more powerfully expel urine, and stays the lask [diarrhea] and vomiting. The distilled water alone, or with a little wormseed, kills the worms in children. The way of use is to bruise the roots, and having well boiled them in white wine, drink the decoction. ’Tis opening but not purging, very safe. ’Tis a remedy against all diseases coming of stopping, and although a gardener be of another opinion, yet a physician holds half an acre of them to be worth five acres of Carrots twice told over.

MODERN USES: In phytomedicine the rhizome (underground stem) of couch grass is used in tea, tincture, and ethanolic extracts as a traditional mild diuretic in cases of minor urinary tract and bladder discomfort, especially when associated with low back pain, cystitis, urethritis, and kidney stones. It’s also a folk medicine for rheumatism and arthritis. Lacking modern clinical studies, this herbal ingredient is approved in Europe based on long-standing and continued medicinal use.

 

COWSLIP

(PRIMULA VERIS)

Both the wild and garden Cowslips are so well known, that I neither trouble myself nor the reader with a description of them. [Found in meadows and gardens throughout Europe; naturalized in North America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Venus lays claim to this herb as her own, and it is under the sign Aries, and our city dames know well enough the ointment or distilled water of it adds beauty, or at least restores it when it is lost. The flowers are held to be more effectual than the leaves, and the roots of little use. An ointment made with them takes away spots and wrinkles of the skin, sun-burning, and freckles, and adds beauty exceedingly. They remedy all infirmities of the head coming of heat and wind, as vertigo, ephialtes [nightmares], false apparitions, phrensies, falling-sickness, palsies, convulsions, cramps, pains in the nerves. The roots ease pains in the back and bladder, and open the passages of urine. The leaves are good in wounds, and the flowers take away trembling. If the flowers be not well dried, and kept in a warm place, they will soon putrefy and look green: Have a special eye over them. If you let them see the Sun once a month, it will do neither the Sun nor them harm.

Because they strengthen the brain and nerves, and remedy palsies, Greeks gave them the name Paralysis. The flowers preserved or conserved, and the quantity of a nutmeg eaten every morning, is a sufficient dose for inward diseases; but for wounds, spots, wrinkles, and sunburns, an ointment is made of the leaves, and hog’s grease.

MODERN USES: The dried flowering parts and dried roots of cowslip are used in modern phytomedicine preparations for the treatment of bronchitis, coughs, colds, and mucous discharges of the nose and throat. Contrary to Culpeper’s belief that the “roots [are of] little use,” the root is now the preferred plant part for mucous-resolving and expectorant activity. The dried flowers are traditionally used for nervousness and headaches.

 

CROSSWORT

(CRUCIATA LAEVIPES; SYN. GALIUM CRUCIATA)

This herb receives its name from the situation of its leaves.

DESCRIPTION: Common Crosswort grows up with square hairy stalks a little above a foot high, having four small broad and pointed, hairy yet smooth thin leaves. Towards the tops of the stalks at the joints, stand small, pale yellow flowers.

PLACE: [Found in moist ground and meadows throughout Europe except Scandinavia; sporadically naturalized elsewhere.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is under the dominion of Saturn. This is a singularly good wound herb, and is used inwardly, not only to stay bleeding of wounds, but to consolidate them, as it doth outwardly any green wound, which it quickly solders up, and heals. The decoction of the herb in wine, helps to expectorate the phlegm out of the chest, and is good for obstructions in the breast, stomach, or bowels, and helps a decayed appetite. It is also good to wash any wound or sore with, to cleanse and heal it. The herb bruised, and then boiled applied outwardly for certain days together, renewing it often; and in the meantime the decoction of the herb in wine, taken inwardly every day, doth certainly cure the rupture in any, so as it be not too inveterate; but very speedily, if it be fresh and lately taken.

MODERN USES: Crosswort is seldom used today except as a folk medicine in Eastern Europe, primarily as Culpeper describes, externally for the treatment of wounds. Contains coumarins and iridoid compounds that may be responsible for traditional claims; otherwise, it is little studied.

 

CUCKOO PINT

(ARUM MACULATUM)

Cuckow-Point, Lords-And-Ladies

It is called Aron, Janus, Barba-aron, Calve’s-foot, Ramp, Starchwort, Cuckow-point, and Wake Robin.

DESCRIPTION: [A member of the arum family with white-mottled or variegated arrow-shaped leaves and a flower spathe enveloping a club-like spadix, maturing to a cluster of bright red, berry-like fruits.] The whole plant is of a very sharp biting taste, pricking the tongue as nettles do the hands, and so abides for a great while without alteration. The root thereof was anciently used instead of starch to starch linen with.

PLACE: [It is widespread in northern temperate Europe and cultivated as an ornamental elsewhere.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is under the dominion of Mars. The green leaves bruised, and laid upon any boil or plague sore, doth wonderfully help to draw forth the poison: A dram of the powder of the dried root taken with twice so much sugar in the form of a licking electuary, or the green root, doth wonderfully help those that are short-winded, as also those that have a cough; it breaks, digests, and rids away phlegm from the stomach, chest, and lungs. The milk wherein the root has been boiled is effectual also for the same purpose. The said powder taken in wine or other drink, or the juice of the berries, or the powder of them, or the wine wherein they have been boiled, provokes urine, and brings down women’s courses and purges them effectually after child-bearing, to bring away the after-birth. Taken with sheep’s milk, it heals the inward ulcers of the bowels. The distilled water thereof is effectual to all the purposes aforesaid. A spoonful taken at a time heals the itch; an ounce or more taken a time for some days together, doth help the rupture: The leaves either green or dry, or the juice of them, doth cleanse all manner of rotten and filthy ulcers, in what part of the body soever; and heals the stinking sores in the nose, called polypus. The root mixed with bean-flour, and applied to the throat or jaws that are inflamed, helps them. The berries or the roots beaten with the hot ox-dung, and applied, eases the pains of the gout. The leaves and roots boiled in wine with a little oil, and applied to the piles, eases them, and so doth sitting over the hot fumes thereof. The fresh roots bruised and distilled with a little milk, yields a most sovereign water to cleanse the skin from scurf, freckles, spots, or blemishes whatsoever therein.

Authors have left large commendations of this herb you see, but for my part, I have neither spoken with Dr. Reason nor Dr. Experience about it.

MODERN USES: It is no longer used medicinally. CAUTION: All plant parts contain needle-shaped sharp crystals of calcium oxalates, which cause severe irritation to the skin, mouth, mucous membranes, and throat, leading to swelling, possibly difficulty in breathing, and serious gastrointestinal irritation. It is called lords and ladies because of the supposed likeness of the flower parts to male and female sex organs.

 

CUCUMBERS

(CUCUMIS SATIVUS)

PLACE: [Cucumbers are believed to have originated in India, and were then cultivated over three thousand years ago, spreading to Europe more than two thousand years ago by the Greeks and Romans. Sometimes found growing wild at the site of old gardens.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: There is no dispute to be made, but that they are under the dominion of the Moon, though they are so much cried out against for their coldness, and if they were but one degree colder they would be poison. The best of Galenists hold them to be cold and moist in the second degree, and then not so hot as either lettuce or purslane: They are excellently good for a hot stomach, and hot liver. The face being washed with their juice, cleanses the skin. The seed is excellent to provoke urine, and cleanses the passages thereof when they are stopped. There is not a better remedy for ulcers in the bladder, than are Cucumbers. The usual course is, to use the seeds in emulsions, as they make almond milk; but a far better way (in my opinion) is this: Take Cucumbers and bruise them well, and distil the water from them, and let such as are troubled with ulcers in the bladder drink no other drink. The face being washed with the same water, cures the reddest face that is; it is also excellently good for sun-burning, freckles, and abscesses.

MODERN USES: The cooling, soothing, and anti-inflammatory effects of cucumbers have made the vegetable, its juice, and extracts a favored anti-wrinkling and antiaging ingredient in cosmetics and skin lotions. High in potassium, antioxidants, and vitamin K, it is a vegetable valued for its nutritional and health benefits. Traditionally, cucumbers are considered diuretic.