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OAK

(QUERCUS ROBUR)

It is so well known (the timber thereof being the glory and safety of this nation by sea) that it needs no description. [Found throughout most of Europe; planted as a shade tree and occasionally naturalized elsewhere.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Jupiter owns the tree. The leaves and bark of the Oak, and the acorn cups, do bind and dry very much. The inner bark of the tree, and the thin skin that covers the acorn, are most used to stay the spitting of blood, and the bloody-flux [dysentery]. The decoction of that bark, and the powder of the cups, do stay vomiting, spitting of blood, bleeding at the mouth, or other fluxes of blood, in men or women; lasks [diarrhea] also, and the nocturnal involuntary flux of men. The acorn in powder taken in wine, provokes urine, and resists the poison of venomous creatures. The decoction of acorns and the bark made in milk and taken, resists the force of poisonous herbs and medicines. Galen applied them, being bruised, to cure green wounds. The distilled water of the Oaken bud, before they break out into leaves is good to be used either inwardly or outwardly, to assuage inflammations, and to stop all manner of fluxes in man or woman. The same is singularly good in pestilential and hot burning fevers; for it resists the force of the infection, and allays the heat: It cools the heat of the liver, breaking the stone in the kidneys, and stays women’s courses. The decoction of the leaves works the same effects. The water that is found in the hollow places of old Oaks, is very effectual against any foul or spreading scabs. The distilled water (or concoction, which is better) of the leaves, is one of the best remedies that I know of for the whites [vaginal discharges] in women.

MODERN USES: During Culpeper’s time, one or two oaks were recognized in England. Biological activity associated with oaks and their complex tannins includes antibacterial, antiviral, astringent, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties. Traditionally, the tea was used as a gargle for sore throat. Internally, a tea or decoction is used to allay diarrhea. Used as a wash for inflammatory skin diseases.

 

OATS

(AVENA SATIVA)

Are so well known that they need no description.

PLACE: [Cultivated since ancient times and thought to have originated in central Europe; sometimes found persisting in wastelands near where it may have once been cultivated.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Oats fried with bay salt, and applied to the sides, take away the pains of stitches and wind in the sides or the belly. A poultice made of meal of Oats, and some oil of Bays put thereunto, helps the itch and the leprosy, as also the fistulas of the fundament, and dissolves hard imposthumes [abscesses]. The meal of Oats boiled with vinegar, and applied, takes away freckles and spots in the face, and other parts of the body.

MODERN USES: Oatmeal itself is sometimes applied as a soothing poultice for inflammation. In modern phytomedicine, the primary use is that of oat straw in baths to treat inflammatory skin diseases with itching. Oat straw is also used in tea as a diuretic. The milky juice of fresh green tops of oats is considered a nerve tonic and antispasmodic for nervous disorders, exhaustion, and nervous debility.

 

ONIONS

(ALLIUM CEPA)

They are so well known, that I need not spend time about writing a description of them.

PLACE: [One of the oldest of cultivated vegetables, of unknown origin. Grown in home gardens.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Mars owns them, and they have gotten this quality, to draw any corruption to them, for if you peel one, and lay it upon a dunghill, you shall find it rotten in half a day, by drawing putrefaction to it; then, being bruised and applied to a plague sore, it is very probable it will do the like. Onions are flatulent, or windy; yet they do somewhat provoke appetite, increase thirst, ease the belly and bowels, provoke women’s courses, help the biting of a mad dog, and of other venomous creatures, to be used with honey and rue, increase sperm, especially the seed of them. They also kill worms in children if they drink the water fasting wherein they have been steeped all night. Being roasted under the embers, and eaten with honey or sugar and oil, they much conduce to help an inveterate cough, and expectorate the cough phlegm. It hath been held by diverse country people a great preservative against infection, to eat Onions fasting with bread and salt: As also to make a great Onion hollow, filling the place with good treacle, and after to roast it well under the embers, which, after taking away the outermost skin thereof, being beaten together, is a sovereign salve for either plague or sore, or any other putrefied ulcer. The juice of Onions is good for either scalding or burning by fire, water, or gunpowder, and used with vinegar, takes away all blemishes, spots and marks in the skin. Applied also with figs beaten together, helps to ripen and break imposthumes [abscesses], and other sores.

Leeks are as like them in quality, as the pome-water is like an apple: They are a remedy against a surfeit of mushrooms, being baked under the embers and taken, and being boiled and applied very warm, help the piles. In other things they have the same property as the Onions, although not so effectual.

MODERN USES: Best known as a food rather than a medicinal herb, onion fits the adage that “your food should be your medicine.” Onion bulbs are used for the prevention and treatment of age-dependent changes in the blood vessels (prevention of atherosclerosis), and as an appetite stimulant in cases of loss of appetite. In essence, the effects of onions are similar to those of garlic, though are considered somewhat weaker. Onions are antibacterial, blood thinning, and may help to lower blood pressure when consumed as a regular part of the diet.

 

ORCHIS

(ORCHIS SPP.)

DESCRIPTION: To describe all the several sorts of it were an endless piece of work; therefore I shall only describe the roots because they are to be used with some discretion. Now, it is that which is full which is to be used in medicines, the other being either of no use at all, or else, according to the humour of some, it destroys and disannuls the virtues of the other, quite undoing what that doth.

PLACE: [Orchis species are found in chalky grasslands and open woods; scattered throughout Europe and elsewhere.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: They are hot and moist in operation, under the dominion of Dame Venus, and provoke lust exceedingly, which, they say, the dried and withered roots do restrain. They are held to kill worms in children; as also, being bruised and applied to the place, to heal the king’s evil [unusual swelling of lymph nodes or scrofula].

MODERN USES: Orchis is a genus in the orchid family (Orchidaceae) with about three dozen species. Not often used because of their rarity. All terrestrial orchids are restricted in international trade. Culpeper himself could not distinguish one from another. The most widely used medicinally was Orchis mascula—so named because the roots look like testicles. The roots have been shown to have antihypertensive activity. In India and Pakistan, this species has been used for sexual dysfunction, heart disease, and for the treatment of diarrhea, dysentery, and chronic inflammation. To quote William Curtis in Flora Londinensis (1772), “[We] readily subscribed to the opinion . . . in speaking of Orchis . . . that great names have introduced many absurd medicines.”

 

OREGANO

(ORIGANUM VULGARE)

Wild Marjoram, Wind Marjoram

Called also Origanum, Eastward Marjoram; Wild Marjoram, and Grove Marjoram.

DESCRIPTION: Wild or field Marjoram send[s] up sundry brownish, square stalks, with small dark green leaves, very like those of Sweet Marjoram, at the top of the stalks stand tufts of flowers, of a deep purplish red colour.

PLACE: It grows plentifully in [fields throughout Europe and temperate Asia, and is naturalized in eastern North America].

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: This is also under the dominion of Mercury. It strengthens the stomach and head much, there being scarce a better remedy growing for such as are troubled with a sour humour in the stomach; it restores the appetite being lost; helps the cough, and consumption of the lungs; it cleanses the body of choler [bile], expels poison, and remedies the infirmities of the spleen; helps the bitings of venomous beasts, and helps such as have poisoned themselves by eating Hemlock, Henbane, or Opium. It provokes urine and the terms in women, helps the dropsy, and the scurvy, scabs, itch, and yellow jaundice. The juice being dropped into the ears, helps deafness, pain and noise in the ears. And thus much for this herb, between which and adders, there is a deadly antipathy.

MODERN USES: Found wild throughout Europe, oregano has long been used as a folk medicine for indigestion, headaches, diarrhea, nervous tension, insect bites, toothache, earache, rheumatism, and coughs. Oregano has antitussive, carminative, diaphoretic, diuretic, and mild nervine properties. Oregano treats irritating coughs due to bronchitis (primarily due to its antispasmodic activity), urinary tract conditions, and painful menstruation. The essential oil contains carvacrol and thymol as the primary components and has confirmed antibacterial, antiviral, antispasmodic, and anti-inflammatory activity. CAUTION: All undiluted essential oils can be irritating.

 

ORPINE

(SEDUM TELEPHIUM; SYN. HELOTELEPHIUM TELEPHIUM)

Witch’s Moneybags

DESCRIPTION: Common Orpine rises up with diverse rough brittle stalks, thick set with fat and fleshy leaves, [with pinkish-white tufts of flowers].

PLACE: [Found throughout Europe and Asia; naturalized as a garden plant in the British Isles.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: The Moon owns the herb, and he that knows but her exaltation, knows what I say is true. Orpine is seldom used in inward medicines with us, although Tragus saith from experience in Germany, that the distilled water thereof is profitable for gnawings or excoriations in the stomach or bowels, or for ulcers in the lungs, liver, or other inward parts, as also in the matrix, and helps all those diseases, being drank for certain days together. It stays the sharpness of humours in the bloody-flux [dysentery], and other fluxes in the body, or in wounds. The root thereof also performs the like effect. It is used outwardly to cool any heat or inflammation upon any hurt or wound, and eases the pains of them; as, also, to heal scaldings or burnings, the juice thereof being beaten with some green salad oil, and anointed. The leaf bruised, and laid to any green wound in the hand or legs, doth heal them quickly; and being bound to the throat, much helps the quinsy [peritonsillar abscess]; it helps also ruptures. If you please to make the juice thereof into a syrup with honey or sugar, you may safely take a spoonful or two at a time, (let my author say what he will) for a quinsy, and you shall find the medicine pleasant, and the cure speedy.

MODERN USES: Seldom used, orpine is an astringent. The tea is used as a folk medicine for the treatment of diarrhea. Like most fleshy-leaved sedums, the crushed leaves are considered cooling, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and were applied to wounds. Components of the plant may serve to simulate the immune system to enhance wound-healing.