Herbs for digestion for Lucia

Here is a listing of herbs from the Old English Herbal which deal with anything related to digestion and the abdomen. At the start of each herb I will list the plant as it is in the book- modern name, scientific name, Latin or Greek name, and then Anglo-Saxon.

Just an FYI- I have not looked into the toxicity of most of these plants, and I do not recommend them at all for the conditions described. And some of them, I know for a fact, are deadly poisonous and have no medical qualities at all.

This is offered as a historical curiosity, not for medical use.

Growing horehound

I have to say that horehound is now one of my favourite garden herbs. I'm a sucker for fuzzy leaves... fuzzy things in general, I guess. It's not very tall, or elegant, but it is a pretty silvery-green, and it has a lovely, herbal smell when you crush a leaf between your fingers.

If you're growing it in a pot it needs a fairly deep one for the root system, and it likes to be fertilized about once per month or the smaller leaves start to turn yellow and fall off. It likes to be well-watered, but not wet, and it needs full sun to part-shade. The seeds that I bought didn't germinate very well, but I'm not sure if it was due to age or a general difficulty with germination.

I'll post a picture later when I'm home and can get one uploaded.


I found this online
http://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/hn-2109003

Anglo-Saxon Herbal Remedies- class notes

A class given by Muirenn ingen Morgair at War of the Trillium, A.S. 50

 

Egypt, Greece, and the Classical Tradition of Medicine In Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia 

 

Illness was seen as a manifestation of a god’s anger or possession by demons or ghosts, as shown by the Ebers and Hearst papyri. The goal of the healer was to appease the god through sacrifices or drive out the possessing demon by applying or getting the patient to ingest substances which the demon found repugnant (like feces).