Archive for March, 2009
Herbs | Herbal Medicines
Creating your own herbal remedy (medicine) could be elaborate and somewhat unsafe since a lot of of the herbs have serious or unexpected side-effects. So anybody curious would be wise not to attempt to do so but to look into the herbal medicinal stock of the closest herbal practitioner or provider. Amongst other things a number of creams and salves are made from herbs.
A lot of of the herbs and their therapeutic properties do now appear rather fanciful. The very few named below are included for their interest value, you are not actually advised to sample them as a remedy for your health issues without the qualified opinion and advice of your herbalist or health care provider.
Agrimony. This is an ancient medicinal herbaceous plant. The Greeks employed it to cure cataract. In Britain, several centuries later, it was produced into a spring tonic and a blood purifier good for those with afflicted liver. Agrimony was also made into an emollient called arquebused and applied to injures imposed by an arquebus, a hand-held gun.
Betony. This was ground into a cream together with animal fat (hog) and used to sooth burns.
Borage. Even in Roman times, borage had the repute of being a cheering, encouraging plant in Pliny’s words brings always courage’.
Chervil. This is yet additional herb which the Romans brought into Europe from the lands of the Mediterranean. in England in the fifteen century it was an all-important plant, and it stayed in favor. For John Gerad, chervil made salads that excelled ‘in wholesomeness for the cold and feeble stomach’. The cooked roots (boiled) were a protective against plague. It could be consumed to cure the hiccups, and its leaves soothed the pain of rheumatism and contusions.
Elder. Elderflowers water has been accepted as a relieve for colds for many centuries.
Fennel. The Greeks thought very high of fennel and employed it for slimming and for addressing more than twenty different illnesses. The Romans ate it-root, leaf and seed-in salads and baked bread and cakes. In Aglo-Saxon times it was utilized on fasting days presumably because, as the Greeks had already discovered, it stilled the pangs of hunger. Even in later centuries it was ‘much used in drink to make people more lean that are too fat’.
Horehound. The Greeks thought also highly of this herb and used it as an antispasmodic drug. It was an antidote for the bite of mad dog and this is how it got its common name.
herbs, herbal medicines