Blood (Culpeper says it harms)

CND-0014Swelling, pain and the whole body

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A heading of ours (added October 2026), not the 1850 index’s. It holds sentences the index would have filed under “Blood, (to cleanse)”, read for direction: here Culpeper says the plant causes or harms, or the index heading did not fit.

Modern reading: loose: no modern equivalent; nearest is antioxidant, lipid-lowering, anti-inflammatory. Searched in PubMed as each plant’s Latin name with antioxidant OR hypolipidemic OR "blood lipids" OR detoxification OR "anti-inflammatory" (a loose reading: the terms match broad research). The counts and papers are on the Concordance page.

Old claims, quoted verbatim: not medical advice. A warning sits above the claims and never hides them; no warning does not mean safe, only that no source here has flagged the plant.

This heading is ours. A keyword search had filed these under “Blood (to cleanse)”, but in each sentence Culpeper says the plant harms it. They are listed so his words stay on record, not as a remedy.

4 claims: 4 with a sentence, 0 from the index alone

1. Lavender Lavandula angustifoliaCLM-000172

   but it is not safe to use it where the body is replete with blood and humours, because of the hot and subtile spirits wherewith it is possessed.

   QUO-000149Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the ConcordanceCopy permanent linkCopy citation
2. Mint MenthaCLM-000176

   but therefore too much must not be taken, because it makes the blood thin and wheyish, and turns it into choler, and therefore choleric persons must abstain from it.

   QUO-000153Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the ConcordanceCopy permanent linkCopy citation
3. Raddish, Or Horse-Raddish Raphanus sativusCLM-000185

   Garden Raddishes are in wantonness by the gentry eaten as a sallad, but they breed but scurvy humours in the stomach, and corrupt the blood, and then send for a physician as fast as you can;

   QUO-000161Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the ConcordanceCopy permanent linkCopy citation
4. Rocket Eruca vesicariaCLM-000187

   The wild Rockets are forbidden to be used alone, in regard their sharpness fumes into the head, causing aches and pains therein, and are less hurtful to hot and choleric persons, for fear of inflaming their blood, and therefore for such we may say a little doth but a little harm, for angry Mars rules them, and he sometimes will be restive when he meets with fools.

   QUO-000163Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the ConcordanceCopy permanent linkCopy citation

Source

Nicholas Culpeper, The Complete Herbal, a new edition (London: Thomas Kelly, 1850). Project Gutenberg eBook #49513. SRC-CUL-1850