The Common Alder-Tree

Alnus glutinosa

HRB-0010Entry “THE COMMON ALDER-TREE” in the 1850 textIn Culpeper’s 1652 first edition

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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.

Historical correspondence. Ruled by Venus, by Culpeper. A traditional astrological assignment, kept apart from the modern evidence; it is not a finding.

Culpeper’s claims about it: 3, under 3 headings

1. InflammationsCLM-000881

   and therefore the decoction, or distilled water of the leaves, is excellent against burnings and inflammations, either with wounds or without, to bathe the place grieved with, and especially for that inflammation in the breast, which the vulgar call an ague.

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2. SwellingsCLM-0017661850 index

   The fresh leaves, laid upon swellings, dissolve them, and stay the inflammation.

   QUO-001133Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the ConcordanceCopy permanent linkCopy citation
3. WoundsCLM-002150

   and therefore the decoction, or distilled water of the leaves, is excellent against burnings and inflammations, either with wounds or without, to bathe the place grieved with, and especially for that inflammation in the breast, which the vulgar call an ague.

   QUO-000680Papers 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

Quotations are verbatim from the 1850 text, line breaks joined. Modern research and the European regulator’s verdict on each claim are on the Concordance page, kept apart from this historical record.