Asarum europaeum
HRB-0017Entry “ASARABACCA” in the 1850 textIn Culpeper’s 1652 first edition
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 Mars, by Culpeper. A traditional astrological assignment, kept apart from the modern evidence; it is not a finding.
What it does, in Culpeper: PurgeMakes you vomit
being steeped in wine and drank, it helps those continual agues that come by the plenty of stubborn humours;
The leaves and roots being boiled in lye, and the head often washed therewith while it is warm, comforts the head and brain that is ill affected by taking cold, and helps the memory.
the roots purge more gently, and may prove beneficial to such as have cancers, or old putrified ulcers, or fistulas upon their bodies, to take a dram of them in powder in a quarter of a pint of white wine in the morning.
being boiled in whey, it wonderfully helps the obstructions of the liver and spleen, and therefore profitable for the dropsy and jaundice;
the roots purge more gently, and may prove beneficial to such as have cancers, or old putrified ulcers, or fistulas upon their bodies, to take a dram of them in powder in a quarter of a pint of white wine in the morning.
being boiled in whey, it wonderfully helps the obstructions of the liver and spleen, and therefore profitable for the dropsy and jaundice;
being boiled in whey, it wonderfully helps the obstructions of the liver and spleen, and therefore profitable for the dropsy and jaundice;
The leaves and roots being boiled in lye, and the head often washed therewith while it is warm, comforts the head and brain that is ill affected by taking cold, and helps the memory.
The truth is, I fancy purging and vomiting medicines as little as any man breathing doth, for they weaken nature, nor shall ever advise them to be used, unless upon urgent necessity.
the roots purge more gently, and may prove beneficial to such as have cancers, or old putrified ulcers, or fistulas upon their bodies, to take a dram of them in powder in a quarter of a pint of white wine in the morning.
nor much beating, for the finer powder provokes vomits and urine, and the coarser purgeth downwards.
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.