Bishop’s-Weed

Ammi majus

HRB-0038Entry “BISHOP’S-WEED” in the 1850 textIn Culpeper’s 1652 first edition

Open in the Concordance

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.

Substance of concernFuranocoumarins: the juice on skin burns in sunlight.EFSA: BergaptenEFSA’s list of substances, not a danger rating. Checked 26 October 2026.

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: 4, under 4 headings

  1. Blows (black and blue, marks of)CLM-000249
    being mixed with honey and applied to black and blue marks, coming of blows or bruises, it takes them away;
    QUO-000215Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  2. Bowels (obstructions of)CLM-000277
    It digests humours, provokes urine and women’s courses, dissolves wind, and being taken in wine it eases pains and griping in the bowels, and is good against the biting of serpents;
    QUO-000241Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  3. BruisesCLM-0003571850 index
    being mixed with honey and applied to black and blue marks, coming of blows or bruises, it takes them away;
    QUO-000215Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  4. WindCLM-0024491850 index, p. 25
    It digests humours, provokes urine and women’s courses, dissolves wind, and being taken in wine it eases pains and griping in the bowels, and is good against the biting of serpents;
    QUO-000241Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance

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.