Potentilla reptans
HRB-0076Entry “CINQUEFOIL, OR FIVE-LEAVED GRASS; CALLED IN SOME COUNTIES FIVE-FINGERED GRASS” 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.
Some hold that one leaf cures a quotidian, three a tertain, and four a quartan ague, and a hundred to one if it be not Dioscorides;
as also inflammations, and St. Anthony’s fire, all imposthumes, and painful sores with heat and putrefaction, the shingles also, and all other sorts of running and foul scabs, sores and itch.
or among other herbs to cool and temper the blood and humours in the body.
The roots boiled in milk, and drank, is a most effectual remedy for all fluxes in man or woman, whether the white or red, as also the bloody flux.
as also bruises or hurts by blows, falls, or the like, and to stay the bleeding of wounds in any parts inward or outward.
The same also boiled in wine, and applied to any joint full of pain, ache, or the gout in the hands or feet, or the hip gout, called the Sciatica, and the decoction thereof drank the while, doth cure them, and eases much pain in the bowels.
as also bruises or hurts by blows, falls, or the like, and to stay the bleeding of wounds in any parts inward or outward.
As also for all lotions, gargles, infections, and the like, for sore mouths, ulcers, cancers, fistulas, and other corrupt, foul, or running sores.
The juice or decoction taken with a little honey, helps the hoarseness of the throat, and is very good for the cough of the lungs.
and taken for thirty days together, cures the falling sickness.
It is an especial herb used in all inflammations and fevers, whether infectious or pestilential;
As also for all lotions, gargles, infections, and the like, for sore mouths, ulcers, cancers, fistulas, and other corrupt, foul, or running sores.
The juice or decoction taken with a little honey, helps the hoarseness of the throat, and is very good for the cough of the lungs.
as also inflammations, and St. Anthony’s fire, all imposthumes, and painful sores with heat and putrefaction, the shingles also, and all other sorts of running and foul scabs, sores and itch.
It is an especial herb used in all inflammations and fevers, whether infectious or pestilential;
The juice hereof drank, about four ounces at a time, for certain days together, cures the quinsey and yellow jaundice;
The juice hereof drank, about four ounces at a time, for certain days together, cures the quinsey and yellow jaundice;
The juice or decoction taken with a little honey, helps the hoarseness of the throat, and is very good for the cough of the lungs.
The juice hereof drank, about four ounces at a time, for certain days together, cures the quinsey and yellow jaundice;
The roots are likewise effectual to help ruptures or bursting, being used with other things available to that purpose, taken either inwardly or outwardly, or both;
as also inflammations, and St. Anthony’s fire, all imposthumes, and painful sores with heat and putrefaction, the shingles also, and all other sorts of running and foul scabs, sores and itch.
The root boiled in vinegar, helps all knots, kernels, hard swellings, and lumps growing in any part of the flesh, being thereto applied;
As also for all lotions, gargles, infections, and the like, for sore mouths, ulcers, cancers, fistulas, and other corrupt, foul, or running sores.
as also bruises or hurts by blows, falls, or the like, and to stay the bleeding of wounds in any parts inward or outward.
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.