Ribes uva-crispa
HRB-0140Entry “GOOSEBERRY BUSH” in the 1850 textNot in the 1652 first edition: added by Culpeper in 1653 or by a later editor up to 1850
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.
as also St. Anthony’s fire.
The berries, while they are unripe, being scalded or baked, are good to stir up a fainting or decayed appetite, especially such whose stomachs are afflicted by choleric humours:
The young and tender leaves break the stone, and expel gravel both from the kidneys and bladder.
The decoction of the leaves of the tree cools hot dwellings and inflammations;
The ripe Gooseberries being eaten, are an excellent remedy to allay the violent heat both of the stomach and liver.
The berries, while they are unripe, being scalded or baked, are good to stir up a fainting or decayed appetite, especially such whose stomachs are afflicted by choleric humours:
The young and tender leaves break the stone, and expel gravel both from the kidneys and bladder.
All the evil they do to the body of man is, they are supposed to breed crudities, and by crudities, worms.
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.