Holly, Holm, Or Hulver Bush

Ilex aquifolium

HRB-0161Entry “HOLLY, HOLM, OR HULVER BUSH” in the 1850 textNot in the 1652 first edition: added by Culpeper in 1653 or by a later editor up to 1850

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 concernBerries: children get sick from about five, adults from 20-30; Culpeper's purge dose is a dozen. No deaths on record.EFSA: menisdaurinEFSA’s list of substances, not a danger rating. Checked 26 October 2026.

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

Culpeper’s claims about it: 2, under 2 headings

  1. Bloody FluxCLM-000229
    but if you dry the berries, and beat them into powder, they bind the body, and stop fluxes, bloody-fluxes, and the terms in women.
    QUO-000197Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  2. CholicCLM-000469
    The berries expel wind, and therefore are held to be profitable in the cholic.
    QUO-000397Papers 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.