Mellilot, Or King’s Claver

Melilotus officinalis

HRB-0192Entry “MELLILOT, OR KING’S CLAVER” 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 concernEFSA: Coumarin, coumarins, dicumarolEFSA’s list of substances, not a danger rating. Checked 26 October 2026.

Culpeper’s claims about it: 10, under 10 headings

  1. ApoplexyCLM-000120
    as also to strengthen the memory, to comfort the head and brain, and to preserve them from pain, and the apoplexy.
    QUO-000100Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  2. Brain (to strengthen)CLM-000340
    as also to strengthen the memory, to comfort the head and brain, and to preserve them from pain, and the apoplexy.
    QUO-000100Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  3. Dimness of SightCLM-0022881850 index, p. 115
    The juice dropped into the eyes, is a singularly good medicine to take away the film or skin that clouds or dimns the eye-sight.
    QUO-001413Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  4. InflammationsCLM-000933
    Melilot, boiled in wine, and applied, mollifies all hard tumours and inflammations that happen in the eyes, or other parts of the body, and sometimes the yolk of a roasted egg, or fine flour, or poppy seed, or endive, is added unto it.
    QUO-000709Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  5. Memory (to strengthen)CLM-001335
    as also to strengthen the memory, to comfort the head and brain, and to preserve them from pain, and the apoplexy.
    QUO-000100Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  6. StomachCLM-001619
    It helps the pains of the stomach, being applied fresh, or boiled with any of the aforenamed things;
    QUO-001066Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  7. SwellingsCLM-001817
    and also in poultices for the same purpose, and to assuage swelling tumours in the spleen or other parts, and helps inflammations in any part of the body.
    QUO-001163Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  8. TumoursCLM-001878
    Melilot, boiled in wine, and applied, mollifies all hard tumours and inflammations that happen in the eyes, or other parts of the body, and sometimes the yolk of a roasted egg, or fine flour, or poppy seed, or endive, is added unto it.
    QUO-000709Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  9. Tumours — (hard)CLM-001889
    Melilot, boiled in wine, and applied, mollifies all hard tumours and inflammations that happen in the eyes, or other parts of the body, and sometimes the yolk of a roasted egg, or fine flour, or poppy seed, or endive, is added unto it.
    QUO-000709Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  10. UlcersCLM-001973
    It helps the spreading ulcers in the head, it being washed with a lye made thereof.
    QUO-001246Papers 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.