Prunus spinosa
HRB-0296Entry “THE BLACK THORN, OR SLOE-BUSH” 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.
the lask of the belly or stomach, or the bloody flux, the too much abounding of women’s courses, and helps to ease the pains of the sides, and bowels, that come by overmuch scouring, to drink the decoction of the bark of the roots, or more usually the decoction of the berries, either fresh or dried.
as also to cool the heat and inflammations of them, and ease hot pains of the head, to bathe the forehead and temples therewith.
the lask of the belly or stomach, or the bloody flux, the too much abounding of women’s courses, and helps to ease the pains of the sides, and bowels, that come by overmuch scouring, to drink the decoction of the bark of the roots, or more usually the decoction of the berries, either fresh or dried.
But the distilled water of the flower first steeped in sack for a night, and drawn therefrom by the heat of Balneum and Anglico, a bath, is a most certain remedy, tried and approved, to ease all manner of gnawings in the stomach, the sides and bowels, or any griping pains in any of them, to drink a small quantity when the extremity of pain is upon them.
the lask of the belly or stomach, or the bloody flux, the too much abounding of women’s courses, and helps to ease the pains of the sides, and bowels, that come by overmuch scouring, to drink the decoction of the bark of the roots, or more usually the decoction of the berries, either fresh or dried.
The leaves also are good to make lotions to gargle and wash the mouth and throat, wherein are swellings, sores, or kernels;
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.