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  • Cistus incanus ssp creticus Juss. Cistaceae. Rock Rose. Distribution: Crete. Interesting symbiosis with fungus called Tuber melanosporum which increases nutrient absorption for the plant and inhibits growth of other plants in the vicinity. It is a source of the resin ‘labdanum’ (a.k.a. ‘ladanum’) used in perfumes (similar smell to ambergris), as is Cistus ladanifer. It has no medical uses now, and such use was dwindling even in the 18th century. In the 16th century (Henry Lyte’s 1575 translation of Rembert Dodoen’s Cruydeboeck of 1554) its uses were described (directly copied from Dioscorides’ Materia Medica (70AD)) as: ‘Ladanum dronketh with olde wine, stoppeth the laske [periods], and provoketh urine. It is very good against the hardness of the matrix or mother [uterus] layde to in the manner of a pessarie, and it draweth down the secondes or afterbirth, when it is layde upon quicke coles [hot coals], and the fumigation or parfume thereof be received up into the body of women. // The same applied to the head with Myrrhe and oyle of Myrrhe, cureth the scurffe, called Alopecia, and keepeth the heare [hair] from falling of [sic], but whereas it is already fallen away, it will not cause the heare to growe agayne. // ...' and goes on in this vein about its uses for pain in the ears, and removing sores and scars and other things. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Origanum dictamnus L. Lamiaceae Dittany of Crete, Hop marjoram. Distribution: Crete. Culpeper (1650) writes: ‘... hastens travail [labour] in women, provokes the Terms [menstruation] . See the Leaves.’ Under 'Leaves' he writes: ‘Dictamny, or Dittany of Creet, ... brings away dead children, hastens womens travail, brings away the afterbirth, the very smell of it drives away venomous beasts, so deadly an enemy is it to poison, it’s an admirable remedy against wounds and Gunshot, wounds made with poisoned weapons, draws out splinters, broken bones etc. They say the goats and deers in Creet, being wounded with arrows, eat this herb, which makes the arrows fall out of themselves.' Dioscorides’ Materia Medica (c. 100 AD, trans. Beck, 2005), Pliny the Elder’s Natural History and Theophrastus’s Enquiry into Plants all have this information, as does Vergil’s Aeneid where he recounts how Venus produced it when her son, Aeneas, had received a deadly wound from an arrow, which fell out on its own when the wound was washed with it (Jashemski, 1999). Dioscorides attributes the same property to ‘Tragium’ or ‘Tragion’ which is probably Hypericum hircinum (a St. John’s Wort): ‘Tragium grows in Crete only ... the leaves and the seed and the tear, being laid on with wine doe draw out arrow heads and splinteres and all things fastened within ... They say also that ye wild goats having been shot, and then feeding upon this herb doe cast out ye arrows.’ . It has hairy leaves, in common with many 'vulnaries', and its alleged ability to heal probably has its origin in the ability of platelets to coagulate more easily on the hairs (in the same way that cotton wool is applied to a shaving cut to hasten clotting). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Ambrosia altera.
  • Asphodeline lutea Rchb. Yellow asphodel, King's spear, Hastula regia. Hardy rhizomatous perennial. Distribution Mediterranean and Caucasus. It is the flower of the dead, as Homer writes that it carpets an area in the gloomy darkness of the underworld (Hades), in Greek mythology where the souls of the dead are found. However this may be a misinterpretation of the Greek where 'Asphodel' has been read instead of 'ash-filled'. In the etymology of flower names, it is suggested that the yellow 'daffodil' is a corruption of French or Flemish 'de asphodel' (both ex Steve Reece, 2007). An Aristotelian epigram, refers to it growing on tombs: 'On my back I hold mallow and many-rooted asphodel ...' The asphodel was sacred to Persephone, goddess of the underworld, who was seized and wed by Hades, god of the underworld, and taken to his kingdom. Her disappearance brings the winter, and her reappearance each year, the spring. The only reliable source of information about its early medical uses is, probably, Dioscorides although the plant in his De Materia Medica may be A. ramosus or A. albus. He gives its properties as diuretic, induces menses, good for coughs and convulsions, an antidote to snake bite, applied as a poultice for sores of all sorts, and in compounds for eye, ear and tooth pains, and to cure alopecia and vitiligo, but induces diarrhoea and vomiting and is an anti-aphrodisiac. Fuchs (1542), as Ruel’s commentaries (1543) note, makes a big mistake as he has Lilium martagon as his concept of A. luteus. Ruel only illustrates its leaves and roots, calling it Hastula regia (Latin for King’s spear) but Matthiolus's Commentaries (1569 edition) has a reasonable woodcut also as Hastula regia (1569). Dodoen's Cruydeboeck (1556) does not mention or illustrate Asphodelus luteus. L'Escluse's French translation Histoire des Plantes (1557) follows the Cruydeboeck. Dodoen's Latin translation Stirpium Historia Pemptades Sex (1583) adds A. luteus with text and woodcut, with no uses. Henry Lyte's (1578) translation illustrates Asphodelus luteus as Asphodeli tertia species and 'Yellow affodyl' (vide etymology of 'daffodil') and also does not describe any uses for it. Gerard's translation The Herbal (1597 and 1633) continues the muddle and does not give any uses for this plant. Parkinson's comments (1640) on the lack of medicinal properties of asphodels, refer to quite different plants coming from wet areas in Lancashire, Scotland and Norway . He calls them pseudoasphodelus major and minor which he writes are called Asphodelus luteus palustris by Dodoens, and not 'King's Spear' which he illustrates with a good woodcut of A. luteus and calls it Asphodelus luteus minor. Once herbals started to be written in northern Europe, the knowledge of the arid loving, Asphodelus luteus of south east Europe was lost. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Pedanii Dioscoridis Anazarbei De medicinali materia libri sex / Ioanne Ruellio Suessionensi interprete.
  • First edition of Bencao Gangmu; Chinese, 1590
  • The British herbal and family physician to which is added a dispensatory for the use of private families / By Nicholas Culpepper.
  • Seplasivm. The compleat English physician: or, the druggist's shop opened. Explicating all the particulars of which medicines at this day are composed and made. Shewing their various names and natures, their several preparations, virtues, uses, and doses, as they are applicable to the whole art of physick, and containing above 600 chymical processes ... In X. books / By William Salmon.
  • Pharmacologia, seu manuductio ad materiam medicam. In qua medicamenta officinalia simplicia, hoc est mineralia, vegetabilia, animalia earúmque partes in medicina [sic] officinis usitata, in methodum naturalem digesta succinctè & accurate describuntur, cum notis generum characteristicis, specierum synonymis, differentiis & viribus. Opus omnibus medicis, philosophis, pharmacopoeis, chirurgis, & pharmacopolis utilissimum. / A Samuele Dale.
  • Pharmacopoeia Collegii Regii Medicorum Edinburgensis.
  • Physicas Hildegardis : Elementorum, fluminum aliquot Germaniae, metallorum, leguminum, fructuum, & herbarum: arborum, & arbustorum: piscium deni[que], volatilium, & animantium terrae naturas & operationes : IIII. Libris mirabili experientia posteritati tradens. Oribasii medici de simplicibus libri quinque. Theodori physici dieta, docens quibusnam salubriter utendum, uel abstinendum. Esculapii liber vnus, de morborum, infirmitatum, passionum[que] corporis humani caussis, descriptionibus, & cura.
  • Histoire generale des drogues, traitant des plantes, des animaux, et des mineraux, ouvrage enrichy de plus de quartre cent figures en taillédouce tirées d'après nature; avec un discours qui explique leurs differens noms, les pays d'où elles viennent, la maniere de connoître les veritables d'avec les falsifiées, et leurs proprietez. Où l'on découvre l'erreur des anciens & des modernes / par le sieur Pierre Pomet.
  • Histoire generale des drogues, traitant des plantes, des animaux, et des mineraux, ouvrage enrichy de plus de quartre cent figures en taillédouce tirées d'après nature; avec un discours qui explique leurs differens noms, les pays d'où elles viennent, la maniere de connoître les veritables d'avec les falsifiées, et leurs proprietez. Où l'on découvre l'erreur des anciens & des modernes / par le sieur Pierre Pomet.
  • An account of the foxglove, and some of its medical uses: with practical remarks on dropsy, and other diseases / By William Withering.
  • Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum / cvm expositione Arnoldi de Villanova. Noviter impressvs.
  • The garden of health, containing the sundry rare and hidden vertues and properties of all kindes of simples and plants, together with the maner how they are to be used and applyed in medicine ... against divers diseases and infirmities most common amongst men / Gathered by ... William Langham.
  • Culpeper's [!] family physician ... The English physician enlarged / containing 300 medicines, made of American herbs. Being an astrologo-physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation. Likewise, a variety or receipts.
  • Histoire generale des drogues, traitant des plantes, des animaux, et des mineraux, ouvrage enrichy de plus de quartre cent figures en taillédouce tirées d'après nature; avec un discours qui explique leurs differens noms, les pays d'où elles viennent, la maniere de connoître les veritables d'avec les falsifiées, et leurs proprietez. Où l'on découvre l'erreur des anciens & des modernes / par le sieur Pierre Pomet.