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  • Tussilago farfara L. Asteraceae. Coltsfoot. Distribution: Europe, N. Africa, W & N Asia . Culpeper (1650) writes: ‘Tussilago. Coltsfoot. ... they are admirable good for coughs and consumptions of the lungs, shortness of breath etc. It is often used and with great success taken in a tobacco pipe, being cut and mixed with a little oil of Annis seeds.’ It is hepatotoxic genotoxic and carcinogenic due to the pyrrolizidine alkaloids that it contains. It should not be taken internally (Medicines Control Agency, 2002). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Healthy eating / Department of Health.
  • Healthy eating / Department of Health.
  • Primula veris L. Primulaceae. Cowslip, Herba paralysis Distribution: W. Asia, Europe. Fuchs ((1542) quotes Dioscorides Pliny and Galen, with numerous uses, from bruises, toothache, as a hair dye, for oedema, inflamed eye, and mixed with honey, wine or vinegar for ulcer and wounds, for scorpion bites, and pain in the sides and chest, and more. Lobel (1576) calls them Primula veriflorae, Phlomides, Primula veris, Verbascula. Like other herbals of the 16th and 17th century, the woodcuts leave one in no doubt that Primula veris was being written about. However, other translators of Dioscorides (Gunther, 1959 with Goodyear's 1655 translation
  • Borago officinalis (Borage, Star flower)