Oldcook : garden of medicinal plants, photos from Salagon Museum

The "remedy-plants" of the medieval pharmacopoeia originated from an intuitive and empirical knowledge mingled with the popular beliefs. The plants were to be used alone (Platearius' simple medicine) or combined with other plants, spices or even mineral products (composed medicine of the Nicolas antidote book). Medicinal herbs were prescribed by the doctor, the apothecary, the herbalist or the barber-surgeon. Many faith healers also knew how to use the plants with the power of healing.

Pierre Lieutaghi said : The remedies carry the signatures of the sickness or the part of the body for which they are meant. There were beliefs regarding the analogy between the distinctive features of a plant and the symptoms of a sickness: lungwort, a plant with leaves spotted white, would treat the lungs.

Translator : Jean-Marc Bulit

Common vervain

Verbena officinalis is 35 to 80 cm tall, with small lilac coloured flower. Just as clary sage, vervain was a medieval panacea (universal remedy) :

Platearius recommended to hang the root around the patient's neck to heal swelling of the neck, to wear the vervain made in a crown against headaches, to give it grinded in powder against chest achings. Vervain heals spider bites (wine), rabid dog or snake bites (plaster of leaves), jaundice, terce fever and ague.

Vervain, sorcerer's herb or sacred herb was used for magic or divinatory practice. Platearius has such a recipe : To get the love of a man, oint your hands with the juice of vervain then with them touch the one you want to be loved by.

Rosemary

Rosemary from Drôme, photos J.Bouchut.
An evergreen shrub reaching heights of 1.50 m, this plant of the mint family was in relation with the cult of the dead in the Roman civilisation.

Ramon Llull, a catalan doctor of the 14th century, is the first to have depicted distillation of rosemary. In the Middle Ages, Rosemary was mostly used as a cordial, a diuretic drink, a tonic for the nerves and a digestive. Rosemary got its share of fame starting in the 17th century with Queen of Hungary water : antirheumatic, made with rosemary flowers, distilled and fermented with honey, allegedly invented by Queen Isabelle (14th century).

The blooming tips are harvested in spring and used to make antispasmodic tea. Rosemary wine is a stimulant for the convalescent and the overworked as well as a remedy against liver illnesses.

Pot marigold

photo above - Salagon.
A pretty yellow orange flower (calendula officinalis) which has become an ornemental plant in our modern gardens. Called solsequium (that which follows the sun) in the Latin of the Middle Ages, this plant of the sunflower family was both a medicinal and a magic plant. Platearius warns his readers : Some, who have experienced it, but shouldn’t be believed, say that anyone who shall anoint himself with the juice of this herb and southernwood before going to bed in the evening will find himself displaced to another place in the morning.

Pot marigold has excellent skin healing qualities which have been re-discovered by homeopathic medicine. Tea made with pot marigold flowers can be used against the flu, bronchitis and pneumonia.

Saint John's wort

Saint John's wort has large yellow flowers and was traditionally picked on Saint John's day (June 24). It was also called after Saint John in France in the Middle Ages before being called "millepertuis", meaning a thousand holes, because its leaves are dotted with many transparent spots (oil pouches) that you can observe under the light.

Saint John's wort was known as a diuretic and a hepatic remedy and as a "devil-chaser" against evil spells.

It is still used in popular medicine today, as an oily maceration against skin burns, wounds and ulcers. In homeopathic medicine hypericum perforatum (the scientific appellation) is used particularly in case of trauma of nerves.

Common mallow

Malva sylvestris or the common mallow is a plant with a hairy stem and mauve flowers, that blooms between june and august around villages and land rich in nitrates. The Romans would eat its young sprouts : Cicero who loved it got an indigestion from it and Pline used its juice against feeling faint. Platearius recommended to bite down on clary sage roots in case of a toothache and to oint oneself with clary sage sap mixed with olive oil against bee bites.

Clary sage has laxative qualities (young sprouts in salad) and calms inflammations in the mouth. It is also used in case of coughing or bronchitis.

Clary sage

A medicinal plant considered a panacea (universal remedy) during the Middle Ages, Salvia (from the Latin salvare : to save) sclarea, clary sage is also called "toute-bonne". Hot and dry, according to hippocratic classification, clary sage is stimulating and antispasmodic. It is also good for healing skin cuts.

Platearius said : a sauce made of clary sage, parsley, vinegar and a touch of pepper whets the appetite that has been lost because of cold spirits in the stomach. Clary sage wine originates from the Middle Ages. Clary sage was also used in cookery : Maître Chiquart proposes a recipe he called "cold sage" and clary sage is one of the ingredients of the "green sauce".