Ethnobiology of the Mongol Empire:
Medicinal Items Mentioned and Used in the Huihui Yaofang, a Yuan Dynasty Medical Encyclopedia of Near Eastern Medicine for Chinese Users
- N. Anderson
Dept. of Anthropology
University of California, Riverside
gene@ucr.edu
www.krazykioti.com
Introduction
The “Silk Road,” whatever one may think of its modern name (bestowed by F. Von Richtofen in the 19th century), was an information superhighway as well as a trade network. As an information route, it flourished notably under the Mongols. Among the most impressive flows was medical knowledge. Chinese medical classics were translated into Persian and published in Iran; west Asian medical, nutritional, and health-related knowledge flooded into China.
Probably the most impressive single example was the Huihui Yaofang, a medical encyclopedia of Near Eastern medicine, compiled under the Yuan Dynasty for Chinese doctors to use. It is in classical Chinese with Arabic and Persian drug names neatly and accurately added. It reflects an astonishing degree of knowledge of west Asian and Galenic medicine. It is evidently based on Central Asian encyclopedias, probably including lost ones but also showing enough resemblances to sources like Al-Samarqandī (see below) to prove its Central Asian background.
Only about 1/8 of the original survives. It has been edited and published by Y. C. Kong (1996). Dr. Paul Buell of the Max Planck Institute has prepared a draft translation, with some assistance from me on botanical identification. Dr. Buell’s draft translation is complete and accurate, but needs editing, for which there is currently no available time; interested scholars can email me or Dr. Buell for the draft.
Kong and his collaborators—including Shiu-Ying Hu, the world’s leading expert on China’s ethnobotany—have identified most of the medicinals. We have found the rest, with a very few exceptions.
In what follows, I list the substances with their modern biological classification and with brief summaries of their ascribed medical values in classical Greek, Arab, Jewish, Central Asian, Indian and Chinese medicine, using the standard references (discussed in detail below).
A total of around 381 entries appears below (not counting synonyms and several completely unidentifiable items, which would bring the total to approximately 416). This does not translate to 381 species, because there are entries for generic things (“dung,” “soil”) and some entries that cover several species of plants that seem similar and were apparently used similarly. The actual total of identifiable species (or substances) is 287 plants, 68 animals and animal products, and 26 minerals. In some cases multiple substances are derived from one species; in others, we are not sure of which species was actually used in the HHYF and thus include data for two or three similar ones. I have tried to make one entry correspond to one taxon as listed the HHYF. In many accounts I have included data on related species when such data are clearly relevant (e.g. when several similar species are used in similar ways in Central Asian medicine, as with oreganos, smartweeds and many others). However, when different species within a genus have different names in the HHYF, as with cinnamon relatives, mints, and Prunus, I have given separate accounts to each named category.
I can do no more than follow the identifications in Kong’s edition (Kong 1996) of the HHYF, including the various papers republished there. However, some of these identifications are almost certainly wrong (see e.g. Launaea below). Further work is sorely needed. Fortunately, most of the Arabic, Persian and Chinese names are well known and apply to well-known herbal and animal medicinals.
It is striking to note how many of the plants in the HHYF are still used, and proven by biomedical research to have actual value.
The plant family assignments given herein are not always those given in earlier sources. When possibly I follow Hu Shiu-ying’s great work on Chinese food plants (2005). Recent research, especially genomic and cladistic work, has dramatically revised many earlier family alignments. The lily family, in particular, was once known as “the Smith family of the plant world”; there were once thousands of “lilies” only very dubiously related. This family has now been broken up into several tightly-defined groups that are known to be actual lineages. Everyone knew the lilies were a mess, but no one knew quite what to do about it, until modern genetics and chemistry gave them the tools.
I have tried to be conservative on this, not accepting unproven changes. Where confusion would be certain and problematic, because the changes are particularly recent, I have included the traditional family names in parentheses after the modern ones. (The very old, long-abandoned names “Compositae” for Asteraceae, “Labiatae” for Lamiaceae, “Cruciferae” for Brassicaceae, and “Umbelliferae” for Apiaceae are used in the oldest literature. I have not bothered to indicate this below.)
Species and genus names are given in standard current versions, which may need revision in some cases. Dominik Wujastyk (2003:xxxvii) is not alone is complaining not only about the difficulty of finding scientific names for Asian herbs, but also about the lack of taxonomic agreement about names even when the identifications are certain. However, there is a reason for changes in Latin nomenclature. Some names are just plain wrong. Others were (mis)applied by scientists who didn’t realize someone had named the plant already. Most often, research shows that a plant is more different from, or more similar to, another plant than was previously realized. In Wujastyk’s example, Nardostachys jatamansi, Indian spikenard, was once classed in the genus Valeriana, but turned out to be too different to fit in that genus. Other names have also been applied to it but are not valid. At least scientific names are consistent and are based on something. The Sanskrit, Arabic, Chinese, English, and other names that have been used for Nardostachys are also confusing, as is often the case. Vernacular names are usually far too inconsistent to be very useful, though the Chinese did achieve a commendable consistency in herbal usage; Li Shizhen’s taxonomy is quite comparable to the best European taxonomy of his time in its systematic consistency. China lacked only a Linnaeus.
There is no question about the names—in Latin, Arabic, or Chinese—of common plants like fennel and coriander. However, in folk practice, common names are regularly applied to anything of the same genus as the “correct” plant, and even very different plants may be lumped under one name according to appearance. This became particularly problematic when New World crops came to Asia, because they were all too often given the name of some common native plant, leading to endless confusion. The Chinese transferred the name of an obscure variety of millet to maize. Guavas were “foreign pomegranates,” pineapples were “foreign jakfruit,” and so for countless other species. All too often the word “foreign” is dropped in ordinary usage. In much of southeast Asia, chile (Capsicum annuum) replaced the completely unrelated and dissimilar long pepper (Piper longum) in spice use, and thus took over its name—for instance, lada in Malaysia and Indonesia. Mercifully, the HHYF dates to an earlier time, but we can see the same principle operating: often a Chinese name was used for a Near Eastern one labeling a plant of the same genus. We are left wondering if the Chinese plant itself was substituted. For example, recipes calling for quince use the Chinese name of the Chinese quince; we have no idea whether they used that species, or used the Near Eastern quince under the same name, or both.
Sources Used and Summarized
Hu: refers to Hu’s table, pp. 490 ff in the HHYF edition, of when plants are first mentioned in Chinese herbals. (She gives traditional dates for those. The actual dates of the entries in question may be later, since the Chinese, like modern medical writers, revised their medical textbooks every so often.)
From here onward, sources are listed, and utilized in the text, in chronological order of the material they treat: Ancient Egypt first, then the Greeks, and then the Muslim and Jewish sources in order by year, then Nadkarni’s Indian remedies, and finally Li’s Bencao Gangmu.
Material in parentheses is ENA’s commentary.
Manniche: Lisa Manniche’s An Ancient Egyptian Herbal brings together the relevant lore from the old papyri. I have briefly summarized pre-Greek uses. Greek medicine was introduced with Alexander the Great, if not before, and became dominant.
Theophrastus: Theophrastus, a student a Plato and Aristotle, compiled the first known botany textbook, a superb and thorough overview. In some areas, notably timber, his work is up-to-date enough to need few revisions today. He practiced ethnobotany 2200 years avant la lettre by asking mountain and island folk about their plants and plant uses; he bunched together in a brief section the material about which he had a healthy skepticism, such as the idea that mandrake root harvest required one to draw three circles around the plant with a sword, and for a second piece one must dance around the plant talking of erotic love (Theophrastus 1926:II, 257). Unfortunately for our purposes here, his section on medical uses is short; possibly much is lost, or possibly he ran out of time. I have drawn on a few accounts where the plants are identifiable and the uses specified in some detail.
Theophrastus was unknown in western Europe until the Renaissance, being “translated from Greek into Latin by Teodoro of Gaza (c. 1398-c. 1478)” (Pavord 2005:146). There is no evidence that he was any better known in Mongolia.
Athenaeus, in The Deipnosophists (1928-1941), quotes Theophrastus and others on edible plants and medicine, but in snippets too short to be of any value here. The very long book is purportedly a record of a long dinner spent discussing foods, but is merely a bit of scholarship by quotation; no dinner could possibly be that dull, surely?
Dioscorides: Dioscorides shows a fascination with plants that are diuretic, emmenagogue, abortifacient, and curative of poisoning. Snakebite especially was an obsession, emphasized far beyond any believable role it may have had in Roman Empire pathology. Countless plants are given as snakebite cures. By modern standards, none of them works. This stands in contrast to the diuretics and abortifacients, many or most of which do work.
One wonders how all this could be sustained. How could so many plants be cited for snakebite, when none actually functions against venom? Probably the Greeks, like many people today, did not well distinguish venomous from nonvenomous snakes, and listed as “good for snakebite” anything that relieved a nonvenomous bite.
Skin diseases also feature largely in his perspective. This makes more sense; skin conditions are very common, and easily relieved (if not always cured) by commonly available plant materials. The modern Yucatec Maya have a vast number of skin remedies, because they have a vast number of skin problems. They explain that one never knows what plants will be around when one is suddenly wounded or burned in the field, and so one must know all sorts of plants that can provide first aid. Moreover, some remedies work for one condition, some for another. The ancient Mediterranean surely had similar problems and needs.
Fits, convulsions, and pains rank next. Cures for fevers and other classic infectious-disease syndromes are notably fewer. He describes herbs in concrete terms, rarely in theoretical except to say that some are “warming”; most of these do indeed feel warming, often because they stimulate blood flow to the skin. A few are cooling. The theories of Galen are far from Dioscorides’ pragmatic soldier’s approach.
This relative listing of concerns evidently provides much insight into what were, in Dioscorides’ day, considered to be the common problems. Perhaps they were of special concern to soldiers in the field.
Like herbalists everywhere (at least everywhere that the family occurs), Dioscorides uses many mints (Lamiaceae). This family does indeed contain a striking number of medically active substances, including many strong antibiotics. More notable is his—and the Greco-Roman world’s—fondness for Apiaceae (carrot family, including celery, dill, and other common flavorings). A vast variety is recommended, and many rank among his cure-alls. Apiaceous seeds often contain digestion-aiding oils, and the resins of many have medical effects. Still, one wonders how the value of Apiaceae became so emphasized.
Available is Robert Gunther’s 1934 edition of the translation by the great English botanist John Goodyer. Goodyer translated the book in 1652-55 but never published it, and indeed it has never been published except in this one edition. Identifications are often tentative, though many have worked on the problem; the 1934 book includes an appendix listing identifications assembled by Charles Daubeny in 1857 (Gunther 1934:661-679) and provides updated ones. These seem generally accurate but I have made silent corrections in some cases, especially for new scientific usages. Some identifications are clearly wrong (see e.g. under Pinus below) and many must be only guesses.
Goodyer inconsistently transliterated Greek ypsilon as “y” or “u.” To make comparison with scientific and English names easier, I follow standard botanical usage, making it “y” when it is a stand-alone vowel or first vowel in a diphthong and “u” when the second element in diphthongs. (I thus avoid the French system, widely used today in English as well as French, in which ypsilon is “u” and the long-u sound is “ou.”)
Galen of Pergamon (130-200 AD): Galen’s book on food (2003) adds very little to the specifics of herbal application and use. He usually added his theoretical classification system to the general herbal knowledge of the time (better found in Dioscorides, Pliny, etc.).
Anthimus (1996) has even less of note here; he gives many interesting notes on uses and digestibility, but little about medicine.
Paul of Aegina (625-690) maintained the herbal and Galenic traditions in Byzantium, and was a key link to later medicine.
Levey: Martin Levey’s translation of medical formulary of Al-Kindī (801-873) (Levey 1966). Levey goes well beyond mere translation; his enormous ethnobotanical appendix covers everything from ancient Sumer, Babylon, and Egypt to modern India. Below, however, we focus on Al-Kindī’s own uses. His remedies are overwhelmingly for external application; sores, skin problems, and mouth and eye conditions were obviously major problems then, as they are today in the Middle East. Many of the other remedies are for stomach ailments, and are usually good homely remedies and mild but effective herbal cures of the sort familiar to many who grew up in mid-20th century America.
Notable is the overlap between Al-Kindī’s drugs and the HHYF’s. Few drugs are found in one but not the other. One is also struck by the similarity with the remedies recorded from Morocco by Bellakhdar et al. in the late 20th century, and visible now in such venues as the great bazaar in and around the center of Marrakesh. Notable, also, and not unrelated, are the high percentage of Al-Kindī’s drug names that have gone over into English, or, alternatively, are from the Greek and thus cognate with Greco-English and/or scientific names. Greek kentaurion became Arabic qant.ūriyūn, Latin and scientific Centaurium, English “centaury.”
Al-Bīrūnī (973-1048): This Central Asian polymath, one of the greatest Islamic scholars, produced Al-Bīrūnī’s Book on Pharmacy and Materia Medica, edited and translated by the Pakistani Yunani hakim (doctor) Mohammed Said (1973). Al-Bīrūnī spent time in India and wrote an excellent account of that subcontinent, and thus learned about Indian drugs, though it is not clear if he had done so when he wrote this herbal. Even without full Indian treatment, his herbal is one of the more astonishing medical sources of all time. An incredible work listing some 850 simples, it updated Dioscorides and added Near Eastern discoveries and philologies. Unfortunately for our purposes, it is much more an economic botany than a pharmacology. Details on medicinal uses are fewer than on wood uses, local varieties, edibility, and even poetic and metaphoric uses. When he does give medical uses, he often cites them to Dioscorides or to Rāzī. It is clear from the entries that he intended this book to be used as a supplement to their herbals. It provides names in many languages, background information, and substitutions, but generally refers the reader to them (sometimes to Galen, Mesue, and others) for the medicinal uses. When he does give medicinal uses, it is often because the plant is obscure. Such obscure plants did not generally become known to the Mongols or Chinese, and thus are outside our scope here. Serious comments on medical uses almost stop about half way through, resuming with Letter 20. (A copyist at the end of 19 in the version used by Mohammed Said says the previous copyist must have been “insane,” because there were so many mistakes and omissions). Minor comments and names are ignored in the present work. Said’s translation is an astounding accomplishment in itself, involving not only translation and annotation but identification of the plants, animals and minerals mentioned; moreover, Sami Hamarneh provides an appendix reviewing al-Bīrūnī’s life and work and providing notes on all the dozens of authors drawn on by al-Bīrūnī in the book.
Here and elsewhere, Said and Hamarneh have provided a very large percentage of the English-language material on medieval Near Eastern medicine, just as Fred Rosner has done on the medieval Jewish material (see Maimonides 1979 below). Without them and a very few others (notably Michael Dols and Martin Levey) we would know very, very little about this huge and important tradition.
Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, 980-1037). Avicenna, born near Bukhara, was probably the greatest medical man between Galen and the “scientific revolution” of the 16th-17th centuries. Avicenna’s Canon was the basic medical book of the entire western world for centuries. Its second volume is an herbal. Unavailable in English till very recently, this book was translated by the Hamdard Delhi group of Yunani doctors and edited and published by Laleh Bakhtiar (Avicenna 2012). (At the same time, the first volume was translated and published [Avicenna 2013]; it had appeared before in a poor summary.) Avicenna’s drug records are summarized below.
An interesting point about Avicenna’s herbal, and to an extent al-Bīrūnī’s, is their awareness of Indian drugs. In Central Asia, they had much more opportunity to learn of these.
Like many later authorities, Avicenna uses very many drugs for the same purposes, and usually uses any given drug for many purposes. In particular, there is a standard list of uses for drugs considered hot and dry in the humoral system—as most active drugs are. They are used externally for swellings and wounds, and for earaches and eye troubles; internally, for respiratory problems and stomach aches. Many, perhaps most, of them do indeed work for these conditions—but some are much better than others. Some could be combined, but that is not often mentioned. I assume that the situation is the same as that which my Maya friends in the Yucatan Peninsula explained to me: You have to know all the plants that treat a given condition, because you never know which plants will be available when the need arises.
Like Dioscorides, he recommends an astonishing number of abortifacients—many of which are well-known in modern medical literature (and are often quite dangerous). Some of this was precautionary—warning women what to avoid—but at the very least these early societies, with their supposedly pronatalist policies, felt a clear need to know what would terminate a pregnancy.
Avicenna has notes on 226 of our medicinals: 182 plants, 32 animals, 12 minerals. This is by far the most mentions in any authority, Li Shizhen being the runner-up with 203.
Nasrallah: Nawal Nasrallah (2007) appends to her translation of a medieval Arab cookbook an enormous, comprehensive glossary of Arabic terms for foods, including medicinal items. She includes considerable material from medieval medical herbals. Some material is summarized below, but most of it duplicates the accounts in the more complete translations cited herein.
Graziani (1980): A general study of medieval Arab medicine as seen in the works of Ibn Jazlah (d. ca. 1100). He provides an appendix listing major drugs; in this he not only gives some of Ibn Jazlah’s uses, but provides considerable valuable comparative material, including otherwise impossible to find folk uses of today.
Maimonides (1135-1204): Maimonides (1974) lists several uses, mostly of foods, closely following Galen and Dioscorides. Maimonides’ incredible dictionary of drug names (Maimonides 1979), an early ethnobotany, is, alas, lacking in medical detail.
Levey and Al-Khaledy (1967): Translation and annotation of the important herbal of Shams al-Dīn Al-Samarqandī (ca. 1250-ca. 1310), the closest well-studied source in time and space to the HHYF. Most of the common drugs below are used by Al-Samarqandī, but it is hard to tell exactly how in most cases, since he usually provides only a long list of ingredients in an introductory paragraph or for a formulary recipe. It would be tedious to mention all cases, so only the most important ones are inserted in the species accounts below. Al-Samarqandī used carrot, cinnamon, cress, cucumbers, cyperus, frankincense, ginger, gourds, ironwood, lavender, lettuce, malabathrum, mint, myrrh, nightshade, peppers (black, cubeb, long), sagapenum, sarcocol, senna/cassia, scammony, sebesten, sesame, tarragon, wormwood, the mineral remedies, and most of the other commoner remedies described in the species accounts below, presumably in the usual ways. He also used several remedies not found in what we have of the HHYF, including whey (“milk of cheese”), which he recommends highly.
Lev and Amar: Efraim Lev and Zohar Amar (2008) have studied the Cairo Genizah documents concerning medicine and extracted a vast amount of medical lore, including discussion of 278 materia medica items—interestingly close to the figure of 286, the figure for the medieval Levant, and also the average of modern folk medicine lists they could discover for the Middle East (but the modern Cairo markets produced fully 504 items, raising that average considerably). They provide an extremely valuable review of materia medica in the Greek-Arabic-Jewish tradition from Theophrastus to the present (pp. 55-86). The entries under particular drugs review all early sources. This is the best and most valuable single compendium of medieval Near Eastern medications, but most of the information in it is from—or at least in—the other sources cited here, and it seems preferable to cite to them.
The discussions of drugs show that the Genizah physicians tended to use almost any drug for almost any condition. (So did Avicenna. So did medieval European doctors; see Wallis 2010, passim.) In particular, almost every animal, mineral and vegetable was used for the most common complaints—eye problems, stomach upsets, skin pathologies of every kind, kidney problems, hemorrhoids, swellings, and so on. One becomes weary of reading the same long list of uses for every drug, even those—and there are many—that have no conceivable value for any of the stated purposes. Clearly, the idea was to try everything and hope something worked.
Notable, here and in the classic early sources, is the use of virtually everything for eye medicine. This is explained by the fact that the Near East’s extreme dryness, extreme dustiness and extreme crowding have always caused eye problems and diseases to be a major concern here—far more so than in countries with less extreme conditions. Evidently, anything that could soothe the eye, let alone actually treat diseases there, was pressed into service.
The level of sharing with the HHYF is astonishing. Some 200 of the 278 are shared, including all the mjaor ones. Only very local items (spiny lizards, rare desert plants, and the like) are not.
Kamal: Kamal’s modern-day encyclopedia of Islamic medicine contains a great deal about pharmaceuticals. It also has considerable data on bites, cancers, etc.
Fattening drugs: Kamal cites Avicenna: Almonds, hazelnuts, nigella, camphor, pistachois, cannabis (presumably the seeds), and pine seeds. Make into pills and take with wine. These are not only fattening but aphrodisiac (Kamal 1975:117).
Conversely, slimming can be aided by centaury, birthwort, gentian, germander, parsley, sumac, and other herbs (118).
Cauterization: Major section; for many purposes. Local burning seems to have been used for almost everything. A huge section covers almost every condition.
Compounds: see p. 164-189.
Bellakhdar et al. (1991): A study of modern Moroccan folk and traditional medical uses. They recorded 231 species and 567 indications. Digestive remedies were the most frequent, followed by cosmetic and skin uses. (I have had the opportunity to observe this medicinal tradition in the field, visiting traditional drug markets and observing medicinal plants in the Atlas; thanks to Dr. M. Ouhammou for superb ethnobotanical guiding.) The findings here show great similarity to Kamal’s Egyptian data and lesser but real similarity to ancient and medieval uses. There is a truly astonishing degree of overlap between modern Morocco and medieval North China in species and uses! There would surely be more if more of the HHYF had survived.
Ghazanfar (1994): This book is a wonderful ethnobotany of Arabia. Ghazanfar is based in Oman, an exceptionally enlightened Arab country as far as scholarship goes. She gives full nomenclature, usage, and treatment directions, especially for Omani practice. She gives very detailed descriptions of treatments and treatment methods. Particularly unique and valuable are her findings on women’s medicines, especially in relation to childbirth; this is an area almost totally inaccessible to male researchers today (less so in medieval times, when gender attitudes were generally more liberal in Arabia than they are now). She also has a great deal on aphrodisiacs—some two dozen plants being noted—and one wishes she had indicated whether any of these are used by women. This book would repay much more comparative research, but I am limiting citations to very basic nomenclature (no strictly local names) and uses. Interesting here, especially in comparison with Levey, are the number of plants in the HHYF that are in Arabic medicine but not in her book—usually because they are not native to desert Arabia, but are Greek plants (often extending into northern Arabia and montane Iran).
Lebling and Pepperdine (2006): This valuable book on Saudi Arabian folk medicine is a beautifully illustrated popular account (a “coffee table book”) rather than a thorough ethnobotany, but it is rigorous and valuable as far as it goes. It records in detail many household remedies. Again, the presence of a female researcher (Donna Pepperdine) allowed otherwise inaccessible material on women and childbirth to be recorded. Among the most interesting findings here is the apparently universal use of spices and herbs to restore strength and tone after delivery; this seems a close equivalent to the Chinese custom of “doing the month” by eating foods rich in protein, iron, calcium and other mineral nutrients.
Mandaville (2011): James Mandaville’s superb recent ethnobotany of the Bedouin of Arabia. (See also his earlier work, Mandaville 1989.)
Another reference with many modern folkloric uses of these plants is Chishti (1985); it adds little to what is extracted below, but has some interesting brief formulas that may be compared with the much longer ones in the HHYF.
Madanapāla Nighantu: An ayurvedic materia medica compiled for King Madanapāla (a central Indian king) in 1374 A.D., and thus almost contemporary with the HHYF. It has been edited and translated by Vaidya Bhagwan Dash assisted by K. Kanchan Gupta (1991). They provide good annotations and give the Sanskrit and many transliterations. Disease name translations are only approximate; the Sanskrit is given so that one can check the actual medieval indications. I have not provided the full transcriptions. In general, few of his remedies are in the HHYF. Many congeners are, but I have not summarized their qualities here.
The book discusses the various values of different types of waters, as does the YSCY and some of the Arab and Persian sources. It also discusses alcohol and alcoholic drinks at length—something that is of course rather thinly represented in Islamic works, and is surprisingly thin in Chinese sources also.
Interesting is the amount of sharing with the Near Eastern sources from slightly earlier. Evidently, yunani (“Ionian,” i.e. Galenic) medicine had influenced ayurveda enormously by this time, and ayurveda had influenced the Near East at least as much. Outside our purview here, but very interesting in this text, are the many recommendations about foods, seasonal regimen (food, sex, exercise, etc.), and other matter, reasonably close to the Near Eastern works.
Dash’s identifications are not always perfect; Psidium guajava is given for one name (not in our database), but it did not reach India until the 16th century.
Nadkarni (1976): A standard English-language source on Indian traditional materia medica. A huge collection of remedies, both ayurvedic and “unani” (i.e., yunāni, Greek). These are not distinguished, but the unani remedies are essentially the Arab-Persian ones. The book is a good source not only for Indian uses of the HHYF plants, but also for Persian ones, which are often not described in the Arabic sources. Of course, ayurvedic remedies moved into Arabic and Persian practice quite freely, too.
The number of uses of plants in Indian medicine is truly noteworthy; everything with any visible effect seems to be used for a vast range of purposes, and, notably, a huge range of unlikely plants are “aphrodisiac.” Medieval cookbooks and sexual manuals from India confirm this tendency to see aphrodisiacs in every garden.
More recent work by Vaidya Dash on India (Dash and Laliteshkashyap 1980) and Tibet (Dash 1994) has been consulted also.
Dash: Vaidya Bhagwan Dash, Materia Medica of Tibetan Medicine (1994), a wonderful compilation. Material is culled from Tibetan sources, primarily the Sman gyi min gi rnam grans. It seems close to ayurvedic medicine—not surprising, because it is basically a translation of an 8th-10th century Kashimiri work, translated into Tibetan around 1013. Dash reports that it is still very influential in Tibet and neighboring areas, including Mongolia (p. xvi). Dash’s own ayurvedic background is clearly relevant to his interpretations, and he seems to have selected sources particularly influenced by ayurvedic medicine.
Notable is the use of essentially all spices in Tibet to treat poisoning. Possibly they were used as emetics, as they are today, but a deeper belief seems implied.
In spite of the clear evidence of Tibetan influence on the Mongols and on the HHYF, the number of Tibetan medicines not in the HHYF is astonishing. The HHYF remedies truly are Near Eastern, with a solid Dioscoridean core. Tibet has had rather little influence on the pharmacopoeia of this book.
We have also consulted Clifford (1984; overlaps with or based partially on Dash). We have had the benefits of discussion with Denise Glover, whose work on Tibetan medicinal plants is extensive but unpublished.
Eisenman: Eisenman et al., Medicinal Plants of Central Asia: Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan (2013), provides an excellent, thorough reference to medicinal herbs of high central Asia; gives the actual chemistry, and contemporary herbal uses. A fascinating note is the very large number of plants used medicinally in these two countries, many of them also used all over the western world, including Cnicus benedictus (blessed thistle) and Datura stramonium as well as Salvia (sage), Verbascum (mullein), and Silybum (milk thistle), that did not find their way into the HHYF. This seems truly remarkable. Conversely, medicines widely used in China and also in these parts of Central Asia, such as Codonopsis, did not make it to the west. These observations present interesting historical problems. Eisenman et al. list many biochemical findings for each plant; note that these are Russian or Central Asian research, often old and often preliminary, and are not to be taken as current demonstrated biochemical effectiveness! I have thus kept them strictly separate from my much more brief notes (in parenthesis) on current uses.
Sun: Sun Simiao, Recipes Worth a Thousand Gold, a great Tang Dynasty medical compilation (appearing 654 AD). Sun is quoted literally, since his work is beautifully concise and clear, and since it has not previously been translated or made available to non-Chinese readers. The translation here is by Sumei Yi, done in 2007 when she was a graduate student at the University of Washington, used by her kind permission; I have edited and commented on it. Material in red needs translation checking.
Li: Li Shizhen’s Bencao Gangmu, the famous Chinese herbal compilation that remains definitive in traditional Chinese medicine. (NB: “traditional Chinese medicine,” with small letters, is the traditional medicine of late imperial and early 20th-century China. “Traditional Chinese Medicine,” with capitals, is a specific derivative of it, developed by the Communists after 1950, and quite different in countless ways from the older version.) Li mentions some 203 of the medicinals in the HHYF, including at least 46 western ones and 15 from India and southeast Asia. Used here is the Foreign Languages Press edition (2003), which overtranslates illness names (using English equivalents that do not exactly correspond to the traditional categories) and is otherwise problematical. However, awaiting a major study and improved translation, this version is satisfactory, and better than trying to deal with the Chinese given my lack of medical experience. One very useful thing done by the Foreign Languages Press edition is capitalizing the humoral illness-causal categories (Hot, Cold, Wind, etc.) to separate them from literal heat, cold, and so on (but also from the Galenic hot/cold qualities of the ingredients themselves). I follow this edition in using “toxic” and “nontoxic” to translate you du “having poison” and wu du “lacking poison,” but actually the terms mean something closer to “poison-potentiating” and “safe in most applications.” According to Chinese medicine, a plant that you du may be poisonous or it may simply bring out poisons in other medicines or in a patient’s body itself. I have drawn the line at following their mistranslation of “balanced” as “plain”; balanced herbs are neutral between heating and cooling—they balance yang and yin.
Li usefully quoted all the major herbals he could find, so that we have data going back to early times. Outside of a small study of the 7th-century “Recipes Worth a Thousand Gold” (Sun 2007), there is little translation or specific study of these materials (cf. Unschuld 1986 for their history). We await much-needed studies of Chinese herbals, especially Tao Hongjing’s monumental 6th-century works, which remain not only untranslated but quite little studied in the western world.
Striking is the comparison of Li’s mammoth compilation with the far more modest Greek and Arab herbals. For instance, he has 14 large pages (in the translation) on various aconites, as opposed to a page or so in the western sources. There is no room even to summarize adequately Li’s enormous detail; mere suggestions of the wealth are given below.
A problem for Chinese doctors of the old school was the enormous range of conditions treated by almost any important drug; how would one decide? Usually, standard mixtures were prepared. But, also, my rather long experience with ordinary Chinese pharmacists and herbalists is that they knew quite well which drugs really, visibly, empirically worked for a given condition, and did not worry about the countless others specified for that condition in the old herbals. They would give artemisia for worms, or watercress for scurvy, for instance—not the minimally effective nostrums mentioned in Li’s more obscure sources. Not all their remedies worked, but at least they maximized their odds given what they could know.
It is worth noting that Li repeats with a straight face and proper respect the more ridiculous stories in the old herbals and in the folk wisdom of his own time, but is conspicuously silent about them when writing in his own voice to evaluate what an herb really does. This is exactly equivalent to Dioscorides’ (and his Arab followers’) “some say.” However, even the long-suffering Li does sometimes denounce truly outrageous stories (see under Cinnamomum cassia).
A notable thing about Li’s book is that he clearly recognizes taxonomic reality, putting e.g. Artemisia species together, Brassica species together, and so on. The Chinese names do not reflect this; Chinese simply gives a quite separate name to every common plant, and tend to assimilate the rest to superficially similar common ones, with an appropriate adjective—so the pomegranate, when the Chinese acquired it from the western world, became the “seedy willow,” and then the South American guava (introduced by the Spanish or Portuguese) became the “foreign seedy willow.” Li sometimes arranges plants according to these ad hoc names, as in treating the ma “hemp” plants—sesame (hu ma), flax (ya ma) and marijuana (da ma)—together although they are very dissimilar and Li must have seen they were botanically very different. Usually, however, he seems to have a pre-Linnaean view of taxonomy, similar to that in Europe in his time.
Meserve: Ruth Meserve (2004) has published a short list of Mongol medicinal plants collected by Ralph Chaney on the Roy Chapman Andrews expedition to Mongolia in 1925. She provides extensive commentary. The most interesting thing about the list is how few plants from it are on the list below. Only a few widespread species are shared. Clearly, the HHYF was concerned solely with transmitting received medical wisdom; unlike the Yinshan Zhengyao, it did not incorporate specifically Mongol knowledge.
In addition to the above sources, Chipman (2010) summarizes a pharmacist’s manual from Cairo, ca. 1260. It mentions many (perhaps most) of the medicines herein, and gives uses and formulas, as well as tests for genuineness. The material is taken from the classics, and has nothing significant to add, but is interesting to show what was standard practice in the developed west as the Mongols were expanding.
For the following list, Uphof (1968) and Wikipedia always provide faithful backup, especially useful when no one else gives the authorities and families. Tobyn et al (2011) provide a great deal of information, not summarized here, on post-medieval uses of herbs in European medicine; most of the herbs are in our list below.
There is a huge modern literature on medical botany, and all or nearly all the plants mentioned herein have been the subjects of extensive studies, mostly chemical and taxonomic; a simple computer search turns up many, and there is no reason to go into this literature.
Material in parentheses, beyond simple word queries and synonyms, are my own observations from wide experience with Chinese and other folk medicines.
The Medicinals
Acacia gummifera Willd., Fabaceae. Bunk (Persian).
Manniche: A. nilotica for vermifuge, swellings, sores, wounds, etc., and even in bandages on broken bones (the tannin might ease the pain and swelling).
Dioscorides: I-133, akakia, A. vera [and probably other spp.]. Binding and cooling. Juice of leaves (and/or fruit) for eyes, sores, skin conditions, etc. Stops excess menstruation and related conditions (presumably leucorrhea). Stops diarrhea. Wash for eyes. Gum, with egg, good on burns. Also used to make black hair dye.
Levey: A. arabica gum for lesions, teech, cough, eyes, etc.
Al-Bīrūnī: Astringent, haemostatic, darkens hair, good for skin, good in eyes for conjunctivitis and redness, used for leucorrhoea, etc. Some of this obviously refers to the bark extract rather than, or as well as, the gum.
Avicenna: A. arabica, shaukah, qaraẓ, aqāqiā. Gum of Arabic trees is hot; Egyptian cold and dry. Constricting. Very good for many external uses, including swellings. Roots and seeds of Egyptian acacia for healing joints. Acacia gums used for vision, coughs, sore throat, stomach, etc. A. nilotica (and probably other spp.) hot and dry, strengthening, clears skin, good for stomach, but disturbs the mind.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Usual uses; important in Al-Samarqandī’s herbal.
Lev and Amar: A. nilotica gum for eyes, headache, stomach, teeth, cleasning, fractures, etc. Less usual is a use as “a depilatory for hairy women” (p. 181), presumably as Persian wax is used today. Hot and dry. The highly astringent juice of acacia pods was used in sexual medicine “to constrict the glans and strengthen the penis, as well as in a preparation to restore virginity” (p. 181; i.e. to constrict the vagina to give the false impression of virginity). Other acacias of uncertain identity also used. Kamal: Sont, shokah; “anciently for heoptysis and ophthalmias” (28).
Bellakkhdar et al: ‘alk talh. For broncho-pulmonary infections; antitussive.
Ghazanfar: A. nilotica resin for cataracts; leaves for diarrhea; seed extract for diabetes; leaf paste for boils; smoke of pods for colds. A. senegal gum for many medicines. Several other species used locally.
Nadkarni: Acacia spp., gums astringent, demulcent, expectorant, etc.; for a vast range of uses; shoots, seeds, leaves for many uses also, most obviously depending on the tannins in them.
Li: A. catechu known only as an “earth,” a resin imported from far off.
(The powerful catechin tannins in acacia actually make it very effective for many medical uses. Various acacia products were officinal in the United States well into the mid-twentieth century.)
Aconitum ferox Wall., Ranunculaceae. Bish
Dioscorides: IV-78, akoniton eteron, Aconitum lococtonum and/or A. napellus, wolfsbane, to kill wolves.
IV-77, akoniton, probably Doronicum pardalianches, used to kill “Panthers and Sowes, and wolves, & all wild beasts” (Gunther 1934:475).
Al-Bīrūnī: Khāniq-al-namir. Aconitum lycoctinum. Poisonous. Kills wild animals. Discussion followed by a number of other poisons of dogs and wolves; species of Aconitum or other poisons; identifications unclear.
Avicenna: Deadly poison, but used for skin conditions, and very carefully taken for this also. A. lycoctonum very poisonous, too much so to use; only for poisoning wild animals.
Kamal: Akonit, or khaneq al-theb (“strangler of wolf”). A. napellus for poisoning, but also “sedative, antipyretic and sudorific” (29). For rheumatism, gout, cough, asthma.
Nadkarni: Root used for diaphoretic, diuretic, antiperiodic, anodyne, antidiabetic, antiphlogistic, antipyretic, narcotinc, sedative. Acrid and poisonous. Several other spp. mentioned.
Dash: A. heterophyllum cold, digestive stimulant, carminative, cures dysentery and parasites.
Eisenman: A. karakolicum and A. soongaricum taken in kumys, broth, etc., in spite of high toxicity, for tuberculosis and headaches and sore throats; externally for rheumatism and similar painful conditions. A. leucostomum used for heart arrhythmia. A.talassicum for rheumatism, malaria, veterinary medicine.
Li: A. carmichaeli, loulanzi: Bitter, pungent, toxic. Good for malignant dysentery, scrofula and Cold. Malignant sores and leprosy. Directions given.
- coreanum, baifuzi: Warming and usually considered toxic. Treats pains, stagnation of blod, face ailments, pathogenic Cold and Wind, etc. Tonifies liver.
- kusnezoffi, wutou: Several opinions on humoral qualities; all agree it is toxic. Used for fevers due to Wind, etc. Several pages of indications and formulas, most for dispelling Cold conditions (but also fevers and much else); one is warned of toxin, and Li gives a personal reminiscence of a friend who died of overdose.
- ochranthum, niubian: Minor use, largely to kill ectoparasites on people and animals.
(Well-known alkaloid toxins make this a dangerous medicine.)
Acorus calamus (Chinese form sometimes separated as A. gramineus Soland.), Acoraceae. Native
Manniche: A. calamus rhizome powdered for ant repelling, perfume, tooth powder, shampoo, etc., at least in later times and very likely in ancient times.
Dioscorides: 1-2, akoron, Iris pseudacorus, root for body pains, liver, ruptures, convulsions, spleen, eye medicine, poisoning.
1-17, kalamos euodes, Acorus calamus, root for kidneys/diuresis, hernia, reducing menstrual flow (as drink or pultice), cough (incl. smoke with terebinth resin), etc.
Levey: A. calamus, teeth; memory and mind cure.
Avicenna: Wajj. Persian agir. Hot and dry. Usual minor uses for hot dry drugs, plus use for stomach gas, improving complexion, treating convulsions and muscle rupture, pain of liver, abdominal pain, hernia, uterine pains, diuretic, emmenagogue, stimulant.
Lev and Amar: Stomach, colic, tonic.
Kamal: ‘Erq-aikar, al-wagg. simulant; for eyes.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, emetic, nauseant, stomachic, aromatic, expectorant, carminative, antispasmodic, sedative. In unani specifically, aphrodisiac; for sight, antipoison; for digestion, cold, coughs, nervous complaints.
Dash: Indigestion, appetite. Throat, etc.
Li: Changpu. Treats pain due to Wind, Cold, Humidity. Stops coughing, opens Heart orifice, etc.; very long list of indications. Cheers the spirit.
Baichang, A. calamus, receives much less attention. Apparently used as a poor substitute for the foregoing.
(Sweet flag still widely used medicinally, especially by Native Americans, the plant being circumpolar in distribution)
Adiantum capillis-veneris L., Polypodiaceae. Barsiyyawashan (Persian).
Dioscorides: IV-136, adianton, A. capillus-veneris, “is of force” for practically anything: asthma, dyspnoeia, pox, etc.; diuretic and emmenagogue; for spleen, stones, stopping diarrhea, curing poison, sores and boils; grows and restores hair; and even makes fighting-cocks braver when fed to them (Gunther 1934:527)!
Avicenna: Neutral tempering or slightly hot and dry. Dissolving, blood thinning, constricting. Ashes for baldness. Used for abscesses, tubercular lymph glands, malignant ulcers, dandrusff, itches. Internally for lungs, coiughs, stomach, urine, urinary calculi. Emmenagogue. Aspleenium hot and dry, diutant, dissolvent. Used for spleen. Also kidney and bladder stones.
Lev and Amar: kuzbarat al-bi’r, etc. Hair, purgative, snakebite, worms, stones, stomach skin. Expectorant. Stops hemorrhages, accelerates menstruation, diuretic. Asplenium onoperis for spleen (hence name) and hemorrhoids, intestines, etc. For melancholy and related conditions.
Nadkarni: Expectorant, diuretic, emmenagogue.
(Widespread tonic use continues today)
Aegle marmelos Correa, Rutaceae. Bull. BiLi.
Avicenna: Hot and dry. Diluent; blood thinning. Fruit bitter, piungent, constridtive, but soothing like honey.
Nadkarni: Cooling, alterative, nutritive. Fresh fruit is laxative. Unripe is astringent, digestive, stomachic. Pulp stimulant, antipyretc, antiscorbutic.
(Note that this is an example of an almost strictly Indian medicinal in the HHYF. The central Asian Avicenna must have learned of it from India, directly or indirectly. Indian contacts were deep and wide in central Asia in his time.)
Agaricus campestris L., Agaricaceae. ALiFong, AliHun; ghārīqūn
Dioscorides: III-1, agarikon. He thought it was a root, but he knew that at least some agarika grew on stumps like mushrooms. Binding, warming, for sores and ruptures and falls, for all respiratory conditions, liver, rashes, “womb stranglings, and sickly looks”; for spleen, stomach, blood, pains, epilepsy, constipation, snakebite; emmenagogue, and for “women suffocated in ye womb,” malarial shivering (Gunther 1934:232). Certainly useful, but we remain unsure what the term comprised.
Avicenna: Hot and dry. Dissolving and diluent of thick humors. Used for swellings, asthma (with wine), stomach ache, purging black bile and phlegm, fevers, insect bites. A different species, fuṭr or kashnaj, identified as Boletus luridus in our source, is cold; minor external uses. Notes poisonous mushrooms, which cause numbness, strokes, etc., and bear rapidly putrefying and sticky substances on the cap; these could be Amanita or a toxic Russula or other bolete.
Levey: Malaria, jaundice, stomach, liver.
Nasrallah: Sweet but turns bitter. Cures stomach-ache, diarrhea, etc.
Lev and Amar: Al-Kindī used it for malaria, intestines, liver. Maimonides: cleansing, expectorant. Hot and dry. Ibn Sīnā: for epilepsy and malaria. Other uses noted, including modern one to stanch wounds—presumably powdered (a use known from my own folk tradition).
Nadkarni: Tonic. A. ostreatus astringent.
Li: Moguxun. Reinforces Intestine and Stomach, dissolves phlegm and regulates qi, but mainly a food.
Agrimonia eupatoria L., Rosaceae. Ghafath. A FeiDi
Levey: Ghāfit. In electuary for jaundice, and phlegm.
Al-Bīrūnī: Notes some differences of opinion. Benign, incisive, detersive; slightly styptic. For falling hair, etc. Drunk (and/or applied?) for skin problems.
Lev and Amar: ghāfit. Poisons, stings, bites; liver, kidneys, eyes, cough, fever, jaundice—in short, the standard things for which the Near Eastern sages used almost every drug.
Kamal: astringent, tonic, antihelminthic. Leaves and root (only leaves mentioned for antihelminthic action).
Nadkarni: Aromatic, astringent, antihelminthic, diuretic. (Note near-identity to Kamal’s Egyptian uses.)
Eisenman: A. asiatica. Hemostatic. “Decoction of underground parts and dried stems and leaves is used” )p. 26) for gastrointensinal conditions; astringent; for rehumatism and verious external conditions. Flowers also.
Ajuga chamaepitys Schreb., Lamiaceae. Kamafitus (Gr), KeMaFeiTuSi or YaLaYiFeiJiLa, Ar
Dioscorides: III-175, chamaipitys, A. chamaepitys, ground pine. Rashes; liver, kidneys, being diuretic; aconite antidote; with figs for stomach; with honey etc. for purge; several other minor uses.
III-176, chamaipitys etera, ?Teucrium or Ajuga iva; chamaipitys trite, Passerina hirsuta. Uses as for 175. III-153, anthyllis, second type, may be A. iva; for kidneys and epilepsy, and as pessary for womb inflammations (with rose and milk). Used on wounds.
Eisenman: A. turkestanica for weight, hair growth, ulcers, burns, wounds. Several compounds shown to have anabolic and tonic activity.
Ajuga iva Schreb., Lamiaceae. ShuWuDa
Dioscorides: See above.
Bellakhdar et al: Shendgura. Antihelminthic, panacea (sic), and for intestinal disorders
Nadkarni: A. bracteosa astringent, aperient, diuretic.
Alectoria usneoides. Usneaceae. Ushnat, Ushna; includes also Usnea spp. and probably other lichens.
Dioscorides: I-20-21, bryon, Usnea sp., lichen. For pains of vulva; suppositories; etc. Used in perfumes and painkillers for its binding quality [medical or physical?].
Galen: Astringent.
Levey: Swollen spleen; eyes.
Vicenna: Ushnah. Hot, or possibly cold; dry. Relieves inflammations, swellings, etc. With medicinal oil for joints. Produces sleep if soaked in wine and taken. Clears vision. Stops vomiting; also for stomach, relieving gas, etc. Sitz bath relieves uteral pain.
Lev and Amar: Usnea sp., Parmeliaceae, ’ushna. Swellings, furuncles, stiffness, eyes, heartbeat, stomach, womb obstructions, menstruation, liver, womb pains, anaesthetic. Stops vomiting.
Li: Songluo, Usnea spp. Bitter, sweet, balanced, nontoxic. For malaria and some other serious illnesses.
(Useful, powdered, for stanching blood and the like, but the internal uses seem without any biomedical foundation.)
Allium cepa L. (including the var. ascalonicum), Alliaceae (Liliaceae). WenSuLi
Manniche: A. cepa, astringent. Stops excessive menstruation, bleeding; for mummification also. (Probably it had more astringent chemicals then than now.) Cooling (probably so considered because of the astringency).
Dioscorides: II-181, kromyon, A. cepa: appetite, thirst, bringing about vomiting and purging, stomach problems generally, hemorrhoids (usually as suppository apparently). Juice with honey for a very wide range of conditions. With chicken grease, given for diarrhea, hearing and ear problems, and many other conditions. With raisis or figs as plaster for sores. If sick, eating too many onions brings lethargy.
Galen: Onions in general. Bitter, heating. Thin the humors and cut viscid ones. Lose bitterness (i.e. spiciness) when boiled.
Levey: Squill, Urginea maritima, Ishqīl. Malaria, jaundice, ear, stomach, liver pains; seeds demulcent and stimulant. Kurrāth, the Near Eastern leek-like onion, for headache and hemorrhoids.
Avicenna: A. cepa, baṣal; pīāz in Persian. Drops of the juice in the nose to cleanse the head. Drops in ear for ringing, and heaviness of head, etc. Too much use harms the intellect and produces bad humors. In eye for cataracts; seeds with honey for corna. Minor uses internally and for piles. A. porrum, leek (actually a var. of A. cepa). ḥirbah; kurrāth; these are different varieties, and tame and wild ones are distinguished. Hot and dry to different degrees, by variety. Various external uses on wounds, ulcers, etc. Vapor of seeds for nosebleeds, and with cedar resin for tooth decay. Oral use cuases bad dreams. Used for ringing in ears, but bad for teeth and eyes. Used for asth,ma, etc. Seeds for coughing up blood, and with vinegar for spleen. Piungent and so irritates digestive tract; produces gas. Diuretic (leaves). Emmenagogue. Stimulate sexual desire. Various combinations for pains, etc. Urginea maritima, ishqīl or ‘unsul, hot and dry, for serious external uses (very burning and destroying), asthma, cough, spleen, stomach, diuretic, etc.
Lev and Amar: A. cepa, baṣal. Eyes, ears, paresis and weakness of sexual organs, aphrodisiac. Prevents vomiting. Strengthens memory and appetite. Externally, cleans wounds etc.; poultice. Maimonides held it a bad food, partly because he recognized its low caloric value—so he recommended it for weight-loss diets. A. cepa var. porrum, Near Eastern form, kurrāth, hot and dry, nutrition and for hair and skin; trivial uses. Urginea maritima, squill, bas.al al-far’, etc., for malaria, jaundice, intestines, liver, epilepsy, etc. (Highly poisonous and might have some antibacterial action.)
Kamal: A. cepa, “bas.al” in Arabic, for whitlows (poultice), rubefacient (rubbed over), peel for filiarisis but doubtful; many ancient Egyptian uses. A. porrum (leek; these too actually a var of cepa), kurratl, qurt, etc., for expectorant; asthma, cough, respiratory diseases; enema for constipation.
Bellakhdar et al: Common onion, bsal, antiasthmatic and used for skin diseases and dental hygeine; leek, zgebt l-korrat, basal l-korrat, for hair care.
Ghazanfar: Baṣāl. Juice for coughs, deafness, skin, stomach.
Madanapala: Palāndu. Sweet. Properties similar to garlic.
Nadkarni: Oil stimulant, diuretic, expectorant. Bulb emmenagogue; topically as stimulant and rubefacient. Roasted, demulcent, aphrodisiac, antiseptic.
Dash: Sweet, minor uses.
Eisenman: A. karataviense, bulb used for lungs and breath. A. suvorovii, very rare, pickled for spitting blood and tuberculosis. Also on skin for eczema, itch, etc. Neither of these has known biomedical compounds beyond ordinary allicin compounds.
Li: A. cepa. Hucong. Edible. Warming, dissolving, softening. General tonic. Allium nipponicum Fr. et Sav., Shansuan. One of a number of Allium spp. used for dissolving, warming, etc.
(Onion juice is slightly antiseptic, and the plant seems good for heart health.)
Meserve: A. fistulosum, “for loss of appetite” (Meserve 2004:79). Muich comparative material.
Allium sativum L., Alliaceae (Liliaceae). WuSuHuErDiRong
Manniche: Oddly not used in medicine (Nunn 1996 also notes this). Used for food.
Dioscorides: II-182, skorodon, A. sativum; leukoskorodon, A. ampeloprasum; ophioskorodon, A. scorodoprasum; elaphoskorodon, A. subhirsutum. The descriptions make the scientific identifications likely. Used (eaten, or drunk) for stomach problems of all kinds, boils, eyes, vermifuge, snakebites, arteries, coughs, lice and nits. Plaster, mashed, for snakebite, hemorrhoids, bites of mad dogs; burnt with honey, for eyes, hair loss, etc.; with salt and oil or honey for papules and sores and skin problems of all kinds; with “taeda” and frankincense for toothache; with fig leaves and cumin for bites of the “mygale”; leaf decocted or used for smoke, as emmenagogue; mashed with black olives for diuretic (Gunther 1934:189-191). Apparently any garlic will do for all these diverse uses.
Levey: Thūm. Pain in ears; suppuration, fistulas.
Avicenna: Thūm. Hot and dry. Laxative and stomachic. Oddly, eating it with mountain mint destroys lice and nits. External uses include ash with honey for shedding skin. For baldness, freckles, abscesses, skin ulcers, mites; with germander for malignant wounds. Expels blood (i.e. sanguine humor), yellow bile and black bile. Poultice with vinegar for muscoles. Cuases headache, butboiled for toothaches. Used for dandruff, and with egg yolk for cracks in the skull. With yok for eyes. For throat, cough, colds. Good for stomach. Hip bath of garlic leaves is diuretic and emmenagogue and helps expel placenta. Orally helps also. With honey-water for phlegm and worms. Purgative. Possibly anaphrodisiac, but helps produce semen.
Nasrallah: Hot; causes stomach-ache and thirst. Drying. Anaphrodisiac.
Lev and Amar: thūm. Both wild and tame used. (The wild would probably be a different species.) Cureall: bites, stings, inflamattions, eyes, lungs, worms, throat, coughs, toothache, skin, emmenagogue, stomachic, diuretic.
Kamal: thom, theriac-al-fuqara’, “theriac of the poor”: “stomachic, antipyretic, intestinal antiseptic, e.g. in cholera, food poisoning, enteritis and enteric fever. It is expectorant in whooping cough and asthma; prevents dental caries, diuretic, emmenagogue, carminative and aphrodisiac. Boiled in water or milk, the fluid is useful in colic and urinary stones. Externally it is rubefacient. As ear-drops it improves hearing. Externally it also removes the toe-corn.” (45). Oil antiseptic.
Bellakhdar et al: tuma. Antihelminthic,antirheumatism, urinary antiseptic, antidote. Used for pulmonary and digestive disorders and hypertension (this last presumably a modern use).
Ghazanfar: Thōm. Abdominal pain and colic, dandruff, diabetes, diarrhea, eyes, tuberculosis, bites and wounds.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Topically on bites and stings, bleeding, hair loss, warts. Taken for coughs, colds, diarrhea, fatigue, heart, stomach including vomiting. Eaten after childbirth, with spices.
Madanapala: Laśuna. Hot. Laxative, carminative, aphrodisiac, rejuvenating, nourishing; for hair, intellect, dyspnoea, cough, fever, anorexia, edema, piles, skin, colic, parasites.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, carminative, emmenagogue, antirheumatic, antihelminthic, alterative.
An amazing ayurvedic paean of praise to garlic, dating to the 6th century, is translated by Dominik Wujastyk (2003:154-160). This document is so overwritten, and in such a delightful style, that one suspects humorous irony, but clearly someone really thought garlic was the great cureall. Very significantly for our purposes here, the document occurs in a manuscript transcribed—and much later (re)discovered—in Kucha, Xinjiang.
Dash: Pungent, sweet, hot, promotes strength and virility. For intellect, voice, complexion and eyesight. Helps in healing fractures. For heart, fever, pain and other conditions in abdomen, constipation, skin, parasites, etc. A cureall.
Sun: Garlic (hu葫): spicy, warm, and poisonous. The spiciness will go to the five internal organs. So it dispels deteriorative ulcer (yongju癰疽) and cures (?chuang[匿蟲]瘡)[1]. It eliminates the noxious feng (fengxie風邪) and kills the poisonous qi expelled by a gu (gu duqi蠱毒氣). When the bulb has only one clove, it is best. The Yellow Emperor said, “If one takes raw garlic with salted herring (qingyu zhashi青魚鮓食), it will cause ulcer in his abdomen, or swelling in his intestines, or ache and hardness in the abdomen (shanjia疝瘕). If one has frequently taken raw garlic, he will hurt the qi of his liver when he is having sex. It will make one’s face lose color. In the fourth and eighth month, do not eat garlic. Otherwise, it will hurt the spirit (shen神) as well as the qi of the bladder. It will cause gasping and the feeling of being frightened (chuanji喘悸). It will cause the shortage of the qi around the ribs and the upper part of the side of the body (xielei qiji脅肋氣急). It will also frequently cause one to lose sense of his taste.”
Li: Dasuan, hu. Warming, nontoxic. Standard food. Helps digestion but large amounts are harmful (in various ways for various reasons, depending on authority quoted). Several pages of indications and recipes.
(Allicin, the acrid chemical released when garlic is injured, is a powerful antibiotic and antifungal, which is why the plant produces it on injury. Allicin is also stimulant. The medicinal value of this plant is very widely known and used. Allium spp., especially this one, may well be the most-used drugs on earth.)
- tuberosum Rottler, Alliaceae (Liliaceae). native. FaLaXiRong
Sun: Leek (jiu韭; this entry may include Chinese chives, Allium tuberosum): spicy, sour, warm, astringent, nonpoisonous. The spiciness will eventually go to the heart. It is good for the liver. It can be eaten frequently. It pacifies the five internal organs and eliminates heat in the stomach. It is not good for the sick. If one whose heart and stomach has frozen coldness (guleng固冷) eats it, his illness will be worsened. Its seeds mainly treat the discharge of semen in dreams (mengxiejing 夢泄精) as well as white-colored urine. Its roots can be boiled and the soup is nutritious for hair. The Yellow Emperor said, “The frost leek is frozen and cannot be taken when it is raw. Otherwise it will arouse the water stagnant for a long time (sushui宿水), and if one drinks too much, he will vomit water. In the fifth month, do not eat leek, which damages one’s taste and makes him short of strength. In the second and third month, it is preferable to eat leek, which is very good for the heart.”
Li: Not specifically mentioned, but evidently implied in the many long articles on Allium spp.; it would be another used for warming, softening, digestion, etc.
- victorialis L., Alliaceae (Liliaceae). native YiSiJiLi
Sun: Longroot onion (gecong格蔥): spicy, mildly warm, nonpoisonous. It gets rid of noxious poison caused by miasma (zhangqi瘴氣). If one has taken it for a long time, it is beneficial to the gall qi. It also strengthens the mind. Its seeds mainly treat the discharge of semen (xiejing泄精).
Li: Gecong. Pungent, warm, nontoxic. Usual Allium uses plus antiparasite action against worms, fleas, etc.
(A very common medicinal plant in east Asia; unknown in the old Near East. It is probably the “mountain onion” of some recipes in the HHYF, but see Veratrum.)
Aloe spp., incl. “Aloe vera L.” Asphodelaceae (Liliaceae). Introd. The name Aloe vera is invalid technically, because Linnaeus never made it really clear which aloe he was naming, and no one has been much clearer since. Thus it is not used in standard botany works. Hu identifies the HHYF plant as A. barbadensis Miller (her number 973). This is indeed the standard Chinese “aloe vera” (my observations as well as published sources), and also the Indian one (see Nadkarni), but other species are used elsewhere under the “aloe vera” name.
Manniche: Dubiously identified; possibly mentioned in a catarrh remedy.
Dioscorides: III-25, aloe, A. vulgaris. Juice, dried, for binding and drying. Produces sleep. For stomach cleansing, spitting blood, poxes, purge. For wounds and sores, including genital sores and cracks, hemorrhoids, eye sores, etc. With wine for falling hair; with honey and wine for tonsils and gums and mouth sores; roasted, for eyes. Dioscorides explains in detail how to tell the pure from the adulterated or counterfeit, indicating that this drug was (1) imported and (2) highly valued.
Avicenna: Notes 3 spp., Socotran (presumably A. socotrana), Arabian and Samangani. Socotra is best. Gum used. Hot and somewhatr dry. Constricting. Helps sleep. Put on scars, skin infections, ulcers, arthritis, etc., and for hair loss and swellings. With rose oil, rubbed on head for headaches. Purgative; used for stomach ache, etc. Arabian form causes spasms when taken internally. Worst on cold days, so avoid it then.
Levey: S.abir. In preparations for boils, abscesses, teeth, eyes, insanity and epilepsy, perspiration.
Lev and Amar: Eyes, inflammations, headaches; in compounds for insanity, epilepsy, sweat, abscesses, etc. Stomach, nervous system, liver. Maimonides: A. succotrina for heaemorrhoids, stomach, bleedig, wounds. Several modern uses noted, including usual uses on wounds and sore places, as purgative, intestinal, etc.
Kamal: ‘wud, sabr, lowah; genus in general. Aloin is stimulant, stomachic, laxative. For anemia, amenorrhea, atonic dyspepsia; jaundice, piles; antihelminthic. Powder dusted on wounds. The Arabs would have used Socotra aloes and other local products.
Bellakhdar et al: sibr, sibr sidqi, A. succotrina [a.k.a. socotrana] laxative, hypoglycemic, and for skin.
Ghazanfar: A. vera leaves for fever, headache, eyes. Several other species used for various similar purposes.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Diabetes, hair loss. Modern evidence of value for diabetes. Antioxidant.
Nadkarni: Cathartic, stomachic, tonic. Other Aloe spp. tonic, purgative, laxative, etc.
Dash: “A. barbadensis” [the traditional, shaky ID for “aloe vera”]: laxative, rejuvenating, for eyes, corpulence, strength, virility. Spleen, liver, fever, burns, eruptions, bleeding, skin diseases.
Li: Luhui. Besides the obvious external uses: Vermifuge, tooth soothing, treats restlessness and suffocation from Wind and Heat, dispearses Heat, etc. Poorly known in China at the time.
(Aloes of the small-sized “aloe vera” group are still used worldwide for their well-known and well-demonstrated value in healing the skin, especially from sores and burns. They are grown in gardens and houses everywhere, and are among the most widely used herbal medicinals. The HHYF in several places specifies Socotran aloes, which come from a quite different group of species peculiar to that island.)
Alpinia galanga L., Zingiberaceae. Lesser galingale (galangal). Introd. SaoWuLinZhang. Xolungan, Rolenzan (Farsi), khwalinjān
Levey: A. officinarum, khūlanjān, greater galingale. Stomachic; for sexual overindulgence; for breathing, teeth, fistulas. Both the name for this and for the lesser galingale are from Farsi khawlinjān.
Al-Bīrūnī: for dementia, citing, as so often, Rāzī.
Avicenna: A. officinarum, khalanjan, ec. Hot and dry. Useful in stomach, other very minor uses.
Nasrallah: Aphrodisiac, as well as digestive and breath-sweetening.
Graziani: A. officinarum, khūlanjan. Liver pain, digestion, stomachic, sciatica, easing urination (Ibn Jazlan). Ibn Butlān used it for sciatic vein, sweetening the mouth, strengthening cold stomach, increasing sexual power. Today in Iran, Iraq and Egypt as aromatic and carminative.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: As above. Minor.
Lev and Amar: khūlanjān, khawlanjān. Stomach including colic; tonic. Treats sex
addiction, strengthens respiration, improves virility, etc. Used in toothpaste.
Bellakhdar et al: A. officinarum, kudenjal, kolenjan; antitussive, stimulant.
Ghazanfar: A. officinarum in tea with cinnamon and cloves for colds, tonic, aphrodisiac.
Nadkarni: Aromatic, stimulant, stomachic, carminative. A. officinarum same.
Li: A. japonica, shanjiang. Pungent, hot, nontoxic. Treats pain with cold, malignant qi, etc.
(Stimulant and stomachic chemicals well known.)
Althaea rosea (L.) Cav., Malvaceae. Native
Theophrastus: II, p. 309. marsh-mallow (A. officinalis). For fractures; also in wine for coughs.
Dioscorides: III-144, malache agria, Malva sylvestris; malache kepaia, Alcea [=Althaea] rosea. Plaster for sores, stings, skin conditions, etc. Decoction for womb, stomach pains, poisonings, etc. Makes one vomit up poison.
III-163, althaia, Althea officinalis, marsh mallow. Taken for wounds, sores, skin problems, and similar conditions (including nerves). With grease or turpentine, applied to inflammations; also for womb, expelling afterbirth etc. Decoction of root in wine for dysentery, toothache, and many other conditions. Seed for skin conditions; also for bites, stings, etc.
Avicenna: A. officinalis, khiṭmī. Slightly hot. Rlaxant, drying, diluting, etc. External uses to soften, dissolve blood, mature boils, relieve skin conditions and joint pains. Poultice for swellings, edema, etc. Poultice on chest. Boiled down roots orally for inflammation of urinary tract, burning in intestines. Rub with vinegar and olive oil for insect bites.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: A. officinalis for few uses. Today for chest and bladder.
Lev and Amar: A. officinalis. Khaṭmī. Sciatica, varicose veins, liver, bile corruption, swellings, lung ailments, urinary tract burning, kidney stones, hot coughs, etc. Sweet, gooey root product used for lozenges, lotions and poultices. Also externally on all sorts of pains, abscesses, swellings, etc.
Kamal: Khatmiyah, khatmi, althea. A. officinalis: emollient, sedative. For throat inflammations. Enema for enteritis. Ear bath for ear infections. Powdered roots used in pills.
Ghazanfar: Flowers in tea for coughs.
Nadkarni: Seeds demulcent, diuretic, febrifurge. Roots astringent, demulcent.
Eisenman: A. nudiflora, dried flowers for diarrhea. Root and seed decoction for postnatal bleeding. Plaster of flower and leaf powder for tumors. Fresh stem on cuts. Roots and seeds diuretic tea. No demonstrated biomedical effect. A. officinalis, anti-inflammatory, for flu, sore throat, liver, urine, stones, cycstitis, tumors, prostatitis, joint pain.
Sun: Hollyhock/althea (wukui吳葵): it has another name, shukui蜀葵. It is sweet, mildly cold, smooth, and nonpoisonous. Its flower stabilizes the heart qi. Its leaves eliminates the heat caused by outside sources (kere客熱). It helps empty the intestines and stomach. It cannot be frequently taken, or it will slow one’s mind. If one is bit by a dog and then takes it, the wound will never recover.
Li: Shukui. Seeds, roots, stem, flower used. Cooling; disperses heat. Diuretic. Treats dysentery and a large number of other conditions and pains.
(A. officinalis, marsh mallow, has a sweet substance in the root that can be beaten up into a frothy white mass—the original of marshmallow candy, now made of spun sugar. It was originally medicinal, for the soothing purposes indicated by many authors above. Eisenman notes that it is used in biomedicine to treat eczema, itch, skin inflammations, and for metabolism—taken internally for all. Also used with other herbs for stomach and intestinal ulcers, colitis, dysentery, kidneys, etc. Action seems largely due to soothing compounds. Probably many of the above accounts refer to this sp., not rosea.)
Ambrosia maritima, Asteraceae. Bastard absinth, amrūsiyā. One mention in the Index.
Ghazanfar: Bronchial asthma; antispasmodic; diuretic. Contains chlorosesquiterpene lactones.
Ammi copticum. Nānakhwah. See Carum copticum.
Amomum spp. including A. racemosum Lam., Zingiberaceae. Hamama, qāqulla.
Dioscorides: I-14, amomon, begins by describing a bush, probably Cissus; then “that which commes from Pontus” fits Amomum subulatum or Elettaria cardamomum. Like many spice names, this one was reapplied from a non-spicy Greek plant to an Asian spice, but early enough for Dioscorides—that is, the late-edited version we have—to include both. The Amomum was “warming, binding and drying” and as a plaster could relax and ease pain, from eye conditions to scorpion stings. (Dioscorides was obsessed with scorpions; they must have been a major problem in the rural Greek world.) Decoction drunk for liver and kidneys, etc., and as antidote. Some of these uses are probably for the Cissus.
Levey: Amomum spp., qāqullah, in throat and mouth preparations, for hemorrhoids, for breathing, for stomachic.
Nasrallah: Heating, dry; more so than Ellettaria.
Lev and Amar: “palpitation, theriac, purgative, general tonics, indigestions, haemorrhoids, looseness of bowels, stomach ailments, and colic” (p. 101). Also wounds stings, eye problems, etc. Hot and dry (as it is today in China). Soporific, and for liver and kidneys.
Bellakhdar et al: Aframomum granum-paradisii, guza sahrawiya, stimulant, aphrodisiac.
Madanapala: A. subulatum, sthūlailā, for appetite, nausea, poisoning, mouth, head, vomiting, cough. Hot.
Nadkarni: A. subulatum and relatives, stimulant, carminative. For stomach, kidneys, etc.
(Amomum species have strong stimulant and carminative effect.)
Dash: A. subulatum, digestive, carminative, aromatic, for bad taste in mouth. Cleases uterus.
Amomum tsaoko Crevost & Lemarie. Native; another species, A. xanthioides Wall, probably included. Introd. HaZanErCDheShan. Egyp, Gaz is-sirk.
Li: These, and/or A. villosum, included in suoshami. A. tsaoko is usually called caoko is Chinese, as in the scientific name. Warming. Generally considered pungent. Nontoxic. Treats consumptive diseases, diarrhea and dysentery, and other Cold conditions. Long detailed account with many indications.
Ampelopsis cantoniensis Planch. Vitaceae. Possible but uncertain identification for one entry in the Index.
Anacardium, Anacardiaceae. See Semecarpus anacardium.
Anacyclus pyrethrum (L.) Link, Asteraceae. Pellitory-of-Spain. ‘Āqīr qarh.ā
Dioscorides: III:73. Paralysis, phlegm, toothache.
Levey: Blemishes, neck pustule, sore throat, teeth, insanity.
Avicenna: Būzīdān (Arabic and Persian). Hot and dry. Minor rubbing and massaging uses for soothing. Cleans out nose. Used for toothaches.
Lev and Amar: ‘āqir qarḥa, ‘ud qarḥ. Eyes, throat, insanity, pustules, teeth, headaches, stomach-ache, malaria, chills, paralysis, swellings, stings. etc. Hot and dry.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, sialogogue.
Anamirta paniculata Colebr., Menispermaceae. Mahizahrah.
Nadkarni: Seeds for night-sweats (tuberculosis). (Another case of a strictly Indian or Indo-Iranian drug in the HHYF.)
Andropogon schoenanthus L., A. nardus. Poaceae. Not in Ch med or native to Ch. YiJiHeiEr Gen for root, KeMaKuiYuXi, ZhaAKui(Ta)
Dioscorides: I:17. Probably the species he called sxoinos.
Galen: Astringent, diuretic.
Levey, Levey and Al-Khaledy: Idhkhir, lemon-grass. Kidneys. Modern uses for tumors, fevers, etc.
Lev and Amar: ’idhkhir. Kidneys, fever. Stones. Bleeding (flowers).
Bellakhdar et al: Antipyretic, diuretic. Idkir, obviously the source of “YiJiHeiEr,” which would have been pronounced almost exactly like idkir in Yuan times.
Nadkarni: Oil stimulant, carminative, antispasmodic, diaphoretic. Extensively used. Many other spp. of the genus used.
Dash: A. jwarancusa, bitter, cold, aphrodisiac, urinary.
Since lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) is not in the HHYF, it seems possible that the HHYF subsumes it under this name.
Androsace sp., Primulaceae. Jaft-afirid (Persian). ShuFuDiAFeiLiDi
There seems to be no mention of this plant as an herb anywhere in the standard sources (not even in Uphof). Very possibly a misidentification.
Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bge., Asparagaceae (Liliaceae). Native. YaErSa.
Li: Zhimu. Huge synonymy. Bitter, cold. Very large number of indications, and history of use going back to long passage by Zhang Zhongjing (Later Han).
Anethum graveolens L., Apiaceae. Dill. Introd. KeLuoYa. Morocco: Karwiya amja. (Note that these are names derived from caraway, not the Arabic word for dill.)
Levey: Shabath. In plaster for arthritis, and in remedy for kidneys and bladder.
Al-Bīrūnī: Shibthth. Cites Dioscorides as diuretic; for gripes and inflammation; palliative. Reduces hiccups. Palliates uterine pain; sitz bath. Seeds burnt for hemorrhoids. Galen gave it as hot and dry, resolvent, anodyne, soporific, matures inflammations, helps genitalia, soporific. Rāzī adds: very hot, too much so for people with hot temperament; useful for gas and lumbago. Other sources note galactagogue, etc.
Avicenna: Shibitt. Hot and dry. Externalliy, ash for ulcers; oil for nerve pain and other pains, on head for sleep, in ear for earaches. Dill leaves and seeds internally for breat milk production; hiccups; abdominal pain.
Graziani: Shibith. Used by Ibn Jazlah for brain diseases, nose, ears, and throat illnesses, and vomiting poison. Boiled with oil and water and drunk. Al-Kindī used it for limb problems, kidneys, bladder.
Lev and Amar: shibth. For arthritic limbs, kidneys, bladder, pain, breath, digestion. Emmenagogue. Carminatve.
Kamal: Shabat. “The seeds are stomachic, cardiac tonic, carminative and soporific. The ashes are antiseptic for sores” (57).
Bellakhdar et al. (1991): modern Moroccan use as aphrodisiac, stomachic, antiseptic. Parts unspecified; presumably seeds and ashes as above.
Ghazanfar: Seeds for colic.
Li: Shiluo. Pungent, warm, nontoxic. Known as a foreign drug; few uses; unclear image. Diarrhea, gas, aches, etc.
(There is more than a little apparent confusion in the HHYF about apiaceous seeds. All the commonly-used ones contain volatile oils that are stimulant, carminative, and stomachic, as virtually the entire Eurasian world has known since time immemorial. They are in the first herbal writings.)
Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels, Apiaceae. native. FeiTuiLaSaHeiRong.
Li: Danggui. Sweet, warm, nontoxic. This famous cureall rates 7 pages in the translation.
(As all those familiar with Chinese medicine know, it is used to treat almost everything that is not clearly a Warm condition. So important in women’s medicine that it is called “women’s ginseng.”)
Apium graveolens L., Apiaceae. Karafs, KeLaFuShiZi (pronounced something like “klafusis” in HHYF times—not too far from karafs).
Var dulce DC
Manniche: Popular, important. Tonic, appetiser, carminative (mostly the seeds) and the juice is diuretic. Used in mixes to stimulate appetite, treat the teeth, “cool the uterus” (Manniche 1989:76), and as contraceptive. Used also in remedies for burns and eye problems.
Dioscorides: III-67, anethon. Dill. Decoction of dried leaves and seeds, lactogogue, eases sores and pains, stops diarrhea and vomiting. Diuretic. Too much dulls sight and reduces sexual potency. Seed burnt, ash applied to skin eruptions.
Avicenna: Karafs. Hot; dry only when dried somewhat. Relieves gas, opens obstructions, sudatory. Wild celery has hot and pungent properties; erosive, cleansing, irritating. Wild celery—from his description, including different species—treats baldness, cracked nails, warts, cold eruptions, vitiligo, scabies, etc. Poultice of the wild form for ulcers. Not good for headache, but roots promote nasal discharge. Garden celery for poultice. Diuretic, emmenagogue, harmful in pregnancy; can hasten labor or even bring abortion. (This probably refers to a wild type, since some wild relatives do indeed produce abortion.) Disagreements on stomach effects; not considered good. (The different species explain the differences here.)
Levey: Karafs. Seed in poultice for stomach, in electuaries, in drug for memory, and as stomachic. Modern uses as carminative, aromatic, tonic (evidently the seed).
Levey and Al-Khaledy: term (karafs) may include parsley. (The HHYF also seems a bit confused about parsley, celery and related herbs.)
Lev and Amar: Karafs. “Pains, palpitation, theriac, sand in kidney, wounds, indigestion, haemorrhoids, looseness of bowels, stomach ailments, and colic, and as a purgative” (p. 136); Seeds for most of these, and diarrhea, flatulence, warts, diysuria, dysmenorrhea, hard swellings, abortifacient; leaves for inflammations; roots for neile erection; celery water for sciatica, veins. Once again we see the use of a very mildly active substance for a vast range of conditions, most of which would be trivially affected by it (if at all). Many of these uses persist and still more can be found in modern times.
Kamal: Seed diuretic and antispasmodic; some say carminative, emmenagogue, aphrodisiac, stops lactation.
Nadkarni: Unani uses as deobstruent, resolvent; pectoral tonic, carminative with purgatives; diuretic, emmenagogue, etc. In addition, seeds are stimulant and cordial. Prevents rheumatism and gout.
Dash: Pungent, hot, digestive, carminative, stimulant. For parasites.
Li: Qin. Cold, nontoxic. Minor uses.
(Domestic celery is as biologically uninteresting as one could get, but wild celery and, above all, some of its relatives are active medicinally.)
Aquilaria agallocha Roxb., Thymeleaceae. Imported. WuDiBaLaShan. (WuDi is from Arabic ‘ud-i-*Balashan “resin of Balashan,” wherever that was—though possibly merely a corruption of the Arabic name āghlā). Hu:540
Avicenna: Constricting. Hot, dry, diluting. Causes constipation, so used for dysentery.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Minor use. Today for astringent, stomachic, etc. The appearance of this plant in Al-Samarqandī is one of the marks of progressively increasing Indian influence; it is, in fact, called ‘ud hindī in the text.
Lev and Amar: Al-Kindī used it for enlarged head, bad respiration, tooth complaints including caries, etc. Others note various uses, including Maimonides’use for stimulating sexual desire and pleasure. Hot and dry. Carminative, for nerves, diuretic (Ibn al-Bayt.ār).
Bellakhdar et al: ‘ud l-qmari, cardiac stimulant.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, cholagogue, deobstruent. In nerve tonics, carminative and stimulant preparations. For gout, rheumatism, vomiting, snake-bite, etc. Fumigant for wounds and ulcers. Paste with other things on chest, head.
Dash: Hot. Fumigant.
Li: Chenxiang (“sinking fragrance”—a very famous perfume and fumigant throughout Chinese history). Warm or hot. Clears the mind as well as treating pains and much else. In addition to treating Cold conditions it does what a good warming drug should do: adds energy, stamina, etc., and treats weakness or debility.
Aralia racemosa L., Araliaceae. Sadah (Persian) A misidentification; A. racemosa is an American plant, and not in the Chinese pharmacopoeia. Possibly intended here for A. cordata.
Nadkarni: A. pseudo-ginseng for dyspepsia and vomiting.
Arctium lappa L., Asteraceae. native. HaZanErZeXiPanDi (Zi) In the HHYF, “white bezoar” is very frequently mentioned, but always glossed as “this is burdock.” There is no reason to doubt that burdock was indeed used in those remedies.
Kamal: lawiyah, or from the Greek: arqityon, araqityon, arqityum. “Aperient, diuretic and diaphoretic” (the root; 73).
Li: Eshi. Many synonyms (partly—Li says—because eshi, “ugly fruit,” is not very medical-sounding!). Fruit, root and stem used for a large number of Cold conditions, etc.
Areca catechu L., Arecaceae. BingLong. Hu: 1300 [but, Nan-f?]
Avicenna: Coolling, constricting. For hot and hard swellings, eye pain, aphrodisiac.
Levey: Faufal. Ointment, nasal uses.
Kamal: “astringent, stupefying, anthelmintic” (73).
Lev and Amar: fawfal. Liver, skin.
Madanapala: Pūīphala. Cold. Digestive, intoxicating, appetiser. For parasites.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, astringent, antihelminthic. Modern data on stimulant, toxic, mind-altering qualities added.
Dash: Astringent, sweet, laxative, intoxicating, appetiser.
Li: Binlang (which, like the HHYF name, is a Sinicization of the Malaysian name pinang—via Hokkien, in which the characters that in Mandarin are “bin lang” are pronounced “pin nang.”). Known as a Southeast Asian product. Seed qualities subject to varying opinions. Many indications, most conformant to the real stimulant qualities of the seed.
Aristolochia longa L., A. rotunda L., Aristolochiaceae. Zarāwand, zarawand-gird, zarawand-daraz. ZaLaWan, ZaLaWanDe
Theophrastus: II-319: Applied for head bruises, wounds, snakebite. Pessary for womb. Taken for snakebite, sleep.
Dioscorides: III-4, aristolochia stroggole, A. pallida. “Aristolocia is so called because it is thought to help passing well women in child-bed.” (The Greek name means “noble or best for birth.”) But it can be an abortifacient, too. This one is “female” because rounder.
III-5, aristolocia makra, A. parvifolia, A. sempervirens. The male, because larger and less round-leaved and round-rooted. (This same distinction between male—longer, more pointed—and female—rounder—varieties of plants is made among the Maya of Yucatan. Possibly it came via the Spanish from Dioscorides. The Maya also use Aristolochia as a cureall. In fact, wherever this genus is found, its toxic but highly bioactive ingredients have tended to attract herbalist attention.)
III-6, aristolochia klematitis, A. boetica.
In addition to uses for birth and menstruation—either in medicines or as plaster—these herbs were used for poisons and bites, asthma, rickets, spasms, spleen, ruptures, convulsions, pains, splinters, and much else. Cleans gums and teeth.
Avicenna: Hot and dry. Cleansing, diluting, opening, absorbing. Can extract thorns. Produces flesh (round sp.). Used for skin diseases, ulcers. Orally for gout. Good for tetanus. Used for head conditions, asthma, hiccups, spleen, etc. Purges out phlegm and yellow bile. Emmenagogue and abortifacient. Treats scorpion poison.
Levey: A. rotunda, zarāwand mudaḥrij. Scrofula, nose ointment, boils, ulcers, hemorrhoids, teeth, etc. In oil of wild cucumber for sinews, backache, sciatica, pains of rheumatism and lameness. One species for tooth powder.
Graziani: Zarawand mudahraj, zarawand tawil. A. rotunda, A. longa respectively. Use unmentioned but widely used.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: A. longa in several recipes.
Lev and Amar: Vomiting, gas, warts, dysuria, dysmenorrhea, swellings.
Kamal: zarawand; whole genus discussed; some emmenagogue, sudorific, antipyretic, but species unclear.
Bellakhdar et al: Laxative, emmenagogue, anti-palpitant
Ghazanfar: A. bracteolata rubbed on stings, bites. It is toxic.
Nadkarni: A. indica, for snake-bite and other bites, both externally and internally. For leprosy, dropsy, cholera, diarrhea, intestinal problems, abortifacient. Several other spp. with similar uses.
Dash: A. indica pungent, bitter, for parasites, scorpion stings, snakebite, ulcers.
Li: A. contorta and A. debilis, tianxianteng, bitter, warm nontoxic, for many uses relating to warming. Blended widely. A. mandschurica, tongcao, treats both cold and heat; disperses stagnant qi, drains urine, treats a range of conditions. Balanced, nontoxic.
(Aristolochia species are used worldwide for tonic and cureall effects, including childbirth, whence the name, Greek for “fine birth”; but the plants are actually too toxic for safe use.)
Artemisia abrotanum L., Asteraceae. Qaysum. GaiSong
The many very real medical values of Artemisia spp.—a huge genus of some 550 speces—have made these plants medicinally important almost everywhere they are found. They are still grown by millions of Chinese and other Asian households, and very often elsewhere in the world, from Europe to Latin America. They are still very widely used as vermifuges (in spite of some danger), abortifacients (much more danger), digestive aids (their original role in vermouth, “wormwood” wine), and so on. See below; most entries in the HHYF refer to annua or are hard to disentangle; identifications combined below.
Avicenna: A abrotanum specifically is ‘ubaithrān. Hot and dry. Dissolving, blood-thinning, etc. Irritant, so not for wounds. Tea for muscular contusions, brain diseases, cold problems in head. Improves vision and breathing. Cooked with olive oil for stomach. Expels fetus.
Artemisia absinthium, A. annua L., Asteraceae. Qinghao.
This, the traditional Chinese treatment for malaria, has emerged as the leading treatment for malaria today, partly because it kills young stages of the parasite almost totally, making it difficult for the parasite to evolve resistance (as it has to other treatments; see White 2008 for an excellent account).
- absinthium and other spp. are included in this section because the text is unclear on these related and similar species.
Dioscorides: III-127: Artemisia monoklonos, A. campestris; artemisia monoklonos etera, A. vulgaris. Either one could really be abrotanum and annuum may be involved also. For emmenagogue and abortion.
III-138, artemisia leptophyullos, A. arborescens. Poultice for stomach and sore sinews.
III-26: Apsinthion, A. pontica, A. absinthium; warming, binding. Emmenagogue. For poisons, including shrew bites (which can be infected) and sea-dragon bites. For eyes and ears, liver, stomach, many other conditions. Absinth wine noted and used; in Propontis and Thrace it was used as a general tonic drink. The leaves could be used for insect repellent, as powdered sagebrush leaves were in China and elsewhere.
III-27, apsinthion thalassion, A. maritima. Warming, bad for stomach, but a powerful, effective vermifuge.
III-28: Apsinthion triton, santonion, A. palmata. Also vermifuge.
Note that only two Artemisia spp. are recommended for vermifuge, though all work well.
Levey: This sp. is shīh., used for teeth and mouth. A. absinthum, ifsintīn. Reduces swelling of the spleen.
Al-Bīrūnī: “artamisiyā, artamāsā” for headaches due to colds (citing Rāzī, as he often does). “Afsantin,” this species, repels moths, cleans the air, is useful for hair, but can cause headache if taken (as for drinking alcohol—possibly explaining the headache!). Used in ears. Used for apoplexy, eyes, etc.
Avicenna: A. absinthium, Asfantīn. Several other names for wormwoods are given. Bitter, biting, acrid. Purgative. Smoke and vapor used as well as tea. Astringent. Used for swellings, pimples, wounds, ulcers, black bile, eyes, a very wide range of internal ailments, and, of course, worms.
Graziani: “absinthum” used; shikh, with synonyms etc.; stomachic [and surely vermifuge].
Lev and Amar: all the species are discussed together, though the Arabic clearly refers to several different species with quite different names. Apparently the Genizah documents are shaky as to actual identifications. Uses as specified under the species.
Kamal: A. absinthum, Arabic afsantin or shaibah, as tea, appetizer, tonic for brain, heart, stomach; febrifurge, worm medicine, emmenagogue. A. pontica, shih, burnt for purifying; febrifurge; tea for diabetes.
- abrotanum, qaysum, stimuilant and anthelminthic. The “female” (whatever Kamal may mean by that) is khrisaneh; it is stomachic, antivconvoulsive, anthelminthic.
- santonin, shih khurasani, qaisum ontha antihelminthic.
Bellakhdar et al: A. arborescens, antihelminthic; diuretic; emmenagogue; abortive; aperitive. A. herba-alba, gastro-intestinal, antiseptic, anthelminthic, poison antidote, hypoglycemiant, emmenagogue.
Ghazanfar: A. herba-alba for worms.
Lebling and Pepperdine: A. herba-alba and A. sieberi, shih, etc.; for diabetes, indigestion, kidneys, stomach, weakness, and with bay leaf and rose water or milk, fenugreek, and other spices for childbirth (presumably recovery after delivery). A. judaica, bu-aythiran, sheeh, for insomnia, rheumatism, skin, stomach.
Nadkarni: A. absinthium, febrifurge, stomachic, deobstruent, diaphoretic, antihelminthic, antiseptic, stomachic. Toxic, but tonic effect on brain. A. maritima, strong antihelminthic; antispasmodic. Several other spp. used.
Eisenman: Carminative; vermifuge. Used locally for dyspepsia, insomnia, “liver, stomach, spleeen, and gall bladder, fever, hemorrhoids, malaria, intestinal ulcers,…wounds” (p. 41). Biomedically effective on skin, and for stomach, as well as for worms. A. annua, leaves for skin conditions.
Li: A. annua?, huanghuahao, pungent, bitter, cool, nontoxic, minor uses. A. annua is normally qinghao. This seems to be a color variant of it, greener in leaf, yellower in flower (the name means “yellow-flowered wormwood”).
- apiacea, A. annua, qinghao. Leaves and fruits used. Bitter, cold, nontoxic. Many uses, including killing external parasites and other pest insects. The famous use, of course, is for malaria; artemisin derived from it is now the worldwide drug of choice for that disease. Li apparently got confused, and used “qinghao” for A. apiacea.
- anomala, liujinucao, fruit, bitter, warm, nontoxic. Minor uses, mostly digestive.
- argyris, ai, a very common and important remedy. Usually leaves used, but fruit also. Bitter, slightly warm, nontoxic. Not only is it taken for a huge range of conditions; the leaf is dried and powdered for moxibustion. A rare and unusual Artemisia, qiannian’ai “Argy wormwood of a thousand years,” is found in mountains and used to treat male debility and female pain; from Li’s description it appears to be a different species.
- capillaris, A. scoparia, yinchenhao. Bitter, balanced or cold, nontoxic. Important; wide range of uses. Like some other wormwoods, it will make the rabbits that eat it immortal, according to early reports that Li politely indicates he questions.
- japonica, muhao, bitter, slightly sweet, warm, nontoxic Minor uses, plus in combination for malaria.
- keikeskiana, yanlu, bitter, cold or warm, nontoxic. Range of treatments for pain and digestion, etc.
- sieversiana, baihao, leaves, roots, seeds used; cool; similar to above. Many uses as food and drug.
(Sagebrushes are digestive in small doses, vermifugal in larger, dangerously abortifacient in slightly larger—all cultures in the range of the genus seem to know this. Very widespread but often deadly as last resort for abortion.)
Meserve: Artemisia sp. for constipation, and other Mongol uses cited, including the inevitable vermifuge use as well as antiseptic and febrifuge uses.
Elisabeth Hsu (2010b): a major paper by this brilliant Needham Institute researcher finds A. annua used for external purposes—bites, stings, wounds—in the earlier literature, including one of the excavated Mawangdui texts. Ge Hong is the first known to have used it for intermittent and persistent fevers, certainly including malaria (see esp. pp. 109-110, 116). He used extracts or infusions of the fresh plant, as did later writers, but eventually the dried material was made into tea, which is much less effective. A. apiacea, Li Shizhen’s “qinghao,” is less effective, but may have been easier to extract. Hsu thoroughly reviews the literature. A companion piece (Hsu 2010a) stresses the common-sense nature of plant knowledge (with philosophical grounding from Thomas Reid and Scott Atran on the concept of “common sense”), and the resulting mix of truth and error that culture constructs from plant experiences.
Artemisia dracunculus L. (=A. dracunculoides Pursh), Asteraceae. Tarragon.
One mention in Index; evidently not a serious medicinal. Not mentioned in most sources; evidently blanked by the more pharmaceutically active Artemisia spp. See above
Dioscorides: apparently mentioned. Old uses as diuretic, anthelminthic, emmenagogue, as with other artemisias.
Avicenna: ṭarkhūn; Persian tarkhūn Dry, somewhat cold. Reduces libido and hard to digest.
Kamal: A. dracunculus, tarkhun (whence English “tarragon”) is stomachic, emmenagogue, anti-tooth-decay.
Eisenman: For edema, scurvy, appetite, carminative. Powder for mouth conditions. Vermifuge. Central Asian tarragon has no methyl-chavicol, unlike the western form, but the medical relevance of this is unclear. A. leucodes, a more sagebrush-like species, is strongly anti-inflammatory and used in biomedicine for athersclerosis and heart problems. A. scoparia used for respiratory conditions, rheumatism, and as diuretic; also, like other Artemisia spp., vermfuge and emmenagogue. Essential oils with such action are noted. A. viridis, infusions for uclers, kidneys, liver, bile ducts, but biomedical action unstudied.
Artemisia vulgaris L., Asteraceae. native. A FuSaDing Iran, Afzentin
Dioscorides: see above.
Kamal: Swaila, shwaila. A. vulgaris, emmenagogue, anti-hysteria; roots anti-epileptic. Used for catarrh in Morocco.
Madanapala: Nāgadamanī. Cures poisons.
Nadkarni: Antihelminthic, antiseptic, expectorant.
Dash: Bitter, cardiac, alleviates dosas, cures afflictions by evil spirits as well as poisoning and skin conditions.
Eisenman: Wide range of folk uses, including colds, nervous conditions, epilepsy, neurasthenia, anticonvulsant; poisoning, inflammation of gastrointestinal tract, tuberculosis, appetite, ulcers; wounds (externally). Antibacterial, anthelminthic, and other biomedical effects well known.
Sun: Wormwood/hairhead wormwood (baihao白蒿)[2]: bitter, spicy, balanced, and nonpoisonous. It nourishes the five internal organs. It is good for the Middle Jiao and enhances qi. It helps hair grow. If one has taken it for a long time, he will not die; white rabbits take it and become Immortals.
Asarum sieboldii Miq., Aristolochiaceae. Native. A JiErHaErHa
Dioscorides: I-9, asaron, Asarum europaeum. Root for ruptures, convulsions, cough, breathing problems; diuretic and emmenagogue. With wine for poisonous bites. Leaves as poultice for inflammations, headache, inflammations, rashes, etc. Smell induces sleep. Can cause vomiting.
Al-Bīrūnī: Warming. Used for smallpox.
Kamal: A. europoeum, asaron, emetic.
Nadkarni: A. enropoeum, emetic, cathartic.
Li: This and A. heterotropoides, A. sieboldii, A. hexalobum are xixin, a common and important drug still today. A. forbesii is duheng. Roots used. Warming, pungent, nontoxic. Many uses, with little in common; a cureall.
Asparagus officinalis L., Asparagaceae (Liliaceae). Marjubah (Persian), whence MaErChuBi
Dioscorides: II-152, aspharagos, Asparagus acutifolius. Root decoction for illnesses generally; kidneys, being diuretic; helps with dysentery and bites. Can make one infertile. Seed, etc. used also. Dioscorides properly dismissed a tale that bits of rams’ horns would grow into asparagus.
Avicenna: Neutral to hot. Cleansing, opening. Dissolvent Diuretic. Roots increasees semen and libido, so helps in conceiving. Suppository for menses. Used for kidney stone. A kind that grows on rocks is hotter and stronger (the normal kind grows in marshy ground and cannot live on rocks, so this is evidently some other, interesting species).
Graziani: Asparagus sp., hilyawn, used by Ibn Jazlah for sciatica. Other medieval Arab uses for kidneys, bladder, backache, lumbago, pains in lungs; in syrup and robs.
Lev and Amar: eyes, strength, bites, urine, pains, etc. Seeds fermented good for sexual medicine, and plant aphrodisiac (traditionally from phallic shape). Diuretic.
Bellakhdar et al.: sekkum, A. albus antirheumatismal and for liver infections; aperitive.
Nadkarni: Dropsy, rheumatism, gout, etc. Whole plant used. Some other spp. noted.
Eisenman: A. persicus, for various conditions; no empirical data though contains various chemicals.
Li: A. cochinchinensis, tianmendong, root widely used. Sources disagree on qualities and value. Used in medieval times to prolong life and youth, with some preposterous stories from Ge Hong and others. Li admits value as a tonic, but maintains his skeptical silence in regard to the “immortality” and “300-year longevity” stories.
Astragalus sarcocolla Dym., Fabaceae. ‘anzarūt. AnZaLuDe (LuTi), DuLuNuZhi, HeiHaLiJi. (Sometimes identified as, or equated with, Penaeus mucronata L. See Levey.)
Dioscorides: IV-62, astragalos, A. baeticus and/or similar spp. Stops diarrhea. Diuretic. Good for old sores, as powder applied.
4-18, medion, A. sesameus. With honey for dysentery. Seed in wine emmenagogue.
Levey: This or Penaea mucronata L., salve for skin spots,leprosy, abscesses, cataracts; in musk.
Avicenna: ṣamagh, anzarūt, etc. Astragalus spp. He calls it “Persian gum,” which may reflect his Central Asian origins. Hot and dry (somewhat). Can cause baldness. Poultice for swellings, etc. Sets sprained organs. Used for ear, eyes, coughs and chest (with honey and wine), kidney pains, etc.
Lev and Amar: ‘anzarūt. Eyes,very widely and for almost any eye condition; sexual health; skin spots, abscesses; leprosy. Wounds, intestines, etc. Hot and dry.
- gummifera, kathīrā, Perspirant; for cough and espiratory diseases, throat pains, limbs, etc. In compounds for all sorts of purposes.
Bellakhdar et al.: A. gummifera, ktira. Antitussive, antiashthmatic, reconstituant.
Lebling and Pepperdine: A. sarcocolla, anzarut, kuhl farsi. On cuts and wounds; rubbed on babies; taken for indigestion.
Nadkarni: Aperient. Other spp. used.
Eisenman: A sieversianus, infusion for kidney and bladder stones. Seeds for “hernias in children, and are smoked to treat syphilis” (p. 52). Biomedically, antioxidant, sedative, antibacterial, anti-inflammatroy, and other effects demonstrated; saponins from roots protect liver from chemicals; clearly a plant to watch. Many chemical ingredients known.
Li: Five or more species lumped in Chinese as huangqi. A very common, important drug then and today; usually the root used. Several pages of uses, for almost every imaginable condition and some unimaginable ones.
Astragalus tragacantha L., Fabaceae. Kathīra. Probably a misidentification for the above, but possibly both this and A. sarcocolla were known. Members of the genus are more or less interchangeable in Arabic-Persian medicine.
Athamantha tragacantha L., Apiaceae. KeXiLa
Dioscorides: III-77, petroselinon, Athamantha macedonica. Diuretic and emmenagogue. Good for gripes, bloating, other stomach pains; kidneys, bladder.
III-83, daukos; one kind may be A. cretensis. See Daucus below. This kind is specially noted for use of root with wine for “hurts by poisonous beasts” (Gunther 1934:316).
Avicennia officinals L., Avicenniaceae (Verbenaceae). Shura
Possibly a misidentification, but the tree is common on tropical shores, and, as the scientific name suggests, used medicinally.
Nadkarni: Bark astringent; used in smallpox.
(Very high tannin content makes it a powerful astringent.)
Balsamodendron africanum Arn., B. mukul Hook., and probably other spp. Burseraceae. Sometimes classed with Commiphora.
Levey: Kūr azraq, resin of former; muql, latter. Dressings; insanity.
Bellakhdar et al: B. africana, cosmetics, digestive, pulmonary cure, stomachic.
Ghazanfar: Commiphora mukul (=B. mukul) for childbirth: resin burned, smoke directed to birth area to get placenta expelled and dry up area.
Earlier and other uses unclear as to species. (HHYF confusing on this also.)
Nadkarni: B. mukul gum, demulcent, aperient, alterative, carminative, antispasmodic, emmenagogue. Said to be aphrodisiac.
Bambusa spp., Poaceae. Stem concretions or ash: tabasheer (Arabic ṭabāshīr). Also one mention of use of shoots in soup, but this is merely an intrusion of Chinese foodways rather than a medical entry (it is the other ingredients in the soup that are medicinal).
Avicenna: constricting, ripening, dissolvent. Bitter, drying. Used for ulcers, sores, eye inflammation, heart, yellow bile in stomach, quenching thirst, stopping vomiting, etc.
Levey: Few casual mentions.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Commonly recommended by Al-Samarqandī in many formulations. One of the marks of progressively increasing Indian influence on Near Eastern medicine. Note that it does not appear often in the earlier sources.
Lev and Amar: Jaundice, fever, palpitation, stomach and diarrhea, bile, black bile, phlegm, mouth sores, gums, eyes, etc.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, astringent, febrifuge, tonic, cooling, antispasmodic, aphrodisiac. Unani specifically: Tonic for heart and liver, sedative, and for vomiting, palpitation, coma, fevers.
Li: Bamboos are zhu, the shoots zhusun, the concretions in the stems—what is usually meant by tabasheer—zhuhuang. Minor, somewhat dubious uses. Bamboos, on the other hand, are used for a vast range of conditions.
(This substance is singularly inactive pharmacologically, but the high content of silica granules in the ash would possibly make it good for binding and soothing sores.)
Berberis spp. (probably originally B. vulgaris L. in the source materials, but several spp. occur in China and are used medicinally, so no doubt this should be understood generically), Berberidaceae. Barberry. Barbārīs, amirbārīs.
Brief mentions; not significant. Apparently the reference in the HHYF index is to the fruit as a food, not the wood and root as remedies.
Dioscorides: probably B. lycium. Fruit much used.
Avicenna: cold, dry. Syrup for eradicating yerllow bile. Indian barberry is dissolvent, and used on sores and ulcers. Barberry taken internally for spleen, etc. Causes constipation. Fruit used.
Lev and Amar: Liver, spleen, abdomen, bowles, bile, etc. Maimonides recommends for stomach, purgative, etc. Widely used for ointment for skin in Iraq and Iran today.
Nadkarni: Several spp. used, esp. B. vulgaris. Tonic, stomachic, astringent, antipyretic, tonic, antiperiodic, diaphoretic, alterative, root purgative, etc. The yellow alkaloid berberine, froom the wood and roots, is known to be effective for at least several of these uses. Fruit can serve as a laxative. B. lycium Royle for hemorrhoids and ulcers. B. vulgaris for leprosy, snakebite, malaria, jaundice (presumably sympathetic magic, because of the yellow extract), etc. The fruit has minor medical uses as laxative, stomach soothing, etc.
Eisenman: B. integerrima, fruit antipyretic (and a food). Roots for wounds, bone fractures, rheumantism, heart pain, stomach aches. Leaves for kidney stones. Tea of flowers for lungs, chest, headache. Infusion of fruits for constipation and wounds. Contains berberine, widely known as a blood pressure and relatant drugs; depresses nervous system action. Also has antitumor and bacteriostatic action and other biomedical effects. B. oblonga, similar uses; atnidiarrheal; root for eyes and mouth (wash for sores). Residue from root tea eaten or applied externally for jaundice, stomach, back and other pains. Shares biomedical effects of other barberries (berberine, etc.).
Li: Various spp. for aphtha, nasal and oral eczema, worms, Heat in stomach and abdomen, etc.
(Common food in Iran. Nutritious. Note that the English name is a folk etymology based on Latin barbaris, the source also of the Arabic and scientific names. But the plant does have barbs and berries, so the folk etymology was irresistable.)
Beta vulgaris L var. cicla L. Chenopodiaceae. JunDaErYe (Persian chundur).
Dioscorides: II-149, teutlon melan agrion. Good for the belly, but the black root causes constipation. Juice in nostril with honey to purge the head and help pains of ears. Cleanses sores, etc. Raw leaves to anoint skin eruptions, etc.
IV-16, leimonion, B. sylvestris, seed for dysentery.
Levey: Silq. Includes other plants. Beet leaves in a clyster.
Lev and Amar: Silq. Hot and dry to some, but Maimonides saw it as cold and moist. Various kinds. Good food. Modern uses for seeds and leves as well as root; leaves put on stings, rashes, wounds, dandruff, etc.; food for intestines, urination, kidney stones, anemia, liver.
Kamal: Diuresis, cystitis, constipation. Leaves used.
Nadkarni: Various minor uses for headache, liver, eyes, burns, constipation, hemorrhoids, and externallyi for ulcers, sores, dandruff, etc.
Li: Tiancai. Sweet, bitter, very cold, slippery, nontoxic. Use, obviously, for very serious Heat conditions, including some “real” heat affections like moxibustion burns (poultice used for them as well as bites, etc.).
Bletilla striata (Thunb.) Reichb., Orchidaceae. F. native
Li: Baiji. Nontoxic, pungent. Balanced. Wide range of uses, especially for chapping, wounds, swellings, acne, and other external conditions.
Borago officinalis L., Boraginaceae. KunDuShi. Arabic lisān al-thawr.
Al-Bīrūnī: Lisān al-thawr; “būghlūs in Roman.” (Cf. English “bugloss”—which is bu-gloss, cow-tongue, not bug-loss!) Refrigerant. Quotes several major authors.
Avicenna: Hot, moist. Exhilarant; relieves anxiety (still believed in 21st century!). Cures mouth ulcers.
Graziani: Ibn Jazlah used it for palpitation, cough, chest pain; could harm the spleen.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Usual importance—a person from the Persian cultural universe, which included Samarqand, would never neglect this one!
Maimonides: Used by Maimonides as rather a cureall (Maimonides 1974).
Lev and Amar: Probably various species, including Anchusa spp., used. Hallucination, eyes, headaches, fever, aphrodisiac, etc. many uses, internal and external, including madness and melancholy. Relieves pain, etc.
Kamal: Aperient and diaphoretic.
(Used in Persia today under the name “cow’s tongue” for every imaginable condition, including those mentioned by Graziani. Usually made up as an herbal tea, it is the great Iranian cureall. My Persian students were all raised with it. Dried flowers in bags of all sizes are sold in every Persian market. Oddly little or no use in traditional medicine in India or China.)
Boswellia carteri Birdw., Burseraceae.
Imported. YuLiQiSaQi. Hu: RuXiang; 540
Dioscorides: 1-81, libanon thus, frankincense. Warns about adulteration. Warming, binding, cleansing. Applied: Cures ulcers and wounds, suppresses bloody flux and excessive bleeding, cures skin ailments (long list), relieves women’s breast inflammations. Taken with medicines: arteries, intestines, lungs; but being drunk by the healthy, it drives mad or kills.
1-82, phloios libanou: bark of this species. Similar uses, but more binding.
1-83, libanou manna, manna of the species. Similar uses. One wonders what this is as opposed to the gum itself.
1-84, libanou aithalie, “fuligo of frankincense,” i.e. soot prepared by charring. For inflammation of eyes, repressing fluxes, cleaning ulcers, etc. 1-85 notes that other resins (myrrh, styrax, etc.) make good soot also.
Levey: Lubān, Lubnā. Storax (gum) from this plant. In a clyster for humors.
Al-Bīrūnī: Kundur. Heating, etc. Quotes Galen, Paul of Aegina and many Arab writers.
Avicenna: Kundur. Hot and dry. Stops bleeding. Vapor has strong drying quality, constricting tissues and channels. Many external uses, by itself or with vinegar, oil, honey, rose oil, etc. With duck fat on skin fungus, and with swine fat (odd thing to see in a Muslim book) “on burn ulcers and cold fissures” (*p. 465). Used internally for fevers, vomiting, etc.
Graziani: Kandur, kundur, luban. Resin used.
Lev and Amar: Lubān, kundur. Maimonides used I for melancholy, rabid dog bites, stings, hemorrhages, wounds, skin diseases; hot and dry. Various other authorities noted the same, plus use for lungs, intestines, liver, etc. Strengthens teeth and gums. Used today for these purposes and for disinfectant.
Kamal: Luban, loban. Stimulant, emmenagogue; for throat and larynx, locally for chilblains; sudorific; toothache relief.
Bellakhdar et al: Antitussive, cosmetic
Ghazanfar: B. sacra. Lubān, bakhor. (Same sp. as above; taxonomy has been debated.) Gum for perfume, mastitis, teeth, digestion, etc.; soot for eyes; gum chewed by pregnant women and to treat emotional problems. Diuretic, purgative, and for memory in Saudi Arabia.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Smoke for wounds and swellings, post-delivery, etc. Taken for childbirth, coughs, diabetes, diarrhea, liver, lungs, memory, nausea, odors, oral care, stomach!
Nadkarni: This and various related Indian spp.; resin refrigerant, diuretic, demulcent, aperient, alterative, emmenagogue, etc.
Li: Xunluxiang, ruxiang. Known to be from the western world. Warm or hot, nontoxic. Treats pains, disabilities, etc.
(Resin well known as antiseptic and soothing.)
Boswellia papyrifera Hochst., Burseraceae. Tus.
Same data and sources, but seem distinguishable in the formularies.
Brassica alba (L.) Boiss. and other Brassica spp. Brassicaceae. Native. BaiXiPanDan. Morocco, Zarrit s-san
Dioscorides: II-134, gongylis, B. rapa, turnip. Root, eaten boiled, noted as causing flatulence; “provoking venerie” (Gunther 1934:147), presumably from the stomach irritation. Decoction for gout and sores; drunk or applied. Leaves diuretic. Seeds antidotal to poison etc.
Levey: Khardal. May include Sinapis. Leprosy, erysipelas, itch, etc.
Al-Bīrūnī: Brassica sp. Khardal. Treats dyspepsia and flatulence.
Avicenna: B. rapa, turnip, shaljam. Softening effedcts; trivial uses; increase semen; water of boiling is diuretic. B. nigra, khardal, black mustard. Hot and dry to fourth degree. Prevents production of phlegm. Oil very warm. Fumes repel insects. Cleansing, dissolving, rubefacient. Poultice irritating and erosive; clears complexion and spots, dissolves hot inflammations and chronic swellings, used with sulfur on tubercular lymph glands. Used on scabies and arthritis. For ear, eye (for day-blindness and roughness). Internally for windpipe, inflammation of spleen, hysteria. Aphrodisiac. Used for intermittent and chronic fevers.
- campestris, turnip, shaljam, used for gout, chapping, etc. Stalks diuretic. Seeds in pastes, electuaries, confections; analgesic for bites; antidote. Aphrodisiac. Wild turnip seeds for poultices for mouth and skin.
Graziani: “Mustard,” khardal, species uncertain, used by Ibn Jazlah for menstrual disorders. Ibn Butlān used it for gouit and loosening induration. Today in Iran and Iraq [as elsewhere in the world] for emetic.
Lev and Amar: Sinapis alba, khardal. Skin and skin conditions including leprosy and erysipelas. Neck pustules. Several species recognized (unclear identifications). Seeds for stomach. Plan for inflammations, rheumatism, pains, colds, influenza, jaundice, stones in urinary system, etc.
Bellakhdar et al: B. napus, magic uses; B. nigra, magic, calefacient, revulsive.
Madanapala: Sārsapa, B. campestris. Heavy, hot. Alleviates dosas.
Nadkarni: Mustard powder stimulant, emetic, diuretic. Digestive. Oil stimulant, rubefacient, vesicant.
Dash: B. campestris and B. nigra discussed together; pungent, cures parasites and colic. B. nigra prevents afflictions by evil spirits and bestws auspiciousness on children.
Li: Baijie. Known to be from west. Pungent, warm, nontoxic. A range of respiratory and warming uses, as for coughing, phlegm, asthma; most familiar to the western world.
- campestris, yuntai. Pungent, warm (or cool), nontoxic. Common food. For swellings, erysipelas, other external conditions, as well as diarrhea and other internal matters. Leaves and seeds used. The disagreement over whether the leaves are warm or cool persists today. The seeds are always warm.
- chinensis (B. campestris var. chinesis), song, baicai. Stem and leaf sweet, warm or cool (today considered very cooling), nontoxic. Leaves for digestive and a few other complaints. Seeds for oil used for hair growth etc.
- rapa (B. campestris var. rapa), wujing, root, leaves, seeds. Bitter and nontoxic. Various conditions. It is not clear which of these apply to the western turnip and which to the indigenous Chinese turnip, which are closely related and confused even by modern scientists.
(Stimulant effects of Brassica seeds are known worldwide. Mustard plasters are still not unknown in the United States.)
Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. et Coss. Brassicaceae. Native.
Nadkarni: Plant aperient and tonic. Oil stimulant, counterirritant. Hot mustard bath, emmenagogue.
Sun: Mustard leaf (jiecai芥菜): spicy, warm, nonpoisonous. It treats nose problems (guibi歸鼻). It dispels noxious qi in the kidney. It breaks spells of vomiting caused by coughing. It makes qi move downward. It is good for the nine orifices. It is good for eyesight and hearing. It pacifies the Middle Jiao (anzhong安中). When one takes it for a long time, it warms the Middle Jiao, though alternatively it is said that “it chills the Middle Jiao.” Its seeds are spicy. The spiciness also treats nose problems (guibi歸鼻). The seeds are poisonous. They especially treat throat illnesses caused by wetness, wind, or cold (houbi喉痹). They can rid every kind of wind poison and bump [boil? Tumor?] caused by living in wet and lower places (fengduzhong風毒腫). The Yellow Emperor said, “Mustard leaves cannot be taken along with rabbit meat. Otherwise they will cause bad and noxious disease (exiebing惡邪病).”
Li: jie. Leaves and seeds; large number of miscellaneous uses, mostly household first-aid and minor remedies, but Li personally recommends the seeds for lockjaw, deafness, epistaxis, and other serious conditions.
(Seeds of this plant are the traditional source of the standard Chinese mustard preparations, used in households as stimulant, etc.)
Brassica oleracea L., Brassicaceae. Kurunb, karnab, kirnab.
Var. botrytis L. Kalam (Persian)
Dioscorides: Krambe. II:120, sight, trembling, stomach, erysipelas, carbuncles, gangrene, spleen, pessary against conception, etc.
Avicenna: Laxative, drying. Good for inflammations of soft connective tissue. Leaves made into poultice, sometimes with flour. Heals wounds, eused on burns with egg white, treats mites and the like. Burnt and used with butter on chronic pain of chest and ribs. Poured on arthritis. Boiled wild cabbages, and seeds, delay intoxication. Diuretic. Emmenagogue. For treating displaced uterus, but this can interfere with semen. Sea cabbage (Crambe maritima) mild laxative. Various other uses.
Levey: Kurunb. Ulcers, etc.
Lev and Amar: Qunnabīṭ, qarnabīt, kurnub. Stomach ulcers, etc. Bites, food poisoning.
Graziani: Kurunb. Ibn Jazlah used for bites and to stop trembling. “Dioscorides employs it for dull sight, trembling, stomach, erysipelas, carbuncles, gangrene and spleen troubles” (1980:208); presumably this is an Arabic Dioscorides; it is not in the English.
Li: ganlan. Sweet, plain, nontoxic. Very little said; known as a western borrowing, rarely found in China. Very interesting is that Li puts it with smartweed and other herbs rather than with the other Brassica species, which are together in a single group of entries.
Bryonia alba L., Cucurbitaceae. Hazarjashan (Persian). HaSanErHeiSang.
Manniche: B. dioica for bladder and urinary problems, stomach problems, digestion, anal inflammation.
Dioscorides: IV-184, ampelos leuke. Young shoots (a traditional European food) diuretic. With salt on ulcers and gangrenous sores. Root or fruit for sunburn and scars, etc., or with wine for inflammation and abscesses. Root brewed and drunk for epilepsy, one dram daily for a year. Also apoplexy, dizziness, etc. More (drunk or as pessary) will produce abortion. Fruit, eaten in boiled wheat, lactogogue.
Avicenna: Hot, dry. Cleansing, diluent, warming. Cleanses the body and treats scars and marks. Used on hard swellings, spleen inflammation (taken with vinegar), etc. With honey for hysteria. Useful for stomach; astringent, pungent, a boit bitter and acrid. Abortifacient but good for displaced uterus. Black bryony (Tamus communis) used for chest, paralysis, etc.
Lev and Amar: B. cretica. Fāshirā, hazārjishān. Pains in womb, swellings, diuretic, purgative, ulcers, abscesses, etc. Juice increases mother’s milk but excess causes vomiting. Roots for cleansing, bunions, boils, scars, skin. Ointment of root cooked in oil for pain, hemorrhoids, broken bones, etc. Leaves for stomach, diuretic.
Kamal: fashra, etc. Cathartic. For anasarca, mania, jaundice, colic, constipation.
Nadkarni: Several related species have minor uses in India. B. epigoea especially in alterative, tonic, antihelminthic, aperient, with uses for sexually transmitted disesases, acute dysentery, etc.
Bupleurum chinense DC. & other spp. Apiaceae. Native.
Kamal: B. perfoliatum, antihelminthic. Cooked, for hematomas.
Li: Chaihu. Several other spp. included in this name. Root a common, important medicine. Bitter, balanced to cold, nontoxic. Several pages of indications. Leaf usedfor ears to prevent deafness.
Calonyction muricatum. Convolvulaceae. Tentatively identified in one HHYF recipe; not noted in the herbals. Likely an error for some other convolvulaceous plant.
Calycotome spinosa. Fabaceae. Dārshīsh’ān. Hairy thorn-broom. Mentioned in the Table of Contents. Nothing known of its herbal use here, and little or nothing in the literature; very possibly a mistake, the name being used for some more medicinal species of broom.. A widespread weed with no recorded medical uses.
Canarium album (Lour.) Raeusch. Burseraceae. NaErDingYou
Nadkarni: C. commune kernels demulcent, stimulant, laxative, expectorant. Gum stimulant and rubefacient, oil demulcent.
(The kernel of the nut is a common food in south China, with some warming uses, but seems little discussed in old herbals. Thus scored as an “Indian” drug.)
Cannabis sativa L. Cannabaceae (Urticaceae). Native. HuMaRen (seeds) Hu: 100
Manniche: With celery for eyes.
Dioscorides: III-165, kannabis emeros. Seed eaten, kills sexual desire (!). Juice of green plant for pain of ears. (Interesting that the drug quality was not known, and that our 17th-century translator already calls it Cannabis sativa. This is by no means the only plant already known in 1655 by its eventual Linnaean name.)
Al-Bīrūnī: Shāhdhānaj. Seeds dry up sperm. Infusion of seeds for ears. Leaves cure gas. Desiccant. Embrocation applied to hot inflammations and the like. Note differences from Dioscorides; Galen cited for the drying up of sperm, presumably the same idea as Dioscorides’ anaphrodisiac claim.
Avicenna: qinnab. Seeds are shahdānj, oil is ḥabb-al-simnah and may sometimes come from other spp. Hot and dry. Dissolves gas. Minor external uses; Causes dark-sightnedness. Seeds fattening but hard to digest. Makes semen sticky. Mild laxative.
Nasrallah: Adds that the seeds create “unfavorable humors in the body and cause headaches and constipation” (2007:672). Notes that Ibn al-Bāyt.ar described marijuana and its extremely intoxicating, maddening properties. Apparently the poor used them in pills or with sugar and sesame.
Graziani: Avicenna and Rāzī used as anaesthetic, painkiller. They warned against overdose. Ibn Jazlah avoided it. Modern uses in Middle East as anaesthetic, styptic, diuretic.
Lev and Amar: Against insanity (!) and epilepsy. Al-Bīrūnī and others noted dangers of use; causes intoxication and even insanity. Maimonides notes use of oil for ears. Plant used for soporific and eye pains (cf. modern use for glaucoma).
Kamal: qinnab hindi, qunbus; hashish for the drug. Narcotic.
Bellakhdar et al: just a narcotic. Famously a major part of Moroccan culture.
Madanapala: Bhangā. Digestive, constipative but also cures constipation [i.e., regularizes digestion]. Causes intoxication.
Nadkarni: Stomachic, antispasmodic, analgesic, stimulant, aphrodisiac, sedative, etc. Bad effects of habitual use noted. (Important part of Indian culture; traditional indulgent, often abused long before modern times.)
Dash: Bitter, hot, sharp, constipative, carminative, intoxicating. Makes one talkative.
Li: For foretelling future, amnesia, etc. Plant toxic, seeds debatably so. Sweet, balanced to cold. Seeds much used for medicine and in early times for food and oil. Leaves, being dangerous, much less used. (The indulgent use of marijuana was conspicuously rare in traditional China, in sharp contrast to the Islamic and Indian worlds.)
Capparis spinosa L., Capparidaceae. Kabr. KeBo (B) ErGen, KeBoEr
Dioscorides: II-204, kapparis; cynosbatos (dog bush); many other names. Fruit for spleen, urine, dysentery, sciatica, palsy, ruptures, convulsions, toothache; emmenagogue; applied on ulcers; juice kills worms in ears.
Avicenna: Root and fruit used. Pungent and hot. Keeps mustard from fermenting and spoiling. Root bitter and pungent. Hot and dry; hot according to local climate (hotter where climate is hotter). Fruit dissolving, opening, cleansing; root erosive. Bark bitter and pungent; constrictive. Nutritious, but less so when salted (interesting, showing that it was salted then as now). Bark of root for wounds, pain, tenderness, etc. Extract as enema. Can treat paralysis and loss of sensation. Chewing bark of root relieves cold headaches. Treats worms; extract instilled in ear (possibly for worms in ear?). Relieves toothache. Mouthwash, probably from root bark again. Salted fruit for asthma. Fruit and root bark for splenic hardness. Kills roundworms when taken internally; increases sexual desire; treats piles and menses.
Levey: Kabbār. Root bark in poultice for spleen, and for hemorrhoids. Leaf for the spirits.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Root rind for various conditions; fairly important to Al-Samarqandī. Current uses for ulcers, scrofula, carminative, aphrodisiac, fever, rheumatism. Various uses in India, including dropsy.
Lev and Amar: kabar. Pains, women’s afflictions, insanity, worms in ears, diuretic; mouth medicine for sores, gums, teeth; also stings, wounds, stomach, emmenagogue, hemorrhoids, appetite, etc., etc.
Kamal: qabbar (Persian kabar). Roots diuretic, fruit carminative and sudorific. Leaves alleviate toothache.
Bellakhdar et al: Antirheumatic, stimulant; treats painful menstruation.
Ghazanfar: Las.afa, fakouha, shafallah. Leaves for earache, coughs, worms, diabetes. Other spp. of the genus and the closely related Cleome for various purposes.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Emetic, scrofula, spleen, liver.
Nadkarni: For palsy, dropsy, gout, rheumatism. Related species, similar minor uses.
Eisenman: For hepatitis; root bark smoked for syphilis. Flower juice for scrofula. Fruit, decocted, for hemorrhoids and toothatches, and gums. Antioxidant and other biomedical effects; experimental data indicate potential.
Li: Several local species, mabinlang (“horse’s areca-nut”). For childbirth. A “minority”-area drug very little known in Han circles, but Li recommends it personally for mouth and gum sores—another example of his seeking out even very obscure drugs.
Carduus benedictus L., C. dipsacus L., Asteraceae. YiSiTiErHa. Bad-āvard.
Dioscorides: This species not distinguished, but he cites many thistles, including skolymos, Scolymus hispanicus, glossed as “carduus” in the 1655 translation, and used for urine; shoots a pot-herb.
Li: C. crispus, feilian, bitter, salty, balanced, nontoxic; for a number of conditions. One early herbal recommends it for “Wind in the skin that makes the patient feel as if it is a bee sting with bumps” (Li 2003:1673), another for getting rid of worms, like horse’s tail hair, in the genitalia.
Carthamus tinctorius L., Asteraceae. Shikh. Hu:HongHua 973
Dioscorides: IV:188, knekos, purgative.
Levey: In salve for beatings.
Avicenna: ‘aṣfar. Hot and dry. Usual minor external uses. Taken with fig or honey for abdominal pain and to evacuate burnt phlegm. A number of mixtures and combinations mentioned, including with almond, anise and honey.
Lev and Amar: qurṭum, qirṭim. Womb, kidney pains, heart, poisons, urinary tract. Causes diarrhea; laxative. Hot and dry; much used in medieval Egypt.
Kamal: Qurtum, qurtuma, bahram and variants. Oil purgative and emmenagogue. Mixed with honey for soothing use on skin, etc.
Bellakhdar et al: ophthalmic, antiseptic, laxative.
Ghazanfar: Conjunctivitis and related conditions; whole plant extracted, or leaves simply crushed.
Nadkarni: Seeds purgative, roots diuretic.
Dash: Alleviates blood, etc.
Li: Hunglanhua. Pungent, warm, nontoxic. Usual range of uses. Seeds and leaf.
Carum copticum Benth. (Trachyspermum ammi L.), Apiaceae. Known in English by the Indian name ajwain or ajowan. Nānakhwah (Arabic) from nankhawah (Persian). Nan Hua, FaErFeiRong, NangHua. This or caraway (Carum carvi) is presumably the “karawyā,” implausibly defined as dill, in the HHYF.
Dioscorides: III-66, karos, Carum carvi, caraway. Antidote, etc., used like dill. Root boiled and eaten.
Avicenna: hot and dry. Used for skin; pulverized fruits with honey for bruises. Digestive. Treats gas, upset stomach, nausea. Treats cold liver. Used for cleaning eyes and darkened sight. Increases stickiness of semen, as does rue. Emenagogue; pessary for displaced uterus, etc. Diuretic. Minor first aid uses for stings. Caraway is hot and dry, carminative, strengthening. Relieves stomach and gas. For eyes, but overdose harmful. Clears chest and coughs, treats hiccups. Scent said to be abortifacient.
Levey: For hemorrhoids. Minor use.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Very commonly used by Al-Samarqandī in a range of formulas.
Lev and Amar: nākhuwāh. Hot and dry. Diuretic, for skin, bites, liver, stomach, urine, etc. C. carvi, hot and dry, for smallpox, kidney stones, stomach worms, swellings, sleep, etc.
Kamal: C. copticum, ammi, nikhwah, nan-khuwav, etc. Stimulant, carminative. For appetite. C. carvi, karawyah, al-niqr, etc.; seeds fragrant, stomachic, carminative, diuretic.
Bellakhdar et al. (1991:126): “digestive, stimulant, spasmolytic, analgesic, sedative for children” in modern Morocco.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Stomachic. Mothers drink tea of it to increase milk.
Nadkarni: Antihelminthic, antiseptic, carminative.
Dash: C. carvi bitter, cleases uterus, and for colic.
(Another apiaceous seed, with the usual well-recognized properties—stomachic, carminative—from the volatile oil. Contains enough thymol and related phenols to be strongly antibiotic, and widely used for this, especially for treating digestive disease)
Eisenman: C. carvi, a common plant in Central Asia, used as sedative, expectorant, diuretic, carminative, laxative, sedative, appetite help; most of this is well documented medically.
(Oddly, this plant never made it to China as a regular medicine; it seems almost limited to the HHYF.)
Cassia acutifolia Del., Fabaceae (C. angustifolia). Sana-makki.
Levey: Sanā makkī. Infusion. Used generally as purgative, etc.
Avicenna: C. fistularis. Khiyār shambar, qiththā. Cold and moist, with some heat. Laxative. Used also for visceral swellings, throat, gout, joints, diphtheria, liver (including jaundice and liver pain), thirst, etc.
Lev and Amar: sanā. This and other species for eyes, women’s illnesses, epilepsy, smallpox, purgative, etc. Recent use as cathartic.
Kamal: C. absus, shishm, etc. From west Sudan. Eye powder for eye diseases made from seeds; with sugar, sarcocolla, celandine. C. senna, sana, sana-makkak, sana hejazi, al-sana-al-Makki; purgative, cholagogue. Major cure for constimpation. Also vermifuge for roundworms.
Bellakhdar et al: C. (Chamaecrista) absus and C. glauca, znina, ophthalmic, antiseptic. C. italica, sana haram, sana mekka, laxative, blood-clensing.
Ghazanfar: Several Cassia and related spp. for purgative and stomachic uses.
Lebling and Pepperdine: C. italica, purgative, laxative.
Nadkarni: This and other spp. purgative, laxative, antiparasitic.
Dash: C. tora, reduces fat, cures skin fungus and itch.
Li: C. tora, jueming. C. sophora, jiangmang. Various uses. The long-suffering Li breaks out into vituperation at the silliness of some claims about cassia; for instance, a claim that cassia in the garden makes lame children. He says: “This is what a decadent scholar had overheard and [one] should not take it seriously” (Li 2003:1788).
(Cassia spp. are still widely and effectively used to treat constipation and similar complaints.)
Cassia fistula L., Fabaceae. Khiyarchanbar.
Lev and Amar: khiyyār shanbar (one name) and variants thereof. Hot and dry. Purging. Swellings, nerves, throat, anti-venom, etc.; similar modern uses, also for colds, cleansing blood, fevers, gall bladder, liver, respiration.
Kamal: Khiyar, shambar (two separate names). Eye-drops. Pulp of seed pod edible.
Bellakhdar et al: kiyar shambar; ‘ud salib. Laxative; for gastro-intestinal disorders.
Ghazanfar: For constipation, stomach ulcers and gastritis, hemorrhoids.
Madanapala: Āragvadha. Mild purgative. For fever, heart, bleeding, colic, etc. Flower constipative; pulp and flower bitter.
Nadkarni: Purgative. Root tonic and febrifuge.
Dash: Mild laxative.
(Effective and well-known laxative, purgative. Standard in biomedicine until fairly recently.)
Cedrus spp. C. deodara Loud., Pinaceae. Diydar.
Avicenna: C. deodara, diwdār. Hot and dry. Bitter. Sap pungent; produces thirst; hot and dry. Used for cold diseases of head; stroke; epilepsy. Dissolves kidney and bladder stones. C. libani. Resin hot and dry. Treats lice, mites, and the like. Tones up flabby flesh. Cones or seeds apparently cause headaches, but the resin cures them. Leaves with vinegar for mouthwash. Resin used in ears and eyes. Cone to control coughs (presumably boiled and tea used). Treats painful urination; diuretic, with pepper. Bark disinfectant, pesticide, emmenagogue, abortifacient, birth easer. Constipating. Resin as enema for worms. Contraceptive if rubbed on penis.
Kamal: C. libani, arz-libnan, needles diuretic and used on wounds.
Bellakhdar et al.: C. atlantica, qitran er-raqiq, for skin infections, antiseptic, hair-care.
Nadkarni: Wood carminative. Bark powerful astringent, febrifuge. Unani specifically: Antispasmodic, anti-paralysis, and for fevers and kidney-stones.
(The three Cedrus species are very similar, and a nice example of a genus whose members have mutually exclusive ranges and would surely be substituted for each other. Cedar leaves, bark and resin are rich in volatile oils, terpenes, and other chemicals, and have a strong astringent and antibiotic action. Many of the uses above would be justified biochemically.)
Centaurea behen L., Asteraceae. Bahman, bahman-sapid (Persian).
Dioscorides: III-8, kentaurion makron, Centaurea centaurium. Root for ruptures, convulsions, pleurisy, respirators infections especially tuberculosis, etc. Emmenagogue and abortifacient; root applied to vulva. Good on wounds.
Levey: C. centaurium, qant.ūriyūn, in clyster, and for sciatica, lameness, backaches, rheumatic pains.
Avicenna: Bahman. Hot and dry. Heart tonic. Increases semen.
Lev and Amar: Qanṭūriyūn; bahamān abyaḍ. Heart, gout, aphrodisiac.
Kamal: noted for thinning.
Bellakhdar et al: C. chamaerhaponticum, for gastrointestinal and hepatic disorders.
Nadkarni: Aphrodisiac, and used for jaundice and stone.
Eisenman: C. depressa, tea for melancholy, neurasthenia, eye conditions, hepatitis. Biomedical antibacterial and antifungal action.
Ceratonia siliqua L., Fabaceae. Carob. Kharnūb (whence “carob”), yanbūt (Arabic)
Avicenna: Bad for stomach; hard to digest. Good for skin—extract rubbed on. Diuretic. Can be laxative. Different carobs from different areas have somewhat different properties.
Lev and Amar: A number of uses, ranging from treating fractures (how?) to diuretic, anti-swelling, stopping bleeding, increasing sexual desire, and even curing the hair. Vaious uses of honey, juice, jam, pods, etc.
Ghazanfar: Diarrhea; seeds eaten.
Nadkarni: Purgative, astringent, for cough. Pods used. (Evidently in tea.)
(High tannin content of plant, especially pods, explains use for diarrhea.)
Cetraria islandica (L.) Ach., Parmeliaceae. Iceland moss. Khazaz.
A lichen with a number of folk and herbal medical uses; not in the Asian sources but widely used in Europe, and current today for humans and animals for a number of herbalist uses. The HHYF may be referring to a wider or general category of lichens; the few references are hard to pin down (see Alectoria).
Cheiranthus cheiri L. (Erysimum cheiri), Brassicaceae. Khiri
Dioscorides: III-138, leukoion, wallflower. Leukoion thalassion, C. tricuspidatus. Confused in this edition of Dioscorides with Viola alba (violet) and apparently also Matthiola incana (stock), but distinguishes the yellow-flowered one as the medicinal one; its uses ring true for a mustard (cf. other mustards in the book), not for a violet. The pictures are unequivocally Brassicaceae. Seeds used in bath, for womb and as emmenagogue, and as pessary for same and as abortifacient. Seed infusion drunk for respiratory complaints, etc. Roots in oil used as rub for gout and the like.
Nadkarni: Emmenagogue.
Chrysanthemum x morifolium Ramat. A hybrid of C. indicum and at least one other sp., possibly C. coronarium. Asteraceae. Native.
Avicenna: C. parthenium, the related and somewhat similar feverfew, varioius minor uses.
Nadkarni: C. coronarium and C. indicum for gonorrhea.
Sun: C. coronarium (tonghao茼蒿)[3]: spicy, balanced, nonpoisonous. It pacifies the heart qi and nourishes the spleen and stomach. It also eliminates thick or thin mucus in the respiratory tract (tanyin痰飲).
Li: Ju. Flower, leaf, foliage. Bitter, balanced, nontoxic. White ones somewhat different in values from yellow. Many uses. (The modern, very common Chinese use as febrifuge and general coolant, however, seems minor, and the plant was “balanced” to Li, rather than, as now, very cooling.)
- indicum, ye ju, bitter, pungent, warm, slightly toxic. Minor uses mostly on external irritations.
(Chrysanthemum spp. and related genera such as Matricaria are used worldwide to reduce fevers—hence the name “feverfew”—or just make the patient feel cooler. The biomedical jury is still out on whether these plants actually have any such value. For what it’s worth, my experience is that they do.)
Cichorium endivia L. Asteraceae. ASiMangGong. Lettuce is rather oddly absent from the HHYF, and may be lumped under this name.
Levey: Baql, hundabā’. Nasal ointment; itching. Other for bites, etc. Some Cichorium or similar plant is t.alakhshaqūq, used for poultices for swellings. Root to cure insanity.
Al-Bīrūnī: Karwah, a mysterious drug from Kashmir, is described by “some pharmacists” as root of wild endive. It could also be dandelion (notes). Root cooling, refrigerant, febrifurgal. Adulterated with aconite roots, which is a very dangerous thing to do. Interesting to show Al-Bīrūnī’s attention to new drugs not in the Dioscoridean canon.
Avicenna: hindabā’. Bitter. Cold and dry, but with a moist component. (The idea that a plant could have two natures is occasional in Avicenna and occasional in Chinese medicine too.) Removes obstructions. Not a strong medicine; wild is stronger than domestic. Milky sap relieves conjunctivitis. Used for chest poultice, and gargle for soe throat (with purging cassia). Relieves nausea and yellow bile. Strengthens heart. Good for stomach of a person with hot temperament.
Graziani: Ibn Jazlah noted two kinds [possibly the two spp. herein] and used for obstructed liver [whatever he meant by that], gout, stomach, malaria, astringent, stomach. Kindī used it for nasal ointment and juice for itching. Samarqandī used it in syrups and robs.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Very important, used widely
Lev and Amar: Plaster, liver, aphrodisiac, weak eyes, headaches; stops salivation; liver and bile corruption; other uses. Recnt uses add many, most of them involving putting the plant on irritations as a soothing agent, but also taken for a vast range of purposes. As so often, we see an ordinary food pressed into service for anything and everything.
Bellakhdar et al: C. intybus, diuretic, hepatic. (Essentially the same plant as C. endivia. Odd that it is so little noticed by older writers; its value as a diuretic is unquestionable and must have been well known for millennia.)
Ghazanfar: C. intybus, h.ind.iba’, for fevers (leaves, eaten raw or boiled); dyspepsia (roots); headache, jaundice (fruits).
Nadkarni: Resolvent, cooling for bilious complaints. C. intybus for bile, digestion, tonic; aperient, diuretic. Resolvent. Carminative seeds.
Eisenman: C. intybus, roots for appetite and digestion; flowers for stomachinflammation, intestines, gall bladder, kidneys including stones, heart conditions. Biomedical action as sedative, heart tonic, anti-inflammatory, cholesterol uptake drug, etc., and more certainly proved use as diuretic.
(Appetite can be stimulated by the bitterness. C. endivia is unknown in the wild and appears to be a domestic hybrid, presumably of intybus with (perhaps) C. pumilum.)
Cinnamomum burmannii. See C. cassia.
Cinnamomum camphora (L.) Presl., Lauraceae. Kafur (Indian)
Levey: Kāfūr. Poultices for liver and spleen, drugs for sore throat. Teeth, eyes.
Nasrallah: Cold and dry, so used for heat-related conditions. Can produce euphoria. For thooth decay. Over-sniffing can bring insomnia, etc. Can be balanced with heating things such as ambergris. Nasrallah retails some medieval stories to the effect that the trees were frequented by tigers, and camphor could be gathered only when the tigers were in heat and went off to cool themselves in water. (This is presumably a merchants’ tall tale to justify charging high prices, like many other medieval tall tales about spices.)
Lev and Amar: Antisepsis; cough; jaundice; trachoma, ulcers, pains, swellings, etc. Even for use in dyeing hair black. Common in ointments. Dissolves bladder stones. A major aromatic medicine. Recent uses include the above and also typhoid.
Graziani: In India for sprains and rehumatism. Medieval Arab uses for headache, abscess, kidney and bladder stones.
Bellakhdar et al: l-kafur. Antiseptic, for skin diseases, revulsive.
Ghazanfar: Kafur. Bark, branches and root, anti-convulsant, antihelminthic, carminative.
Madanapala: Karpūra. Aphrodisiac. Cold. Curse burning syndrome, distaste in the mouth, edema. For obesity and some poisons.
Nadkarni: Diaphoretic, stimulant, antiseptic, antispasmodic, expectorant, sedative, carminative, etc. More or less a cureall.
Dash: Sweet, cold, intoxicating (!). Cures eyes, thirst, poison.
Li: Zhang. Wood, zhangcai, and camphor, zhangnao, minor use in several compounds.
- cassia Presl. Lauraceae. Native.
Chinese cinnamon or cassia is not distinguished in the HHYF from other Cinnamomum spp. Probably several were used, with this the most important. See C. zeylanicum below.
Avicenna: As usual, unclear which sp. Darṣīnī or darchīnī. Diluting, absorbent, opening. Oil very hot. Constricting. Pungent, tenuous, erosive. Cinnamon was rubbed on spots, used on swellings and ulcers, used on ringworm. Bark with honey for acne. Oil for nervous tics, colds, earaches. Treats many internal pains. Used with oil, wax and egg yolk for many reasons including preventing production of hardness in uterus and kidneys. Emmenagogue. Various uses for female medicine, etc. Treats fevers. Avicenna notes that juniper berries can substitute. C. tamala (or C. citriodora), sādhaj, malabathrum. Hot and dry. {pi;toces pm jpt swe;;omgs. Etc/ Doiretoc/
Lev and Amar: Cassia was distinguished as salīkha in the Middle East, including in Avicenna and the Genizah documents, but apparently used as C. zeylanicum. C. citriodorum, sādhaj, is malabathrum, with minor uses including preventing caries, treating hot swellings, etc.
Nasrallah: stomachic, whets the mind, aphrodisiac.
Dash: Cold, aromatic. For heart, anorexia, parasites, skin, influenza.
Li: Gui; jungui for small reedy trees. Considerable differences of opinion on humoral qualities, but general agreement that it is hot or very hot. Bark (rarely leaf) for a vast range of uses mostly involving heating and dispelling. The jungui were used for magical practices to produce immortality, about which Li says “Taoist alchemists always make such stories to mislead people” (Li 2003:2945). C. japonicum, tianzhugui, and true laurel, Laurus nobilis, yuegui, follow in the book with minor uses. The entry on true laurel is actually about mythical trees that are obviously not laurel; included are stories (which Li ridicules) of seeds falling from the cassia-tree in the moon.
(Cinnamon and cassia oils are powerfully antiseptic, as well as stimulant and carminative. C. japonicum certainly, C. loureiroi probably, and C. burmannii possibly, are referred to in the HHYF, used more or less the same as C. cassia.)
Cinnamomum japonicum. See C. cassia.
Cinnamon loureiroi. See C. cassia.
Cinnamomum zeylanicum Nees, Lauraceae.
Manniche: Used with other ingredients—mostly vehicles: oil, fat, honey—for unguents for sores, growths, wounds, anal inflammation, etc. Theophrastus describes cinnamon for perfume among the Egyptians.
Dioscorides: I-13, kinamomon. Gunther identifies it as C. cassia, but Dioscorides notes many kinds from many countries. These would be different species and genera. All are warming. Reduces menstruation when drunk with myrrh. Gets rid of poisons, heat, eye problems, etc. With honey on sunburn and skin diseases. For coughs and similar problems, kidneys, dropsy (congestive heart failure), etc.
Dioscorides’s “kassia” (I-12) is equated with C. iners, but, again, the description refers to several plants and tells how to distinguish them. The real stuff—unquestionably true Cinnamomum spp.—is used like 1-13.
(The “kinnamon” problem is monumentally vexed. Kinnamon evidently referred, originally, to a native Greek or Near Eastern plant. The name was extended to anything with a “hot” bark. Cinnamon oil, like chile pepper oleoresin, directly stimulates the pain receptors, thus feeling sharp or hot without actually doing damage. Eventually it settled on Cinnamomum, as being by far the most medicinally useful species. Cinnamon oil is in in fact strongly antiseptic, warming and carminative, stimulant, and generally a first-rate medicine, which appears to be rising again as antibiotic-resistant organisms evolve.)
Levey: C. zeylanicum and C. cassia, dār s.īnī. For happiness. Strengthens stomach and liver. In tooth and breathing recipes.
Al-Bīrūnī: Dār Sīnī, now C. zeylanicum, possibly cassia in his time. Warming, acrid. Used in various medicines.
Lev and Amar: dār s.īnī for both C. zeylanicum and C. cassia; qirfa for the former alone. Coughs, colds, eyes, colic, obstruction, flatulence, diarrhoea, pleurisy, trembling, palpitation, purging, tonic, etc. For urine; emmenagogue, abortifacient; for skin diseases, eyes, eas, etc. (I suspect this would mostly be the oil.) Liver teeth and mouth, depression, hearing, neck pains, etc. Maimonides lists many uses, adding poisons, bites, stings, etc. to the above. Also for sexual health.
Kamal: Salikha, qirfa sini. Aromatic, carminative, astringent. C. zeylanicum (true cinnamon in modern food usage), qurfa, dar sini, same uses. Also astringent for diarrhea, and internal antiseptic for typhoid.
Bellakhdar et al.: qerfa, qerfa galida. Stimulant, notably digestive and cardiac; emmenagogue; used for headache. C. zeylanicum, dar sini, stimulant; used for headaches, memory loss, colds. (Note that qerfa, qurfa, and l-kafur are all forms of the same word. “l” is the definite article in Moroccan Arabic, corresponding to standard Arabic “al.”)
Lebling and Pepperdine: For coughs, colds, stomach; menstrual pain; and childbirth, with many remedies for helping delivery and for recovery after delivery. Most involve mixed spices with fat, honey, or milk. Cf. cardamom.
Madanapala: Tvak. Hot. For poisoning, heart, pelvia, piles, rhinitis, parasites, semen.
Nadkarni: This and other spp. carminative, antispasmodic, aromatic, stimulant, hemostatic, astringent, antiseptic, stomachic. (A long list, but most of these uses are well supported by modern research.) Unani specifically adds absorbent, diuretic, aphrodisiac, demulcent; used for colds, headaches, hiccups, liver, diarrhea, etc.
(Cinnamon contains a volatile oil that is intensely fragrant, and strongly antiseptic and carminative, with very good action on digestion; the oil kills skin diseases but can burn in heavy use. Cinnamon is actually one of the most effective medicines, by modern biomedical standards, in this corpus.)
Circaea sp., Onagraceae. Qirqiya (from the Greek). GuiYa
Nothing in the sources. Probably an identification error.
Cistus ladaniferus, C. creticus. Cistaceae. Lādan, lādhan.
Levey: The name applies to the resin. Used in dentifrice, ointment.
Avicenna: Qissūs, lādhan. Hot, though relatives include some cold items. Some value for retaining hair. Boiled down with wine for ulcers. Poultice also for ulcers. Ointment for burns. Sniffing, with orris root oil, honey, and sodium nitrate, for headaches. Ear drops from tips, with pomegranate peels, relieve ears and teeth. Poultice for spleen. Flowers in wine for dysentery. Emmenagogue. Suppository for menses and abortifacient, and getting placenta out. Suppository for uterine swellings.
Lev and Amar: Minor medication; styptic, constricting, thus e.g. for strengthening penis and constricting glans in Maimonides’ sexual medicine.
(Gum widely used as medicine and soothing agent in Mediterranean from ancient times to today. These and perhaps other spp. can be included in the HHYF terms.)
Citrullus colocynthis Schrad., Cucurbitaceae. Hanzal. (ShaHaMu)HanDaLi
Manniche: C. lanatus probably used for finger tremors, constipation, various magical procedures.
Dioscorides: IV-178, kolokynthis, colocynth. Purging. Made into pills. Drives out phlegm and various diseases. Abortifacient; as pessary. On toothache. Bad for stomach. Suppository for constipation.
Galen: Bad for stomach; indigestible raw.
Avicenna: Ḥanẓal. Dissolving, erosive, absorbent. Young leaves stop bleeding. Put on swellings, etc. Used as massage for leprosy and elephantiasis. Aalso, presumably the fruit here, for nerve pain, arthristis, etc.Powdered for bleeding, cleasnsing the tbrain, washing teeth and mouth, etc. Hollowed, burned, for eardrops. Used for stomach swelling, etc. Cures diarrhea, but purgative. Abortifacient. Used on snake bites.
Levey: Ḥanẓal. For itch, insanity, rheumatism and phlegm.
Al-Bīrūnī: Expels hot and unnatural hu8mors, but dangerous; much use gives diarrhea that can be fatal.
Lev and Amar: Ḥanẓal. Tongue swelling, swollen throat, easing tooth extraction. Pith for joint pains. In prescriptions for fever, tetany, colic. Cathartic. Treats itching, insanity, and much in between. Expectorant. Constipation, headache,stings, epilepsy, lung disease, depressionk, kidneys, etc. Leaves for hemorrhages, boils, leprosy, etc. Roots for sting and bites, and increasing mother’s milk. Various minor uses.
Watermelon, C. vulgaris, purgative, diuretic, for oedema and jaundice, kidneys, internal lesions, bites.
Graziani: Ibn Jazlah used it for elephantiasis, nervous pain, gouit, eye disease, and snakebite. Used today in Iran and Iraq as a drastic cathartic, in Egypt as purgative and astringent.
Kamal: handhal, ‘alqam. Seed oil for liniment.
Ghazanfar: Bites; laxative; joint pain.
Lebling and Pepperdine: purge, suppository.
Madanapala: Indravārunī. Bitter, hot, pungent; laxative; for jaundice, spleen, abdominal diseases.
Nadkarni: Drastic, cathartic, diuretic, emetic, etc.
Dash: For digestion, jaundice, anemia.
(Colocynth still used, and is effective, for the uses noted by Nadkarni. Watermelon is an effective diuretic, still widespread in Old World folk medicine from China to Europe.)
Citrus aurantium L., Rutaceae, bitter orange. Nafash (KeLi)NaFuZhi(Zi). Native (?). A “turunj” in Juan 12, p. 65, could be orange or citron.
(Added here are notes on Citrus limon Burmann / C. aurantifolia Swingle, Rutaceae, lemon and lime. They are not in the HHYF but are not distinguished well in the old herbals, and thus may be included in the general term here; in any case, their modern medical uses in the Middle East are relevant.)
Avicenna: C. aurantium (“C. sinensis” in Bakhtiar edn., but that plant surely unknown in Central Asia in Avicenna’s time), zarrīn darakht. Leaves for urination and menstruation.C. limon, hot and dry. Externally for ringworm, swellings, wounds, etc., and facial paralysis. Strengthens brain. A collyrium from sour lemon helps remove yellow tinge in eyes from jaundice; orally for conjunctivitis. Sour lemon and fruit in sugar for palpoitations, etc., and with vinegar for leedch in throat. Buds and rind help digestion, though rind itself in not very digestible. Lemon with wine is laxative and treats excessive menstrual discharge. Extract calms sexual desire in women. Seeds anti-poison.
Lev and Amar: C. limon, līmūn, Juice mild purgative;peel and leaves against poison (Maimonides). Snakebite, headaches, fainting, stomach, appetite (both increase poor appetite and restrain gluttony), etc. Treats scars (this can work; the combination of oil and acid softens the skin). Not clear whether lime is included in these indications.
Bellakhdar et al: C. limon, lim-deqq, cosmetic; used on skin spots.
Ghazanfar: Lumi, C. aurantifolia. Juice, fruit, peel, bark for cataracts, colds, fever, chest pains, earache, stomachache. Crushed dried fruit made into poultice for thorn sticks. (The dried limes of northern Oman are among the most famous Near Eastern items of commerce, found worldwide today in Middle Eastern food stores.)
Lebling and Pepperdine: C. aurantifolia, lumi, limun. Colds, coughs, colic, diarrhea, mesntrual pain.
Kamal: Leaves of C. aurantium stomachic and antiepileptic. (The first of these uses is still universal in Latin America; ENA, personal research.) One variety, bergamot: fruit, bergamut in Arabic, eaten as antihelminthic.
Madanapala: Jambhīra, C. limon. Sour, hot. Colic, distaste, cardiac pain, parasites, etc. Nārangī (identified as C. reticulata but no doubt actually aurantium or sinensis.). Sour, hot, laxative appetiser, cardiac. Nimbu, C. aurantium, sour, but one var. is sweet; digestive, carminative.
Nadkarni: Dried peel aromatic, stomachic, tonic, astringent, carminative. Oil strong stomachic; topical applications stimulant. Several other citrus spp. discussed.
Dash: As in the Madanapala volume, Dash identifies “nāranga” (here) as C. reticulata, which we doubt. In any case, in Tibet it apparently is used for appetitie, digestion, heart, following ayurvedic norms. C. limon given for thirst, colic, nausea, vomiting, asthma, constipation. This would probably be the juice.
Li: Zhi. Fruit, immature or mature. Bitter, slightly cold, nontoxic, sour. Several pages of recipes. Entry followed by one on trifoliate-orange, Poncirus trifoliata. Gouju; Li notes without comment the old story that bitter (or other) oranges planted north of the Yangzi River, they turn to trifoliate oranges. (This is true; the oranges were grafted onto trifoliate understock, as they still are around the world, and the cold winters and droughts of northern China killed the graft and let the understock grow up. I have seen the same thing happen many times in California.)
(Citrus species contain volatile oils of well-demonstrated value for soothing the stomach, treating minor skin conditions, etc.)
Citrus medica L., Rutaceae. Native to China, but widespread, possibly domesticated in India. Certainly a “western” plant to most east Asians. The lemon is a descendent (probably from a hybrid with lime).
Dioscorides: 1-164, persica mela, C. medica, citron? For stomach and belly; unripe is too binding. Dried or decocted for diarrhea.
1-166, medika, C. medica, citron. Drunk in wine to resist poisons etc. Juice for sweetening breath. Reduces lust in women. Put into clothes-chests to repel moths.
It appears that both these articles apply to citron. The second one clearly does, the description being unmistakable. Apparently we are dealing with the same thing under two names with two different usages.
Al-Bīrūnī: Utrujj. Cucumber-like; name sometimes used for types of cucumber and/or melon. Nothing specific about its medicinal value, but several beautiful poetry quotes.
Graziani: Utruj, C. medica. Widely used; use unspecified.
Kamal: C. medica: Fruit skin stomachic, tonic; seeds antipyretic and antihelminthic; juice astringent, used for vomiting, rheumatism, inflammation.
Madanapala: Bījapūra. Appetiser; for throat, tongue, heart; bleeding. Light and sour. Pulp cold. Skin and flower bitter and hot. Pistil light; constipative; for colic, abdomen. Seed hot; for parasites. Juice for colic, indigestion, constipation, disgestion, anorexia, dyspnoea, cough, thirst, anorexia, etc.
Dash: C. medica for griping, intestinal pain; digestive, cardiac; for asthma, cough, anore
- reticulata (“C. erythrosa” Tanaka) Rutaceae. Native.
Li: Ju. Fruit, seed, pith, leaf, peel all used, in various stages. Major drug. Fruit sweet, sour, warm, nontoxic; peel bitter, pungent, warm and nontoxic. A number of uses cluster around warming, soothing, astringent, and harmonizing functions.
Li discusses many other types of citrus, including pomelo C. grandis.
- x sinensis (C. junos Tanaka). Rutaceae. native
The sweet orange is apparently a very ancient hybrid of tangerine and pomelo.
Li: Jinqiu, guqiao, cheng (the last means sweet orange specifically). Minor uses. Closely related is C. x nobilis, gan, a stable swarm of tangerine-orange hybrids with specific qualities (very sweet, juicy, flavorful, large) gets a separate entry in Li, just before this one (with several obsolete scientific names synonymized in Li 2003).
Cocos nucifera L., Arecaceae. Coconut.
Avicenna: Somewhat hot and dry. Good food, though heavy. Aphrodisiac. Oil for piles, joints. Very old oil—copra oil—kills worms.
Lev and Amar: Very good for sexual health, also hemorrhoids, mental perception.
Dash: Sweet, cold. Strength, virility, corpulence, muscle tissue. Cleanses urinary bladder. (Today, the flesh would be used for the former, the water for the latter.)
(In modern Chinese folk medicine, the meat is used for soothing and nourishment. It is nutritious enough to give some credence to the sexual nutrition claims, but it would work only by helping nutrition generally.)
Colchicum autumnale L., Colchicaceae (Iridaceae). OuSuLingZhang, SuLanZhang.
Dioscorides: IV-84, kolchikon. Poisonous. But counteracts mushroom poisoning.
IV-85, ephemeron, C. parnassicum. Bulb for toothache. Leaves for swellings and humors, applied.
Avicenna: Purgative, biting. Used for gout (somewhat effectively) as a massage. Arthritis. Not good for stomach; weakens it. However, it is laxative and aphrodisiac, the latter with ginger, mint and cumin. Purges phlegm, worms, thick humors.
Levey: Sūranjān. In drugs for calculi and for the spirits.
Graziani: Suranjān. In Babylonia for poison, stings, head and eye, breast pain.
Lev and Amar: sūranjān, khamīra. Kidney stones mental illness, hemorrhoids, abscesses, sexual appetite. Used for fattening in spite of its poisonousness.
Kamal: lihlah, kolshik. Corm and seed cathartic, cholagogue, diuretic, sudorific, emetic, irritant. Poisonous in large doses. Uses in gout, rheumatism, etc., and throat conditions.
Nadkarni: C. luteum substituted in India for the above. Rheumatism, gout, etc. Unani: Alterative, aperient; diseases of liver and spleen.
(Powerful, dangerous stimulant.)
Commiphora myrrha Engl. Burseraceae. Imported. MoYao. Hu: 973
Dioscorides: I-77, smyrna, myrrh. (Identified as Amyris hafal in Gunther 1934:42.) Long directions on telling counterfeits. Warming, drying, astringent. Produces sleep. Emmenagogue, aid in childbirth, applied with wormwood etc. Taken against cough, pain in side or thorax, dysentery, malaria. Kills worms. Sweetens breath. Applied for armpit chafing, teeth and gums, etc. Even cures “broken eares and bared bones” (Gunther 1934:43), etc., when applied with various agents. Various other minor usees. Soot made and used also.
Levey: Murr. In applications for erysipelas, boils, cankers, abscesses, decayed teeth, wounds, eyes, insanity, nosebleeds. The antiseptic and soothing values of myrrh were obviously well known.
Nasrallah: Adds abortifacient and vermifugal uses. Smearing on toe will keep a man able to have sex as long as it is on his toe (Ibn al-Bayt.ār).
Lev and Amar: C. mukul (bdellium, a common medicine in the Near East) for colic, diarrhea, liver, sciatica, veins, legs, nails, swellings, lungs, cough, kidney stones, hemorrhoids, bile, expelling fetus, etc. Various kinds noted.
- myrrha, murr, stomach, liver, coughs, colds, ulcers, sores, toothache, wounds, eyes, hemorrhages, snakebite, dog bite, worms, etc.
Kamal: “It is stimulant and astringent, and is used in dyspepsia, chronic bronchitis, leukorrhea, amenorrhea, and as a local application in stomatitis, carious teeth, and inflammation of the gums.” (p. 91)
Ghazanfar: Resin for colds, fevers, digenstion, hemorrhoids, toothache.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Murr, murrah. Abdominal pain, chest, childbirth, colic, coughs, colds, digestion, health, infections, menstrual pain, sore throat; topically on wounds, cuts, newborn (navel), burns.
Nadkarni: Gum stimulant, expectorant, emmenagogue; externally, astringent.
Dash: Cold, aromatic, for skin and blood, uterus, thirst.
Li: Moyao. Disperses blood stasis, helps physical damage of all kinds, swellings, pains, etc. Known to be from the west, but a local Southeast Chinese myrrh is mentioned; it would be a different species. Bitter, balanced, nontoxic.
(In addition to the proverbial use as incense, myrrh gum is genuinely antiseptic, astringent, soothing. It was one of the more effective drugs in this canon. Still used medicinally, and was even in biomedical practice till very recently.)
Commiphora opobalsamum (L.) Engler. Burseraceae. Balsan. BoLaSang.
Dioscorides: Drying, heating; long discussion of how to tell it, so clearly important import
Avicenna: hot, dry. Digestive and diuretic. Used on sores, swellings, pains, skin conditions.
Levey: Bakasān. Drying, heating; clyster.
al-Bīrūnī: Large tree; oil healing, mixed with other substances.
Lev and Amar: balasān. Eyes, epilepsy, palpitation, purging, stomach, etc. Oil for spleen, kidneys, liver, womb, lungs, cough, tuberculosis, urine, skin, bites, stings, poisons. Works against infertility, dizziness.
Nadkarni: Fruit carminative, expectorant, stimulant; gum astringent and demulcent.
(Effective antibacterial.)
Convolvulus scammonia L. Convolvulaceae. Scammony. Mah.mūda
Dioscorides: purgative.
Avicenna: Saqmūniā. Hot and dry. Cledansing, dissolvent. Used in poultices for skin disease, ulcers, etc. For headaches; but harms heart, stomach, intestines and liver. Purges yellow bile, but to be used with care.
Al-Kindī: purgative, stomach medicines.
Lev and Amar: Root. Fever, nervs, stomach, liver. Dangerous; produces diarrhea and abortion. In ointment for skin, wounds, scars, headaches. Powerful purgative. Exfpels worms. Can cure intestinal diseases, palpitations, insanity.
Nadkarni: Cathartic; used for dropsy and anasarca.
Eisenman: C. subhirsutus seeds used for gastrointestinal conditions; infusion of plant for pain, convulsions, wounds, asthma, tuberculosis. Biomedical action: analgesic but irritating to eyes; large doses paralyze nervous system. Less toxic derivatives used for spasms and other conditions.
(Powerful purgative. Not in Chinese practice though important in the Near East; presumably too strong in a negative way for the Chinese medical spirit.)
Coptis chinensis Franch., Ranunculaceae. Native.
Avicenna: Coptis trifolia, māmīrān, hot and dry, purifying; minor uses typical of hot and dry drugs.
Nadkarni: C. teeta. Bitter tonic; for appetite, digestion, etc. Used in jaundice, convalescence, fevers, dyspepsia; conjunctivitis (salve).
Li: C. chinensis, huanglian, Chinese goldthread. Rhizome most used; bitter, cold, nontoxic. Many pages on this very popular Chinese drug, whose coldness makes it used to treat Fire of many sorts.
(Modern research confirms some traditional values, due to berberine, but more research is needed. It is very likely that in the HHYF it is used in place of C. teeta, as one of several cases in which a native drug was used only because it was a substitute for the Middle Eastern one. C. teeta occurs in Yunnan and is harvested by minority peoples there. It is used as an analgesic and antibacterial as well as for the uses of C. chinensis. This is another of the interesting cases in which Avicenna is our only western source for an otherwise Indian drug.)
Cordia myxa L., Boraginaceae. Sibistan, sebesten. XiBiXiTang.
Theophrastus: food (it has a small, pear-like fruit).
Levey: Sabastān, sibāsah. In electuary for happiness and stomach and liver.
Al-Bīrūnī: Shajarah al-dibq and other names. Disiccant, refrigerant. Against heat and coughs. Removes hardness in chest. Cures blenorrhea due to agitation in bile in kidneys and bladder. Expels worms.
Avicenna: C. sebestena. Sibistān, Persian sīsabān. Laxative.
Lev and Amar: Ointment for liver etc. Purgative. Malaria, etc. Astringent; dry but neutral (not hot or cold).
Graziani: Sabastān. Ibn Jazlah used it for bronchial and pulmonary problems and stomach disorders, to calm sneezing, for throat pain, and as mild laxative; if taken excessively could harm the liver. “Al-Kindī has it in a remedy to lift up the mood and strengthen stomach and liver”(180:215). Used today in Iran for coughs and chest, in Egypt and Syria as laxative and for respiratory problems.
Kamal: C. sebestena, sabastan, mokhatah. Soothing for chest conditions and urinary tract infections. Apparently the fruit is eaten for this.
Ghazanfar: Seeds and leaves for stomach ailments and wounds.
Madanapala: Ślesmāntaka. Hot. For hair, poisoning, pustular eruptions, ulcers, erysipelas, skin; fruit [the foregoing was presumably the leaves] for virility, consumption, blood.
Nadkarni: Mild tonic. C. latifolia better known; for chest, uterus, etc. Demulcent; bark mild astringent and tonic.
Dash: Sweet, cold. No special uses.
Coriandrum sativum L., Apiaceae. Kashnij. Yuansuizi.
Manniche: Many remedies for stomach problems used it. Externally it was used in unguent for small sores (herpes?). The related cumin Cuminum cyminum was very heavily used for stomach complaints—as it still is, worldwide.
Dioscorides: III-71, koriannon. Cooling. Heals skin eruptions and ulcers, inflammations, etc. Seed drunk can expel worms and increase male semen. Excess of the seed is bad. Juice for inflammations, applied to skin.
Avicenna: Kuzbarah. Cold and dry, but Galen said it could be warm—perhaps having both a cold and a warm property. (Modern Chinese and others also tend to disagree about its coldness and warmth.) Constricts. Used for swellings, etc. With rose oil, honey and dried grape for hives and eczema (the combination of soothing and antiseptic qualities would work very well here). Used for fainting, epilepsy, fevers related to yellow or black bile or phlegm. Fresh coriander used for sleep. Treats inflammations and mouth sores. Powdered dry coriander for mouthwash. Helps eyes, relieves stomach, purges worms, etc. Fresh and dry both cause mental confusion and reduce sexual desire and male potency (a very odd claim).
Levey: Kuzbarah. Headache, etc.
Nasrallah: Digestive, soporific, eases childbirth.
Lev and Aman: Eyes, diarrhea, inflmmatory swellings, headaches, fever, heart. Plant made into compress for stings. Also, taken, to accelerate childbirth. Incense from it keeps snakes and scorpions away. Sexual medicine and stimulant. Several other minor uses. Modern uses add toothache. Another all-purpose plant. (Its carminative and stimulant effects help digestion—hence wide use in Near Eastern spicing then and now—but it hardly deserves this wide use.)
Graziani: Kuzbarah. Ibn Jazlah used it for eyes, bleeding, vomiting, but warns it dulls the eyes and reduces semen.
Kamal: Kuzburah, qalantarah, etc. Fruit carminative, aromatic.
Bellakhdar et al.: for scurvy (evidently the leaves); anti-rabies, stomachic, aphrodisiac, tonic, antiinflammatory (presumably the seeds; aphrodisiac probably only as mixed into ras-al-hanout, traditional Moroccan spice and drug mixes used for that purpose and often working through incorporation of Spanish fly [cantharid beetles]).
Ghazanfar: Kobzra, kabzara, khabzara. Dried seeds, leaves, carminative, for digestion, swellings, eyes, general tonic; seeds boiled in water, for nausia as well as general stomachic, or in vinegar with sugar as tonic for heart and system.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Kuzbara, kizbara. Digestive.
Madanapala: Dhānyā. Diuretic, cardiac tonic, appetite; alleviates excess dosas; for dyspnoea, cough, thirst, piles, parasites.
Nadkarni: Fruit stimulant, carminative, stomachic, antibilious, refrigerant, tonic, diuretic, aphrodisiac. Leaves pungent and aromatic.
Dash: Diuretic. Pungent and bitter.
Sun: Coriander (Chinese parsley, cilantro) seeds (huxuzi胡荽子): sour, balanced, nonpoisonous. They help digest grains and recover one’s appetite. Its leaves cannot be taken frequently, or it will cause short memories (duowang多忘). Hua Tuo said, “If one has armpit odor (lit. “fox smell,” huchou 胡臭), bad breath (kouqichou 口氣臭), or (?chi[匿蟲]齒), taking coriander leaves will worsen it. if one is suffering from noxious qi in the abdomen, he should never take it. Otherwise, it will arouse his chronic conditions. One having cut-wounds should not eat it either.”
Li: Husui, yuansui. Root and leaf pungent, warm, slightly toxic. Good food; digestive. Beneficial to the body, protecting; many specific uses. Seed pungent, sour, balanced, nontoxic.
The HHYF notes a “Western Coriander,” unidentified.
(Overall, note the wide agreement across cultures on the value of this plant.)
Cornus macrophylla Wall, Cornaceae. Native.
Sun: Dogwood (Cornus officinalis Sieb. et Zucc., shizhuyu食茱萸): spicy, bitter, greatly warming, nonpoisonous. It should be collected in the ninth month. When preserved for a long time, it becomes better. When its fruit is closed [presumably: not ripe enough to burst open], it is poisonous and should not be used. It stops pain and helps the qi move downward. It terminates vomiting caused by coughing. It eliminates coldness in the five internal organs. It warms up the Middle Jiao and treats every kind of cold shi[4] that will not disappear (lengshi buxiao冷實不消). Its raw, white bark mainly treats the illness of being attacked by noxious qi (zhong’e中惡), stomachache, and toothache. Its thin roots treat Three Worms and threadworm. The Yellow Emperor said, “In the sixth and seventh month, do not eat dogwood, or it will hurt the spirit and the qi and arouse hot-summer qi (fuqi伏氣).” If one’s throat is not clear, or if wicked wind attacks people (zeifeng zhongren賊風中人), or one’s mouth is wry and cannot speak, take one sheng升 of dogwood and get rid of black seeds and closed fruits. Take three sheng of fermented soy beans (chi豉). Add pure liquor (qingjiu清酒) to the dogwood and beans. Boil them till they reach the boiling point for four or five times. Take the juice and cool it down. The patient has half a sheng of the juice three times a day. After it sweats him a little, he will recover. If one is stung by a scorpion (chai蠆), he should chew dogwood, put what has been chewed up on the wound, and the poison will be dispelled.
Li: Songyang. Leaf, sweet, salty, balanced, nontoxic, for fractures and blood; bark, bitter, balanced, nontoxic, for dysentery. [Tannin makes it effective for this.]
Cornus mas L., Cornaceae. Dogwood. One reading for mū, but that is normally, and surely in the HHYF, Meum athamanticum. However, dogwood uses in the west are clearly relevant to the above entry, which probably was used as a substitute for C. mas in western formulations.
Avicenna: Hot and dry. Diluent, cleansing, opening. Root taken for arthritis, painful urination, bladder pain, menstruation, and “cold and aseous inflation of the liver” (376). Ash of bark on wounds.
Lev and Amar: C. mas, mū, qaraniyya. (Ali Zargari’s book of Persian plants lists this second name, but not mū, as an Arabic name for this sp.) Phlegm, poisons, etc. For urine and generating heat. Helps smell, voice, stickiness, soothes stomach, live, kidneys. Stimulates sexual desire, cures infections of bladder, stops sweating, dispeels pains. Oil for shivers, paralysis, coldness, weakness.
Corylus avellana L. Betulaceae. Hazelnut. Mentioned in Index. Not in our recipes.
Avicenna: Aṭyuṭ, bunduq (“round thing”). Hot and moist. Cleansing, constricting.Slow to digest. Minor uses include use to remove blue spots on infants, but Avicenna says only “some” believe this, meaning he does not (p. 284).
Crataegus azarolus L. Rosaceae. Common hawthorn. Soup of this plant, presumably the fruit, mentioned in Index.
Dioscorides: Sweet fruit used.
Avicenna: Constricting. Best fruit for eliminating yellow bile.
Eisenman: C. altaica. Leaves and dried flowers and fruits in tea for “hypertension, dizziness, tachycardia, insomnia,m heart diseases and common colds” (83). Laxative. Biomedical evidence for effectiveness, for heart etc. Tannins give some value. Vitamin C content high. C. songarica, similar uses and values.
(Fruits of Chinese hawthorns are widely used medicinally in China today, for cooling, tonic, astringency, but oddly absent from the herbals.)
Cressin alenois. Possible identification for a mysterious name in the Table of Contents. Used in Morocco for appetite and as general stimulant (Abdelhai Sijelmassi, Plantes médicinales de Maroc, on website). Nothing else recorded in the literature.
Crocus sativus L., Iridaceae. SaFaLang or ZanFaLan Safran/zafaran FangHungHua Hu:596
Dioscorides: I-25, krokos. Applied with women’s milk to stop flux of eyes. Drunk and/or pessary for uterus. Stirs lust. Soothes inflammations, applied. Diuretic.
I-64, krokinon. Complicated recipe for oil with saffron and other herbs infused. Warming, soporific, etc.
Levey: Za’farān. In musk, air freshener, and perfume products. For nose, scrofula, swollen head, liver, sore throat and mouth, bad teeth and gums, eyes, epilepsy and insanity, stomachic. In these various medicines it is probably used largely to give pleasant flavor and stimulant quality. Others used it for eyes, etc.
Avicenna: za‘farān. Hot and dry. Constricting and dissolving. Dissolves swellings. Rubbed on inflammation. Causes headache but used for sedative. With wine, makes drunkenness worse, causing uncontrollable behavior. Strengthens eyesight; various optical uses. Exhilarant; cardiac tonic; good for lungs and chest conditions. Causes vomiting, reduces adppetite, diuretic, aphrodisiac. Used for hardness, malignant ulcers, etc. in uterus.
Nasrallah: Adds that, in alcoholic drinks, saffron creates “an ecstatic state of euphoria, almost to the point of madness” (2007:678). Ibn Sīna noted that one could even lose one’s soul.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Very important in Al-Samarqandī’s formulations; major medicine.
Lev and Amar: za‘farān. One of the curealls, used for the usual reasons: eyes, headache, stomach, brain, liver, bile, sexual energy, epilepsy, hemorrhages, purgation, inflammations, women’s ailments, various topical applications, and so on and on. Hot and dry.
Graziani: Za‘faran, shiyaf. Ibn Jazlah used it in eye powder, eye wash, and to meliorate strong medicines. Also strengthens heart. Excessive use harmful to lungs, causes headache and drowsiness.
Kamal: Za’faran; emmenagogue.
Bellakhdar et al: emmenagogue and abortive; cardiac stimulant.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Headaches, heart; externally, skin care. Anticancer potential noted, and a less plausible finding of value for learning and memory, though like lemon balm and mint it certainly has a soothing and focusing effect when sniffed.
Madanapala: Kunkuma. Hot, pungent. Makes one happier and alleviates excess of dosas. For skin, ulcers, parasites, headache.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, aphrodisiac, stomachic; anodyne, antispasmodic; emmenagogue.
Dash: Bitter, astringent, hot. For parasites among other things.
Li: Fanhonghua. Sweet, plain, nontoxic. Barely known. Even so, mentioned for melancholy with stagnation and suffocation, blood stasis, mania, etc.; can make one happy.
(The importance of this stimulant, warming medicinal spice continues, though it is now priced out of the reach of most. Saffron is in fact antiseptic and warming. Thus, like rose, it fits the medieval Near Eastern ideal of a plant that is beautiful, wonderful-tasting, and genuinely medicinal! No wonder it became a cureall.
Throughout east Asia, turmeric or safflower are substituted for saffron in dyeing, cooking, and medicine. Turmeric does have spice and medicinal value; safflower has no well-demonstrated value and is tasteless. The two were enough to block saffron from getting established in China.)
Croton tiglium L., Euphorbiaceae. introd. SaHeiMuNiYa. Egyp, Habb il-muluk
Avicenna: Māhūdānah; seed is dand. Hot and dry. Strong vomiting and laxative agent. For a range of stomach conditions.
Kamal: C. cascarilla, qishr-‘anbar, nabat habb al-muluk. Bark aromatic, antipytretic, soothing, anti-emetic, expectorant.
- tiglium, habb al-muluk, hab al-Salatin. Seeds produce an oil used as antihelminthic, and cathartic for constipation, anasarca, syncope, and externally for rheumatism, gout, etc.
Bellakhdar et al.: drastic.
Ghazanfar: C. confertus for constipation, coughs, tonic, pains.
Nadkarni: Drastic purgative. Seeds vermifuge. Oil powerful cathartic; vesicant. Plant used as extreme measure, for purgation and for violent stimulus in dropsy, apoplexy, etc.
Li: badou. Major drug. Seed pungent, warm, toxic. Cures diarrhea and other intestinal complaints. Vermifuge. Usual huge range, but also some instructions on what not to treat with so poisonous a cure. Seed coat and seed oil sometimes used.
(Powerful, dangerous purgative and vesicant.)
Cucumis melo and its var. conomon (Thunb) Mak. Cucurbitaceae. Shaogua. Native. (conomon is a native Chinese variety, but the sweet fruit is west Asian.)
Avicenna: C. melo, biṭṭīkh. Cleansing. Unripe and ripe fruit and seeds all used. Flesh and seeds used to clear skin; peel on forehead prevents eye secretions. Root produces vomiting. Diuretic.
Wild cucumber (C. sativus?). Hot and dry. Wild one used for medicine. Used on ulcers and sores, and internally for dysentery, urination, menstruation, vomiting, etc.
Lev and Amar: C. melo, shammām, diuretic, good for stomach, useful on swellings and skin. C. melo var. chate (with a long, hairy, grooved fruit) for liver, cough, aphrodisiac, etc. Wounds, bites, diuretic, stomach-soothing. Common food. C. sativus, ḥ, minor use for fevers and diuretic and stomach.
Sun: Chinese melon (yuegua越瓜): sweet, balanced, nonpoisonous. One cannot take it too much. It is good for intestines and stomach.
(The latter is a small, smooth fruit, but otherwise similar to the Near Eastern one. It works as a diuretic and stomach-soother—note that both the Genizah physicians and Sun knew its value for the stomach, though they could not have been in touch. It might help cough.)
Cuminum cyminum. Cumin. This apiaceous plants’ small dry fruits (“cumin seeds”) are medicinal throughout the Near East and areas influenced by it. Surprisingly, one rather thin mention in Juan 34 is all we have on it in the HHYF. It was probably confused with other apiaceous fruits.
Dioscorides: stomachic; with wine for poisons.
Avicenna: kammūn. Hot and dry. Warming. Relieves gas. Erosive, drying, constricting. Wash for cleansing face. Ointment, with oil and borad bean flour, for inflammation of the testes. With vinegar for acne. Inhalation of powder with vinegar, for nosebleeds. Chewed with olive oil or salt and used externally. Used internally for labored breathing; stomachic.
Levey: carminative, stomachic, carminative, stimulant; against flatulence. In India for arthritis etc.
Ghazanfar: “antispasmodic, carminative, sedative and stimulant” (p. 207). Several active ingredients explain at least the carminative and stimulant functions (it is hard to believe how it could also be a sedative!). For diarrhea, nosebleed, sexual potency, colic.
(The traditional heavy use of this spice in beans, a use invented in the ancient Near East and spreading with beans to Mexico and elsewhere, is based not only on flavor but on the fruits’ considerable success at improving digestion and combating flatulence. However, the spice is almost unknown in China.)
Curcuma longa (C. aromatica in Kong). Salisb. Zingiberaceae. Introd
Levey: C. longa, kurkum. Throat, mouth, teeth, gums.
Avicenna: Hot and dry. Dissolvent. Used for nerves eyes, jaundice.
Lev and Amar: kurkam, kurkum. Teeth, throat, gums, mouth, eyes. Jaundice, stoach-ace, digetion, headaches, vagina. Purgative. Hemorrhoids. Hot and dry. Imported from India and liked to saffron.
Ghazanfar: C. longa, kurkum. Bronchitis, coughs, bruises, skin, eyes; rhizome used.
Madanapala: C. longa, haridrā. Hot. For skin diseases, urinary disorders, vitiation of blood, edema, anemia, ulcer.
Nadkarni: Tonic, stimulant, carminative. C. longa, Same. Used for liver, etc., and even worms.
Dash: Cures poisoning, helps bones heal, etc. Pungent, bitter, cure urinary problems, etc.
Dash: C. longa bitter, hot, eliminates wastes, cures poisoning, urinary diseases, itch, skin coditions, parasites, julcers, rhinitis, anorexia. [Much of this is folk Indian usage.]
Li: Turmeric, C. longa, yujin, includes C. aromatica. Pungent, bitter, cold, nontoxic. Many uses for pains and illnesses.
(Strong stimulant effect; stomachic; vitamin and iron content makes it valuable for nutrition, which explains some of the traditional medical uses. Under study today for anticancer, antiseptic and antiparasite uses.)
Curcuma zedoaria (Berg.) Rosc., zedoary. Zingiberaceae. Imported. C. zerumbet (Rosc.) Roxb. Zurunbat (Egyptian). ZaErNaBaDi.
Levey: Zurunbād. Nosebleed. Used elsewhere for stomachic, tonic, carminative, etc.
Al-Bīrūnī: For eyes. Antitoxin.
Avicenna: Zaranbād. Hot and dry. Dense. Relieves gases. Cardiac tonic. Good against insect bites.
Kamal: C. zerumbet. Cardiac tonic, other minor uses.
Bellakhdar et al: C. longa, kerqum, digestive stimulant, for blood diseases, against amnesia.
Lebling and Pepperdine: C. longa, kurkum. On burns, eyes, infections, skin ailments. Smoke for colds and coughs. One of the spice foods for women after delivery, in soup with meat, onion, pepper, cumin.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, carminative, expectorant, demulcent, diuretic, rubefacient. Root in particular is cooling, diuretic, aromatic. Used widely. C. zerumbet used like ginger.
Dash: Pungent, bitter, hot, appetiser, stimulates digestion, cures spleen, piles, skin, cough.
Li: Peng’eshu. Rhizome used. Bitter, pungent, warm, nontoxic. Similar uses to above.
Cuscuta epithymum L. /or/ Bove ex Choisy, Convolvulaceae. Dodder of thyme. (It grows as a parasite on thyme, hence the specific scientific and Arabic names, both from Dioscorides’ Greek for “on thyme.” Many other very similar dodders occur, and must have been used; the temptation to pass them off as this one would have been great, since the dried medicinal material would have been very difficult to recognize to species.) Aftimun, AFuTiMeng
Dioscorides: IV-79, epithymon. Drunk with honey for purging and black choler (melancholy).
Avicenna: Hot, dry and pungent. Relieves gas; digestive. Not good for those with yellow bile excess. Purgative for black bile and phlegm. Avicenna also has an entry for European dodder, C. europaea, Arabic kushūth, a different plant.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Similar uses; very important to Al-Samarqandī, as it is in the HHYF.
Lev and Amar: afīthimūn. Influenze spasms, epilepsy depression (al-Kindī). Vomiting, bile, nerves, worms, hert diseases, purging, etc. Hot and dry. An unidentified species or set of species is kashūth, with various uses, including liver, spleen, malaria, and stomach. Diuretic, purgative, emmenagogue. For pains and infections. Maimonides uses it in a sexual medicine for “excitation and great desire” but notes this medicine also causes “sorrow and depression” (which makes one wonder when it could have been worth bothering with; see p. 399).
Nadkarni: C. reflexa, alterative, purgative, antihelminthic. Seeds carminative and anodyne. Stem purgative.
Li: C. chinensis, tusizi. Seed useds; pungent, balanced, nontoxic.
(This species of dodder parasitizes thyme, hence the Greek name, lit. “on thyme,” and its Arabic derivative, also the English name dodder-of-thyme. Its modern uses seem minor, but it was one of the most important medieval remedies.)
Cydonia vulgaris (C. oblonga) and C. indica Spach., Rosaceae. Shull. ShuLu. (In the Near East it would be vulgaris. In actual practice in China, C. vulgaris might have been used, but Pseudocydonia sinensis (a.k.a. Chaenomeles sinensis, Cydonia sinensis) would have been the major medicinal quince.)
Dioscorides: V-28, C. vulgaris, wine (oinos kydonites) binding; for stomach, dysentery, liver, kidneys (diuretic).
Levey: C. vulgaris, safarjal, seed in drug for coughs, in a mothwash, etc.
Avicenna: C. vulgaris, safarjal (Persian bīh). Cold and dry. Oil constricting. Oil on ulcers and skin. Roasted quince on eye swelligs. Extract for difficult breathing, asthma, etc. (Still used for this in China.) Treats vomiting and hangover. Diuretic.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Al-Samarqandī and others boiled down the fruit and made syrups, robs, and preserves of it, for its own value but also as vehicle for medicines. (The modern use of it for quince paste, the original “marmelade” [from Spanish marmelada], derives from this; the paste is still used in folk medicine in many parts of the world. In the New World tropics, where quinces will not grow, guavas were early substituted, producing one of the world’s great confections.)
Lev and Amar: C. oblonga (=C. vulgaris). Safarjal. Strengthens stomach, helps check diarrhea; seeds, fruits, and jam for stomach in general. Headaches. Seed oil for medications against abscesses of liver.
Kamal: C. vulgaris, safargal, safarag. Astringent.
Nadkarni: C. vulgaris, Fruit astringent, demulcent, tonic. Leaves, buds and bark astringent. Seeds used for gonorrhea, dysentery.
Sun (almost certainly referring to Chaenomeles sp.): Quince (muguashi木瓜實): sour, salty, warm, astringent, and nonpoisonous. It mainly cures the illness caused by wet qi (shibiqi濕痹氣), cholera, violent vomiting, ongoing spasms in the back part of the legs (houjiao zhuanjin buzhi後腳轉筋不止). Its uncooked bark is nonpoisonous. It is edible after being boiled.
Li: C. oblonga (=C. vulgaris), sour, sweet, slightly warm, nontoxic. Minor uses, mostly for indigenstion. Stops watery diarrhea.
(The astringent quality and the fibre in quince do work against diarrhea. The fruit juice is boiled down to a solid cheese-like substance in the Mediterranean world, and thus in Mexico; various versions using other fruit are found elsewhere in the world. This is still used medicinally for the throat. The Chinese use quince syrup for the throat and for cooling in general, and for harmonizing with other cooling herbal medicines in a range of situations. I can testify from experience that the throat-soothing functions are real.)
Cymbopogon schoenanthus (L.) Spreng., Poaceae. Idkhkir
See Andropogon schoenanthus.
Cynanchum atratum Bge. Apocynaceae (Asclepidaceae). Native. A Sa Long
Avicenna: C. vincetoxicum, qunna barā. Cleansing, erosive. Externally for skin, shedding skin,ulcers. Clears tjhick fluids from brain by sniffing water of roots (presumably infusion). For lungs, liver, spleen, etc.
Li: Baiwei. Root. Bitter, salty, balanced (or cold) and nontoxic. Large range of uses. Many other spp. mentioned.
Cyperus rotundus L. Cyperaceae. Native.
Dioscorides: kypeiros. Root used. Warming, diuretic and useful for kidney/bladder stones. Used for scorpion bites. Emmenagogue. Used in ointment for eyes and other conditions.
Levey: Su’d. In drugs for canker, ulcers, teeth.
Avicenna: C. esculentus, ḥabb al-zalim. Hot and moist. Fattening. Increases seminal fluid. C. rotundus, sa’ad, used on ulcers in “state of foul decay” (804), on joints and nerves, chronic nose and throat disesaes. Expels stones.
Lev and Amar: C. longus, su‘d. Against scorpion stings (topically?) Stimulated menstruation. Treats mouth and teeth, thus in toothpaste. In medication to eliminate sexual desire. Hot and dry.
Graziani: Su’d. Used for taste and wonderful smell.
Kamal, C. esculentus, habb al-Aziz, habb al-Zalam. Oil relaxing; alleviates pains of mastitis.
Bellakhdar et al: the sp. for hair care, tonic; C. longus reconstituant, aromatic
Madanapala: Musta. Cold. Digestive stimulant, carminative. For parasites, bleeding, thirst, fever.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, tonic, demulcent, diuretic, antihelminthic, stomachic, carminative, diaphoretic, astringent, emmenagogue.
Li: Shacao, xiangfuzi. Rhizome sweet, slightly cold, nontoxic, bitter to some. Foliage and flowers also used. Important drug with many pages of uses and recipes. A very standard qi regulator.
(Tubers roasted for soothing plaster in Middle East.)
Daemonorhops draco Bl., Arecaceae. Imported. XueJie. Hu: 659
Li: Qilinjie. Resin. Sweet, salty, balanced, nontoxic. For pain, bleeding, blood stasis, new flesh, other phyusical injury issues; external conditions generally. Various other uses.
Daphne mezereum L., Thymeleaceae. Mazaryun. MaZaErRong (?)
Dioscorides: IV-148, daphnoides (literally “laurel-like,” because in Greek daphne applied to laurel, Laurus nobilis; in English as in scientific Latin it was rather unfortunately applied to the unrelated genus Daphne). Leaf taken, apparently eaten rather than in tea, to expel phlegmatic matter from stomach; causes vomiting; emmenagogue; provokes sneezing. Leaves and fruit for purge.
Avicenna: Mādhrīum (from the Greek). Hot and dry to fourth degree (i.e. extreme). Cleansing, purifying. Removes dead skinb, treats vitiligo and spots. Also on skin fungus, ulcers (with honey), dead skin, scabies. Mouthwash. “Very harmful to the liver” (726; true enough). Purges oiut water. Expels worms. Careful instructions given on dosage, since overdose is deadly.
Bellakhdar et al: D. gnidium, lezzaz, hair-care, abortive. D. laureola, walidrar, drastic.
Li: D. genkwa, yuanhua. Sources disagree on humoral codings but agree that it is toxic (which it is, by any standards). Several pages of medical uses for dozens of conditions.
- odora, ruixiang, sweet, salty, nontoxic, for laryngeal infection (only).
(Dangerously toxic plant.)
Daucus carota L. Apiaceae. Introduced, but long cultivated in China. DuHu
Dioscorides: III-83, three kinds of “daukos” described, at least one of which is surely this sp. All have seeds that are warming. Emmenagogue and abortifacient. Diuretic. Help with coughs, bites, swellings, etc. See Athamantha above.
Levey: Jazar. Seed for stomach and for sexual overindulgence. In one remedy for calculus.
Avicenna: jazar. Hot and moist. Wild carrot seed is strong laxative. Powdered seeds and leaves for corroxsive ulcers. For inflamed chest. Relieves abdominal pain; diuetic; wild seeds, unlike seeds of garden form, do not produce gas. Stimulates menstruation, but the use for abortion (so well known in Europe) is not mentioned.
Lev and Amar: In addition to the usual jazar, it apparently was called dawqū, dawkaws and daucos in some Genizah documents, an odd bit of Latin. Palpitations, eye problems, purgative. In theriac, and the usual minor complaints—pains, cough, bites, and so on—that seem to have had every drug in the Genizah documents used as opportunity permitted. Maimonides held it hot and dry and used it in sexual medicine.
Kamal: Jazar. Seeds carminative and diuretic, juice stomachic and diuretic, used in jaundice and bronchitis. (The use for jaundice is presumably sympathetic magic.)
Bellakhdar et al: urinary infections.
Ghazanfar: Gizrī Crushed seeds with honey for sexual potency.
Madanapala: Grñjana. Hot, digestive, constipative, for bleeding and piles.
Nadkarni: Fruits abortifacient and for diarrhea. Root for first-aid poultices, burns, skin, etc.
Eisenman: Common weed in high Central Asia. Vermifuge, purgative, etc. Extract of seed has been used biomedically for cholesterol, kidney and gallbladder problems, coronary conditions, etc., but seem not usually current.
Li: Huluobo (“Iranian radish”; today hongluobo, “red radish”). Sweet, pungent, slightly warm, nontoxic. Largely a food; good for appetite and health generally, improves digestion.
(Wild carrot plants still used as an abortifacient; unpredictable, dangerous, but a resort of the desperate. The cultivated carrot is often said to have been developed in Afghanistan in the late Middle Ages, but there are perfectly unmistakable pictures of domestic orange carrots in Dioscorides mss. in Europe, going back to the Juliana Anicia codex of 512; see Carrot Museum website, www.carrotmuseum.co.uk.)
Delphinium staphisagria L. Ranunculaceae. Zabīb al-jabal.
Dioscorides: Phlegm, toothache, rheumatic gums, itches.
Levey: Zabīb al-jabal, mayūbazaj. Epilepsy, neck pustules. Today, as emetic, for itch and skin.
Very widely used in Near East at all time periods.
Avicenna: D. staphisagria, mawīzaj. “Seeds are burning, corrosive, pungent, and biting” (p. 658). Kill lice (better with arsenic) and mites. Chewed for clearing phlegm and edema from brain. Used in mouthwashes, etc. D. officinale: jadwār, zarduār, etc. Antidote against snake bites, aconite, insect bites, etc. Not well known to this writer.
Lev and Amar: zabīb al-jabal, etc. Epilepsy, neck pustules, skin, lice, toothache.
Nadkarni: various related spp., minor uses.
Eisenman: D. confusum, tea for intestinal disorders, muscle tone, veterinary antiparasitic medicine. Several current biomedical uses for delphiniums; highly toxic but can be used for anesthesia, parkinson’s disease, various nervous conditions. D. semibarbatum tea with barley flour on tumors. Ashes on eczema and scabies. Tea for fever,flu, sore thbroat, burns, anticonvulsive, stomach, etc. Kills flies and cockroaches.
Desmodium (Hedysarum) gangeticum DC., Fabaceae. Matin MaTing (?)
Nadkarni: Bitter tonic, febrifuge, digestive, anticatarrh. D. latifolium alterative, tonic, for diarrhea, vomiting, insanity, ulcers.
Dolichos lablab L. Fabaceae. Native. (Now renamed Lablab purpureus, but we retain the old name here for convenience, since it is used in almost all the references.)
Levey: lūbiyāh; this name may also apply to Vigna sinensis (it is a general Arabic word for beans, now including New World beans unknown to medieval Arabia). In a preparation for freckles.
Avicenna: Lablāb. Hot and dry. Softening, dissolving, drying, purifying. Removes hair and kills lice. Leaves usable on large wounds, as poultice or internally with wine. Poltice on wounds also. Said ver good. Used for earaches also. Treats chest and lung afflictions including asthma (as with other beans, presumably mixed with more obviously medicinal items). Leves with vinegar for enlarged, inflamed spleen. Purges burnt bile.
Kamal: Liblab, kisht, etc. No medical use noted.
Ghazanfar: Lablab. Roots aphrodisiac, laxative, diuretic, and to regulate menstruation.
Nadkarni: Seeds aphrodisiac.
Li: Biandou (a name now used for the broad bean or the lima bean). Sweet, slightly warm, nontoxic. Several minor uses.
Doronicum scorpioides Lam. (D. grandiflorum), Asteraceae, leopard’s bane. Darunaj (Gr). DuLongZhi.
Dioscorides: IV-77, akoniton, Doronicum pardalianches. See under Aconitum above.
Levey: D. pardalianches L. Durūnj, darsūnaj. In collyrium, etc.
Avicenna: Darūnaj, khāniq al-namir. Hot and dry. Usual minor uses. Stimulates heart. “It causes leopards to suffocate” (p. 650).
Lev and Amar: D. scorpioides, darwanj, for eyes, and an anaphrodisiac. Hot and dry.
Nadkarni: Root of D. hookeri aromatic and tonic. D. pardalianches cardiac, tonic, for depressio, melancholia, and scorpion stings.
Dracaena spp. Dracaenaceae (Liliaceae), dragontree. Imported. One or another of these may be indicated in HHYF, but not certainly.
Avicenna. Dam al-akhawain. Uncertain as to cold or hot; dry. Used on ulcers and wounds and for strengthening the stomach. Minor and debatable remedy, in his time.
Levey: Dam al-akhawain, for fistula, hemorrhoids, canker, gums, etc.
Lev and Amar: D. draco, the famous dragon’s blood, dam al-’akhawayn, shīyān. Fistula, hemorrhoids, canker, looseness of gum, stomach, bleeding, wounds, diarrhea.
Ghazanfar: D. serrulata. ‘Ariyeb, ‘ayrob. Resin for hemorrhage, skin infections; pain.
Nadkarni: D. cinnabari, astringent.
Dryobalanops aromatica Gaertn.f., Dipterocarpaceae. Introd. Bing-pian, Long-naoxiang Hu: 659.
Nadkarni: Gum. Diaphoretic, antiseptic, antispasmodic, stimulant.
Li: Longnaoxiang. Li explains that the name—“dragon brain fragrance”—indicates the drug is precious (i.e., powerful like a dragon). However, the uses are rather few, and the resin seems poorly cognized, with sources disagreeing on the humoral codings. Nontoxic. (The name may be from the appearance of the dried resin lumps, or some other feature. )
Ecballium elaterium (L.) Rich., Cucurbitaceae. Qatha-al-hamar. JiSanErHeiMaEr.
Dioscorides: IV-154, sikys agrios. Leaf juice in ears for earache. Root, paste, on swellings, gout, sciatica. Decoction for toothache. Beaten for skin infections, scars, etc. Purges phlegm and choler. Purge.
IV-155: seed extract of same. Causes purging and vomiting. Can be overdone, in which case wine with oil is recommended. Poured in with milk into nostrils for rash and headache. Various other minor conditions.
Avicenna: qitha’ al-ḥimār. Hot and dry. Diluting, blood thinning, drying. External uses for jaundice, scars, wounds, skin diseasses, swellings, abscesses, ringworm, scabies, arthritis, etc. Internally for laxative, swellings, vomiting. Evacuates phlegm and excess blood (sanguine humor).
Levey: ‘alqam. In oil for binding sinews, pain in back, rheumatisim and lameness. For nosebleeds.
Kamal: qaththa’ al himar, etc. Renal and cardiac anasarca, brain congestion [1], paralysis.
Nadkarni: Narcotic; for malaria and rabies.
Echinophora tenuifolia L., Apiaceae. Zufa ZuFaLa
Dioscorides: for epilepsy.
A minor medicinal plant of Italy, Greece and Turkey, medically especially the last.
A very large number of bioactive compounds have been isolated from it (Georgiou et al. 2010) but effective medical activity remains to be researched.
Echinopsilon divaricatum, Chenopodiaceae. Possible identification for plant mentioned in Table of Contents. Minor Chinese weed, with no discoverable medical uses. Not scored.
Ehretia obtusifolia Hochst., Boraginaceae. Misk (Yemenite).
Possible misidentification; little mention in sources or likelihood of use in Yuan times.
Plant of Africa and Near East with local medical uses.
Nadkarni: Root for venereal diseases. E. buxifolia similar.
Elettaria cardamomum L., Zingiberaceae. HeiMaMa (Ar), JiErDiMaNa, JiErDiMaNu (both from the Greek)
Dioscorides: I-5, kardamomum. Unmistakably the present plant, from the description (including source countries), and not the native Greek cress, kardamon (see Lepidium). Infusion for respiratory and other diseases, worms, scorpion stings, poisons, breaking kidney/bladder stones, etc. Abortifacient. Aplied for itch, etc.
Avicenna: Ḥamāmā, hīl. Hil in Persian. Hot and dry. Sleansing nd diluting. For stomach, cold liver. Stops vomiting. Diuretic and emmenagogue; treats pain in uterus and is used to support a displaced uterus. Bath for kidney pain; orally for pain in womb. Plaster with sweet basil for scorpion stings.
Levey: Hāl. For happiness. Also teeth and breath, breathing, stomachic. “Still sold…as a stomachic, stimulant, carminative, and condiment” (Levey 1966:342). (I can confirm it is still sold for these purposes over 40 years later in the Middle East.)
Lev and Amar: Hāl, kākalī. Colic, kidney stones, cough, paralysis, stomach complains, TB, skin. Vermifuge. Teeth and mouth, respiration, tonic, etc. Still used for all these, including appetite and stomach, nausea, votmiting, stones, etc., and even for insanity and depression.
Graziani: qaqullah. Ibn Jazlah used it for constipation and as dentifrice.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Minor uses following the above.
Kamal: habbahan, hab al hal, al hayl, etc. “Stomachic, carminative, anit-colic, heart stimulant, aphrodisiac, emmenagogue, relaxant and digestive” (117).
Bellakhdar et al: qa’qulla. Aphrodisiac, calefacient.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Hal, hail. Stomachic and for liver. After childbirth, a woman is given a mix of cardamom, ginger, pepper, fennel, cinnamon, cumin, peppermint, browned flour, and fat. Cardamom with nigella and ginger in olive oil make a rub for coughs and colds.
Madanapala: Elā. For dyspnoea, cough, pales, dysuria.
Nadkarni: Powerful aromatic, stimulant, carminative, stomachic, duretic. Unani adds use for nausea, vomiting, headache, digestion; as resolvent, etc.
Dash: Uses not given.
Sun: Spicy, warm, astringent, nonpoisonous, and able to warm the Middle Jiao (wenzhong溫中)[5]. Its major effects are to cure heartburn and stomachache, stop vomiting, and get rid of bad breath. (All of which fits perfectly with modern experience.)
Li: Not mentioned specifically, but doubtless included in the various cardamoms.
(Still used today in a minor way in China and more commonly in the Middle East; the Amomum cardamoms are much more important medicinally, but Elettaria is used too. All are effective, having volatile oils with stimulant, carminative, digestive effects.)
Embelia ribes Burm., Primulaceae (Myrsinaceae). Biranj.
Avicenna: Birank kābulī. Notes it as an Indian item, coming (to Central Asia, evidently) from Sindh. Expels phlegm and worms.
Madanapala: Vidanga. Digestion, flatulence, abdominal disease, constipation, parasites.
Nadkarni: Carminative, antihelminthic, stimulant, alterative, purgative. Fruit used.
Dash: Digestion, colic, constipation, parasites. Note similarity to Madanapala uses.
Note that this is another case of an Indian drug in the HHYF; its importance in Tibetan medicine shows that it may have reached Central Asia via Tibet, but Avicenna had it, obviously via Kabul (see the name); it was one of several Indian drugs that he knew well.
Emblica officinalis. See Phyllanthus emblica.
Emilia sonchifolia DC, Asteraceae. Tentative identification. Ye xia hong.
Nadkarni: Sudorific.
Minor Chinese medical uses.
Ephedra sinensis Stapf. & presumably other spp., Ephedraceae. Native.
Nadkarni: E. vulgaris and relatives or synonyms. Alterative, diuretic, stomachic, tonic. Seems to be known mostly as a plant learned from Chinese practice. Many Indian species noted.
Eisenman: E. equisetina, infusion of green shoots for rheumantism, scabies, ulcers, malaria, altitude sickness, fever, heart disease. Plants also used for asthma. E. intermedia, stimulant and antiasthmatic. These species, unlike some ephedras, contain ephedrine and pseudoephedrine and are therefore highly effective biomedically.
Li: E. sinica, mahuang. Bitter, warm, nontoxic. Many pages of uses, but the use to relieve asthma is universally known. Root also used.
(It was the major worldwide drug for asthma and related conditions, in biomedicine as well as Chinese folk practice, until safer ones were discovered very recently.)
Epilobium vulgare Figari, Onagraceae. Fuk.
Ghazanfar: E. hirsutum, Sāq al-gurāb. Leaves for epilepsy and madness.
Eisenman: E. hirsuum, hemostatic, astringent, anti-inflammatory. Experiments seem to indicate effectiveness.
Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl. Rosaceae. SaDaYiXinDi
Li: Pipa. Li notes the name comes from the similarity of the leaf shape to the profile of a lute (pipa in Chinese). Fruit, leaf, flower and bark all used. Balanced and nontoxic; fruit sweet but leaf bitter. Various uses, external and internal.
(Loquat syrup is a universally used Chinese medical food today, for its soothing, emollient, balancing, and general feel-good qualities, familiar to almost anyone with Chinese background or experience. It does not seem to have been so used in traditional times, which is certainly interesting. At least, Li and our other sources do not mention it.)
Eruca sativa Mill., Brassicaceae. Jirjir. Rocket, arugula.
Dioscorides: II-170, euzomon. Eaten raw “doth provoke Venery” (Gunther 1934:181), especially flowers and seeds. Diuretic, digestive. Seeds in sauces as mustard is used.
Levey: Jirjīr. Insanity, stomachic. Many minor uses.
Lev and Amar: Jirjīr. Plant aphrodisiac; treats sexual weakness, strength of sperm, etc. Also for nternal diseases, urinary tract, gas. Increases mother’s milk. Seeds against insanity and stomach pains. Wet and hot (Maimonides).
Kamal: Gargir, baqlat ‘Ai’shah. Seeds vesicant, diuretic, aphrodisiac, anti-caries.
Bellakhdar et al: calefacient.
Nadkarni: Known, but no significant medical uses.
(Whole plant stimulant, from glucosinolate chemicals, but not much value medicinally.)
Eryngium glomeratum Lam., Apiaceae. Shindan
Dioscorides: III-24, eryngion, E. planum, etc. Leveas in brine as food. Warming, diuretic, emmenagogue, cures gripes and infections, etc. With wine for liver, venomous beast attacks, poison.
Avicenna: Shaukah al-yaḥūdiyah. Hot. Diluent, dissolving. Mothwash, coughing up blood, roots for vomiting. Relieves vaginal discharge.
Bellakhdar et al: ḥ sp. for calefacient.
Nadkarni: E. caeruleum, nerve tonic, aphrodisiac (root).
Eisenman: E. biebersteinianum and other spp., infusion for blood cleansing, sedative. Infusion for edema, scrofula, gonorrhea, headaches, heart pain, and various tumors” (108), pertussis, anti-convulsant, coiughs, diuresis. Roots treat poisoning and bites. Recommended for anemia. Little studied.
(Various spp. still widely used. Aphrodisiac use made famous by Shakespeare in Falstaff’s cry “Let it rain potatoes,… snow eryngoes!” Merry Wives of Windsor, V, v. 18-22. Potatoes were also considered aphrodisiac at the time.)
Eupatorium cannabinum L. Asteraceae. A Fe De.
Dioscorides: IV-41, eupatorion. Leaves beaten with lard for ulcers. Seed and leaves drunk with wine for dysentery, snakebite. (The Maya of Yucatan have similar uses for closely related spp.)
Kamal: ghafath ibn-Sina, etc. Dilatory. Dissolves scrotal tumors. Infusian used.
Nadkarni: E. ayapana, tonic expectorant, diaphoretic, antiperiodic. Aperient. For stomach, cough, ague. Applied to ulcers and bites.
Li: E. fortunei, lancao. Leaf used; pungent, balanced to cold, nontoxic. Pages of diverse uses.
(I am not sure what values this genus has, but Eupatorium spp. seem to be important in medicine everywhere they grow.)
Euphorbia granulata Forsk., Euphorbiaceae. ‘ilk-al-ghzal; Euphorbia sp., Euphorbiaceae. Farfiyun, farbiyun (Persian)
Dioscorides: III-96, euphorbion, Euphorbia spp.? (Description vauge and smacking of travelers’ tale.) Sharp, burning sap extracted. Drunk for groin pains, bones, etc., and snakebite.
Levey: Furbiyūn, afarbiyūn. Abscesses, fistulas, scrofula; ointment. In a remedy for insantiy.
Avicenna: E. pityusa, shabram. Hot and dry (very). Used very widely for external conitions. Also for teth; breaks up rotten teeth. Treats eye swellings. Harms stomach and liver, so used with care in mixtures. Removes piles.
Graziani: Furbiyun. Ibn Jazlah used it for paralysis, numbness, kidneys, against miscarriage, stopping tears, and for dog bites and burning belly. Modern Egyptian use in ointments for paralysis etc.
Lev and Amar: afarbiyūn, farbiyūn. Various spp. Wounds, mumps, insanity, purging. Hot and ddry. Constricts woomb and prevents miscarriage.
Kamal: E. officinarum, farbion, etc. Emetic, cathartic, poisonous. Juice vesicant, sloughing, rubefacient externally.
Bellakhdar et al: E. resinifera, abortive, drastic, toxic; skin conditions and earache cure
Ghazanfar: Many species, with many local names, for every type of external application. E. hadramautica also for purgative.
Lebling and Pepperdine: E. helioscopia and others. Emetic, purgative (sap); externally, for paralysis, apoplexy, etc.
Nadkarni: Huge range of species used for the usual reasons (emetic, purgative, cathartic, etc.).
Eisenman: E. jaxartia, powdered root for wounds and syphilis. Latex for fungal skin conditions, scabies, corns and warts. A number of chemicals; some may be effective. E. apulum, purgative; for tuberculosis.
Li: Langdu includes many species, and yet more are used under other names. Li clearly saw them as related, putting them near each other in his work. Root usually used; bitter and pungent, balanced, toxic. Large range of indications, many of them external. (Euphorbia spp. often have strong external action, irritating to actually blistering the skin but effectively killing parasites, treating fungus and infected swellings, etc.)
Ferula asafoetida Lam. (also given as Ferula foetida [Bunge] Regel, apparently the same sp.), Apiaceae. Ashtu-ghar Imported. AnGuChang (from Arabic Anjudān—angudān in vernacular), HeiLiTiTi (Arabic ḥiltit, the gum;Yem. Hiltit, Egyp Hantita). Also: A-wei. Hu: 659.
The many Ferula species used medicinally in Asia are possibly confused in the HHYF.
Dioscorides: III-55, panakes herakleion, Ferula opopanax or rel. Sap. Warming, mollifying, for agues, spasms, convulsions, ruptures, pains, coughs, gripes, strangury, scabies, and almost everything else. Emmenagogue and abortifacient. Salve for head, boils, eyes, dog bites, etc. Root shaved, on vulva, abortifacient or birth aid. With honey on wounds eand sores. III-56, panakes asklepion, poorly described, may be F. nodosa. Flower, seed, on ulcers etc.
III-87, libanotis, one sort may be F. nodiflora. Similar cureall to the others.
III-91, narthex, F. communis. For griping and sweats; seed. Green pith with wine for snakebite and flux.
III-95, sagapenon, F. persica. Brief notes; similar uses to other spp.
III-98, ammoniakon, Ferula spp. As following, plus use for thorax when licked with honey or eaten with juice of Ptissana. Cures bloody urine, cleans eyes, etc. Applied with vinegar for hardness in abdomen and joints. Good for lassitudes and sciatic pains.
III-94, silphion, F. tingitana. Cureall, recommended for almost everything. Taken or applied as indicated for toothache, dog bites, poinsons including poisoned arrows, scorpion stings, etc. Gangrene, carbuncles, corns, swellings, etc. Taken for respiratory and throat problems of all sorts, including leeches in the throat; general health, etc.; also as for other Ferula spp. This is the famous resin cureall that led to extinction of the best (Libyan) kind. Dioscorides was writing at the height of the truly fanatical obsession with silphium and other Ferula spp. which led to Libyan silphium becoming the textbook example of a plant exterminated by overcollecting; see Koerper, Henry, and A. L. Kolls. 1999. “The Silphium Motif Adorning Ancient Libyan Coinage: Marketing a Medicinal Plant.” Economic Botany 53:133-143.
Avicenna: Hot, dry, diluting (bloodthinning); relieves gas; purgative; dring.For body odor, hair growth, fungus, mouthwash, tumors and sores, ulcers, growth of flesh, rheumatism, epileps, headaches, earaches, eye conditions in general, clearing voice, asthma, shortness of breath, jaundice, diuretic, purgative, malaria, and even kills leeches in the throat!
Levey: Ḥiltīt. Cold affliction of phlegm, aphrodisiac, rheumatism, etc. Throat and toothache. Various forms. F. marmarica is one source of gum ammoniac, used widely in the HHYF.
Al-Bīrūnī: Quotes Oribasius: mollifying, flatulent, etc. Apparently on his own, he adds: Deodorant, dispels evil-smelling humors. Poltice. Removes abcesses. For rheumatism. Aphrodisiac. Cures hemorrhoids if boiled with pomegranate peel in vinegar and drunk.
Lev and Amar: Hot and dry, purgative, ointment on bites.
Kamal: Haltit. Gum anticonvulsive, stomachic, antihelminthic, emmenagogue. Enema for gas and convulsions.
Bellakhdar et al: antiepileptic; F. communis antispasmodic.
Ghazanfar: Ḥaltīt, ḥaltīta. Antispasmodic, colic, expectorant, sedative; resin used, boiled or chewed. Also to fumigate women after childbirth, as with mukul resin. Resin with honey for menstruation.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Coughs, colds, stomach disorders, fevers, sore throat toothache (topically). Apparently antifungal (modern bioscience cited).
Nadkarni: Stimulant, carminative, antispasmodic, expectorant, laxatic, antihelminthic, diuretic, aphrodisiac, emmenagogue, nervine, etc. Unani uses for brain, digestion, vision, paralysis, epilepsy, convulsions, colic, etc.
Dash: F. foetida digestive, stimulant, appetiser. For colic and parasites.
Eisenman: F. foetida. Major folk medicine. Anticonvulsant, vermifuge, nervous condition treatment; restorative and tonic in Chinese medicine. These uses seem sustained by biomedical experiment. Has been used in modern medicine as stimulant, etc. Contains a huge range of bioactive chemicals. F.kuhistanica, resin for syphilis; external use for wounds, tumors, etc. Antibactierial. F. moschata, rare, tonic, etc.
Li: F. sinkiangensis, F. fukanensis, awei. Li is aware that the use of asafoetida was largely learned from the Middle East. Pungent, balanced, nontoxic. Kills worms, dispels gas, useful digestively in general.
Rossetti (2009): Still common spice; medicinal uses not discussed, but excellent history of production, trade, and use in food.
(This famous cureall was used in American folk medicine within living memory. The bad smell was supposed to scare away devils, among other things.)
Ferula galbaniflua Boiss. Et Buhse, Apiaceae. Birjad (Persian)
Dioscorides: III-97, chalbane, Ferula ferulago, Selinum galbanum, or similar plant; possibly F. galbaniflua. Galbanum is the same. Emmenagogue, abortifacient; for coughs and respiratory problems, ruptures, convuilsions, poisons, etc. For pains and fits, etc. Variously mixed with potions. Applied for pains.
Levey: Various psychiatric complaints (madness, weakness…).
Avicenna: Jāushīr, a small plant; kamāshīr, a stronger and apparently larger form. Hot and dry. Bitter. Laxative, dissolving, gas relieving. Emmenagogue and in larger doses abortifacient. Used for asthma, cough. Various external uses including as collyrium for eyes. In general, a typical Avicenna cureall—put on all external conditions, taken for all minor internal ones.
Lev and Amar: qinna, etc. Insanity. Modern uses suggest there were many more uses in early times.
Kamal: Qana-washq, khalabani, qinnah, barzad, etc. Gum expectorant, anti-cough, anti-convulsive, emmenagogue.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, expectorant, antispasmodic, etc.
- persica, Apiaceae. Sagapenum
Dioscorides: Sagapenon. various uses for this important Ferula resin.
Avicenna: Sakbīnaj. Hot and dry. Dissolvent, diluting/blood thinning, warming, cleansing. Relieves gas. Treats paralysis and dislocations. Relieves some headaches and epilepsy. Used fin eyes for dim vision, etc. Used for chest, for abdominal pain, dissolving stones, etc.; emmenagogue and abortifacient.
Lev and Amar: sakabīnāj. Kidneys, glands, back pains, insanity, etc. Hot and dry.
(Extremely important in medieval Europe as well as the HHYF, but oddly rare in the Arabic herbals.)
- schowitziana DC., Apiaceae. Sakbinaj.
Dioscorides: III:81, this and/or F. persica, sagapenon, for pain of breast, ruptures, convulsions, coughs, epilepsy, spleen, paralysis.
Levey: This sp. and/or F. persica Willd. Sakabīnaj. Kidneys, bladder, putrid flesh, pain in the back, sciatica, insanity.
Nadkarni: Several other spp. noted.
Ficus carica L. Moraceae. Introd. Wu-hua-guo, Hu:1407
Manniche: Already used for constipation and related complaints! Also in a number of remedies for heart and lung diseases. (The heart remedies would work for stomach problems but not for heart ones, and surely “heart” just means “internal pains” here.) Suppository for anus pain. F. sycomorus used similarly.
Dioscorides: I-183, syka. Laxative. Good for throat and bladder and kidneys, for asthma, epilepsy, dropsy (congestive heart failure). With hyssop for a tea for thorax. Good for respiratory problems generally, for inflammations, and much else. For women, with fenugreek, rue, etc., for fomentations (unspecified). With various substances for external use on almost every imaginable external condition. Also a long list of preparations for internal conditions. Juice used for coagulating milk; also as emmeanagogue, laxative, childbirth easing, plasters for gout and skin conditions, etc.
I-184, syka agria, wild fig. Juice from pounded leaves for ulcers, etc. Sprigs boiled with beef make it “soone sod” (Gunther 1934:91), which must mean “tender,” since that is what they actually do (a meat tenderizing enzyme is in the leaf shoots). Similarly for curdling milk.
I-181, sykomoron, Ficus sycomorus. Grows in Mediterranean islands; Name sycomoron, “fig mulberry,” because it is a fig tree with mulberry-like leaves (Dioscorides’ explanation; basically correct). Fruit for laxative but bad for stomach generally. Sap for skin conditions, or drunk or applied for snakebite, etc. Used for hard swellings and pains.
I-182, sykon en Kypro (“fig in Cyprus”), apparently a variety of the above, and so used.
Galen: Laxative, cleaning; often used with medicinal herbs. Harmful to inflamed liver and spleen.
Levey: Tīn. Skin and ulcers; poultice for swelling, etc.
Avicenna: Tīn. Hot, moist. Cleansing, dissolvent, etc. Usual laxative and cleansing uses, and a vast number of uses for soothing, relieving, etc., internally and externally. Treats essentially anything, though evidently largely as a soothing agent.
Kamal: tin. Cooked for drink for smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, bronchitis, urinary affections, respiratory problems, etc. Gargle for mouth and throat sores. Sap laxative and external caustic.
Bellakhdar et al: shariha, kermus, tin. Laxative.
Ghazanfar: ṭin. Leaves, fruit and latex for various external applications. Fruit tonic, laxative, diuretic; for kidneys, including kidney stones; for cough. In Yemen, mixed with dates, raisins and honey for depression or nervous tension (pleasant enough that it might even work!).
Madanapala: Añjīra. Cold, sweet. Alleviates some dosas, and blood.
Nadkarni: Aperient, emollient, cooling, laxative, demulcent.
Li: Wuhuaguo (“flowerless fruit,” the flowers being invisible inside the fig). One old herbal knew that “if the fruit is not stewed within a few ays, it will evolve into an ant, which will fly away by penetrating the peel” (Li 2003:2819; the pollinator wasps’ young do emerge thus, from eggs laid in the fig). Known to be an import, and not much used, but fruit and leaf used for hemorrhoids and appetite, and fruit, oddly, for diarrhea and dysentery.
(Figs are still a very standard folk and even biomedical laxative.)
Foeniculum vulgare Mill., Apiaceae. Raziyanaj (Persian) Introd. LaZeYaNa. A Di(Ni)Song, JiLa (Iran Anisun, Egyp Xilla). Xiao-hui-xiang. Hu, 659.
Both Dioscorides and al-Bīrūnī knew this plant, but said little about it.
Levey: Bisbās. Swellings and enlargements. Scrofula, ulcers, fever, stomach, liver pain, eyes.
Avicenna: Rāzīānaj. Seeds used. Hot and dry; cultivated is less hot. Opens obstructions. Strengthens eyesight. Moist fennel (probably means the leaves) increases milk. Treats nausea and stomach ache. Diuretic and emmenagogue. Treats urinary system.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Important in Al-Samarqandī’s text. Now diuretic, purgative, stimulant, carminative, stomachic, emmenagogue; root purgative. “In Persia today…it is one of the five ‘opening roots’ of the ancients; the others are parsley, celery, asparagus, and butcher’s broom” (173).
Lev and Amar: shamār, rāyazānaj. Weak eyes, headache, hemorrhoids, aphrodisiac, brain problems, cooling generally, etc. Fennel seeds for children with incessant crying. Put on sore eyes, navel problems of newborns, etc. Maimonides used it in wine for the heart, holding it hot and dry. Modern uses extensive and varied.
Evelyn (2012/1699:22): “Aromatick, hot, and dry; expels Wind, sharpens the Sight, and recreates the Brain”
Kamal: shamar. Stomachic, diuretic, emmenagogue, carnimantive, anti-epileptic, soothing for colic. Aphrodisiac and lactagogue.
Bellakhdar: for liver and pancreas; dyspnoea.
Ghazanfar: Shih, samār. Decoction of leaves and seeds for couighs and carminative uses. Stems for toothbrushes. Seeds diuretic and for kidneys.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Colic, stomachache, flatulence, indigestion, rheumatism.
Madanapala: Śatapuspā. Fever, ulcers, colic, eyes.
Nadkarni: Fruit stimulant, carminative, diuretic, emmenagogue, purgative. Root purgative.
Dash: Sweet, hot, appetiser.
Sun: Fennel (huixiangcai茴香菜): bitter, spicy, mildly cold, astringent, and nonpoisonous. It is particularly important for treating cholera. It prevent sunstroke (bire辟熱) and gets rid of bad breath. If one boils smelly meat in water, add a little of it and the smell will go away. So it is called “the return of the good smell“. If the sauce is smelly, adding fennel to it will rid of the smell. Its seeds treat, especially, snakebites that have not healed for a long time. Crush and apply on the wound. It also treats nine kinds of swelling in the neck (lou瘺).
Li: Huaixiang, huixiang. Fruit used (minor uses for foliage). Many uses, some so mystical that they defeated even the translators, others more related to the well-known (and still used) stomachic and digestive properties of the fruit.
Other apiaceous seeds may be confused here.
Fragaria grandiflora Ehrh., Rosaceae. Firiz. Strawberry.
Minor mention as food. In spite of the ubiquity of this plant, and its value as food, if it has medicinal values they seem to have been entirely overlooked—unless one counts the Irish folksong that says “strawberry leaves make maidens fair” (in a face wash, that is)—except in Kyrgyzstan, which has enough uses to make up for the rest of the world’s neglect.
Eisenman: F. vesca used in Kyrgyzstan; fruits and leaves, infused, for sore throat, jaundice, hemorrhoids, fatigues, diarrhea, uterine bleeding, etc. Leaves on old skin ulcers. Fruits for kidney stones, bile duct, gout, stomach conditions, constpoation, hyptertension and even vermifuge. Crushed fruit on skin for eczema. Dried fruit for diaphoretic; leaves for same, and diuretic. Root decoction hemostatic. Many of these uses appear sustained by modern experiment.
Fraxinus excelsior L. Oleaceae. Lisan-al-‘asafir. LiSanNaASan(FeiEr)
Dioscorides: I-108, melia, Fraxinus ornus, manna ash. Juice of leaves drunk with wine, or applied, for snakebite; bark burned as ash applied for leprosy.
Avicenna: F. ornus, shir khishk, man. Neutral. For cough, chest congestion, purging yellow bile.
Lev and Amar: palpitation, purgative, aphrodisiac, for gases, stomach, pains, urination, memory; aids pregnancy.
Kamal: F. excelsior, lisan al ‘asfur, fraksunus, etc. Bark febrifuge. Leaves sudorific. F. ornus, manna mild aperient and cholagogue.
Bellakhdar et al: F. angustifolia, lisan t-tir, lisan l-‘usfur. Aphrodisiac, calefacient.
Nadkarni: Bark astringent; leaves purgative.
(The common ash has no major medical uses. Probably substitutes for manna ash, a mild laxative of long-standing use.)
Fumaria officinalis L. Papaveraceae (Fumariaceae). Shaytaraj, shitaraj (Persian). SaiTiLaZhi
Dioscorides: IV-110, kapnos, F. parvifolia. Gives several alternative names. Juice quickens sight and brings tears. Used to prevent plucked eyebrow hair from regrowing. Eaten for choleric urine.
Levey: Shātiraj. Various humoral disorders. Popular today for various reasons.
Al-Bīrūnī: Shāhtaraj, qufnus. Cites Galen: Sharp, pungent, astringent, diuretic, good for gall bladder and stomach. Helps eye and heart. Rāzī adds that it kills lice and ticks, cures itch, strengthens gums and tongue, etc. Juice reduces scab and itch, strengthens stomach, opens liver.
Avicenna: shīṭraj (making it easy to confuse with Lepidium). Hot and bitter. Used on itching, skin disease, gums. Strengthens stomach. Laxative and diuretic.
Lev and Amar: shāhtaraj. Helps melancholy; diuretic; for skin, blood, stomach.
Kamal: Shahatarg, shahatra. Tonic. Skin diseases. Antipyretic. Good for caries and jaundice. Fluid extract used.
Ghazanfar: F. parviflora. Antihelminthic, laxative, for dyspepsia; externally, paste for skin rashes.
Nadkarni: Diaphoretic, tonic, diuretic, antihelminthic, aperient, etc. Used for sexually transmitted diseasess and leprosy, among other things.
Dash: F. parviflora bitter, cold, for fever, burning, anorexia, fatigue, intoxication, giddiness.
Eisenman: F. vaillantii, decoction for blood cleansing, diuretic, “coughs, jaundice, headache, fever, gonorrhea, uterine bleeding, erysipelas,” (118), etc. Also bath for itch, rashes, pimples. Biomedically, fumarine causes paralysis, catalepsy. Inhibits cholinesterases.
Gardenia jasminoides Ellis, Rubiaceae. The Chinese name for this plant is routinely confused in the HHYF with saffron, Crocus sativus, q.v. Still, it may very well have been used.
Li describes many uses for it.
Gentiana lutea (and/or asclepidea) L., Gentianaceae. Jantiyana. ZhenTiYaNa
Dioscorides: III-3, gentiane, gentiana. Root warming, binding. Drunk with pepper, rice and wine for venomous bites. Also for pain of side; falls; ruptures and convulsions; liver and stomach problems. Abortifacient. Applied to ulcers, skin conditions, and inflamed eyes.
Avicenna: Janṭiānā. Hot and dry. Laxative. Syrup rubbed on twisted muscles and on bruises. Used for conjunctivitis. Internally for lungs, spleen, liver. Diureti and emmenagogue. Abortifacient.
Nadkarni: G. kurroo, root, local equivalent to above; similar chemistry. Tonic, antiperiodic, antibilious, astringent, stomachic, antihelminthic.
Eisenman: G. olivieri, decoction of flowering herb for gastric conditions, malaria, teeth and gums and mouth; externally for ulcers and abscesses. Syrup from boiling gentian with barberry roots for side pains, rheumatism, chest pain. Biomedically, tests how sedative and anti-inflammatory action; chemicals identified.
Li: Qinjiao, longdan; each name covers many species of gentian. Roots used. Bitter and nontoxic. The former are the warmer ones, the latter the cooling species. The usual proliferation of uses.
(Gentian remains a European folk remedy, used in many digestive liqueurs and drinks.)
Glaucium corniculatum Kurt, Papaveraceae. Horned poppy.
Dioscorides: III:86. For eyes.
Levey: For eyes, erysipelas, gout.
Eisenman: G. fimbrilligerum, seeds crushed and roasted for hemostatic and tonic use for women after childbirth. OIL ALSO EFFECTIVE. Decoction of leves and flowers as tonic, stimulant; large does emetic and soporific, even to sasphyxiation. Seeds laxative. Biomedical experiments confirm, and show antiarrhymthmic action.
Glossostemon bruguieri (Desf.), Malvaceae. Moghat (Arabic name).
Uncertain identification.
Medicinal and food in Near East. Not in our sources, however.
Glycyrrhiza glabra L., G. uralensis Fisch., & probably other spp, Fabaceae. Native, but the Chinese sp. is obviously being used for the western one.
Levey: Sūs. In electuary for coughs; salve for itching; oxymel for humors; in oil for scrofula, hemorrhoids, etc. Rob for tooth medicine, jaundice, cough, malaria, rheumatism, sciatica, pterygium. Many other remedies in other authors. As in China, it seems to be a general carrier and mollifier.
Avicenna: Moderate, slightly hot and moist. On burns and skin infections. Root for eyes. Internalliy, softens and clears trachea; good for lungs; decreases thirst and treats burning in stomach; used for gonorrhea and internal ulcers. Treats fever.
Graziani: Sūs. Used in robs. Ibn Jazlah used it for leprosy, spleen ailments, scorpion stings. Today in Middle East for acute indigestion.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: G. glabra made into a rob (thick syrup) for a very wide range of uses; major part of Al-Samarqandī’s pharmcopoeia.
Lev and Amar. G. glabra, sūs and other names. Various preparations for yellow bile, acute fevers, etc. Skin, cough, chest, liver, scabies, hemorrhoids, mumps, teeth, pains, jaundice, even killing fleas. Weight gain, facial skin improvement, sharpens eyes and other eye applications. Lungs, liver, spleen, etc., indeed almost every ailment of every part of the body.
Kamal: irq al-Sus, irsus, G. officinalis. Laxative, flavor for medicines, demulcent in throat lozenges.
Bellakhdar et al.: G. glabra, ‘arq sus, sore throat, cohlagogue, refreshing.
Ghazanfar: G. glabra, rhizome and leaves, coughs, expectorant, idigestion, pain, purgative.
Nadkarni: Tonic, cooling, demulcent, expectorant, diuretic, emmenagogue, gentle laxative. Unani uses for liver, bladder, lungs, nerves, etc.
Eisenman: Decoctions and extracts for cough, chest, etc. G. uralensis roots diuretic, laxative, carminative, for pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, ulcers, poisoning.
Li: Gancao. Usually this species, but term includes other spp. Roots used. Fully ten large pages on this plant, the universal harmonizer, smoother, side-effects mollifier, and general additive of Chinese medicine, so important that the great Tao Hongjing compared it to “the imperial instructor—who is not the monarch, but the monarch follows his instructions” (Li 2003:1229). Its role as harmonizer means that it is usually used in combinations, for essentially any type of condition. (This was still true in Chinese medicine in the 1960s.)
(Used as a general vehicle, soothing and harmonizing; hence its use in almost every possible condition in both the Middle East—see Lev and Amar—and China.)
Gomphocarpus fruticosus L., Apocynaceae (Asclepidaceae). Kushan
Not in our sources, but this milkweed is used today in Africa as a sedative and painkiller and source of seed fluff (Uphof, etc.). However, one suspects a misidentification here.
Gossypium sp., Malvaceae. Cottonseed is tentatively identified as one item mentioned in the Index.
Avicenna: Quṭn. Seeds for chest and as laxative.
Lev and Amar: quṭn; seeds for purulent wounds, sexual desire; oil for hair. Plant for heartbeat, insanity, swellings, memory, diarrhea, burns skin diseases, hemorrhages.
(Seeds toxic; an effective male contraceptive but too dangerous to use. Otherwise apparently no biomedical value. They are now detoxified for food use.)
Gypsophila struthium L., Caryophyllaceae. Kundus (Gr)
Levey: kundus. In remedy for insanity. Al-Samarqandī used it in a plaster for various purposes.
Lev and Amar: kundus. Insanity, skin, diuretic, purgative.
(It is rarely mentioned and obscure in the sources.)
Heliotropium supinum L . Boraginaceae. ZuFa, FaLaFuRong
Dioscorides: IV-193, eliotropion mega, H. europaeum. Plant boiled, drunk for phlegm, choler. Drunk and applied for scorpion stings (sympathetic magic evidently; the flowering head is scorpioid, as noted by Dioscorides). Hung around neck to cause barrenness. Seed drunk with wine for malarial fits, or smeared on for warts and other growths. Leaves applied for gouts and other conditions, and as emmenagogue and abortifacient.
Al-Bīrūnī: ṣāmaryūmā. Heliotropium spp. Scorpion bites, malaria, poultice for warts. Decoction clears stomach of phlegm and bile through catharsis.
Ghazanfar: Several local species, for poultices, for bites, stings, and various skin, eye, and other external conditions.
Lebling and Pepperdine: H. ramosissimum, mouthwash or paste for mouth sores.
Nadkarni: H. eichwaldi, H. strigosum, and other minor spp., snakebite, stings, various external uses.
Helleborus albus L. Ranunculaceae. HaErBaJi, Mo, MuAXi
Dioscorides: IV-152, sesamoeides, Helleborus cyclophyllus. Purge, with white hellebore (i.e. Veratrum, q.v.)
al-Bīrūnī: toxic, medicinal.
Lev and Amar: Kharbaq. Diuretic; also for skin diseases, warts, epilepsy, madness, black bile, toothache, eyes.
Kamal: kharbaq (for Helleborus in general) used for mania, amenorrhea, ascites; now used only in veterninary medicine. White hellebore deadens pain; used in ointment.
(Highly toxic. The alkaloid can be hallucinogenic, hence possibly having some effect in madness; possibly not the desired effect. There is confusion in the literature with Veratrum album; the latter stimulates the heart in very small regulated doses, thus treating dropsy and serving as diuretic in that case; thus the diuretic use, above, may refer to Veratrum.)
Helleborus niger L. HiLiJi; Helleborus officinalis Salisb., Ranunculaceae. Khirbaq, khirbaq-abyad (probably a mistake; name usually means white hellebore), khirbaq-sapid (Persian). (See also Veratrum viride, white hellebore.)
Dioscorides: IV-151, ‘elleboros melas, Helleborus officinalis, black hellebore. (Probably includes H. niger.) Roots for purging by vomiting or diarrhea. For epilepsy, melancholy, arthritis, fits, paralysis, etc. Pessary for emmenagogue and abortion. In ear for ear problems; applied to skin for skin conditions; to teeth for toothaches and mouthwash. Cataplasm for dropsy. Planted near vines, it makes their wine purgative! Sprinkled about house; thought to preserve from evil spirits [as rue still is in Latin America and other places—a use of rue not mentioned by Dioscorides]. If one sees an eagle while digging it, one will die.
V-82, oinos elleborites, hellebore wine. Brewed with wine must. For constipation, or to vomit (including voluntary vomiting at banquets). Many brews and uses noted. The inevitable emmenagogue and abortifacient uses noted.
Avicenna: kharbaq aswad. Extremely toxic; used to kill rats—“not suitable for cowards” (p. 535)! Hot, dry, dissolvent, diluting, cleansing. Renews youth and vigor. Those wishing to take it should abstain from heavy food for three days. Used for skin conditions, scabies, etc., wounds, ears, eyes. Internally, evacuates black and yellow bile and phlegm.
Nadkarni: Hydrogogue, cathartic, emmenagogue, antihelminthic. Poison. Local anaesthetic. Used for a wide range of conditions, including epilepsy, mania, melancholia, etc., as well as on skin and for worms.
(The dangerous stimulant alkaloids in hellebore have banished them from use today, but they were important in folk medicine throughout history.)
Heracleum panaces Willd. ex Steven, Apiaceae. Hogweed. Possible but very tentative identification for Zūfāra, which is glossed as Panaces asclepion in one source, but that is a term from Pliny for an uncertain plant, possibly the above. Not scored in table.
Hordeum vulgare. Poaceae. Oddly and significantly, barley is hardly mentioned in the HHYF, in spite of the enormous importance of barley water in Hippocratic-Galenic medicine. A few references (e.g. p. 345) mention it as a food to eat with medicines, as in Greek medicine.
From ancient Egypt (Manniche 1989:108) and especially from Hippocrates onward through time, it was a sovereign food for the sick. Averroes, echoing Hippocrates, says: “Barley water is inferior to wheaten, but is cooling and readily digestible, and its coldness is of the first degree. Barley water is more medicinal than bread, it is excellent in hot and dry diseases, since it cools, moistens, tempers, and wonderfully generates a laudable humour, nor does it inflate or remain in the stomach…” (Kamal 1975:86). Similarly, Al-Bīrūnī goes on at some length from Dioscorides, Galen, etc. on the advantages of barley water.
Avicenna: Cold and dry. Water used on freckles, pimples, etc. Poultice made with quindce and vinegar for gout, and other poultices for chest, etc. Barley water used for chest, but is “not suitable for stomach” (p. 98), a rather amazing point given the importance of this item from Galen and Dioscorides right down to my own Midwestern childhood (the old Galenic uses were still very much alive). It was, however, used for fevers (as in the Midwest!).
Levey: notes that Al-Kindī uses it for memory, dental medicines, etc., and barley water to make hair and beard grow.
Nadkarni: Tonic and astringent decoction, as well as the usual use for invalids.
Dash: Yava in Sanskrit. Sweet, cold, laxative, aphrodisiac, cures diseases of urine, rhinitis, asthma, cough, etc. This use as a cureall recalls Greek medicine.
Li: Da mai (naked barley, kuang mai). Minor uses.
Barley water was made by boiling barley for a long time in a large amount of water. Pearl barley (barley with seed coats milled off) was used for illness and convalescence from early times well into the 20th century (as this writer [ENA] remembers from personal childhood experience). Pearl barley, boiled in soup, was one of the medicines most enthusiastically adopted by China, and is still sovereign in Chinese medicine as a cooling agent.
Hosta plantaginea, Agavaceae. Yuzan. Dubious identification.
Li: Root is sweet,pungent, cold and toxic. Used for mastitis, sterilization of women, detoxification of snakebites and insect bites and stings, helping with pulling teetch, etc.
(A common Chinese ornamental plant, extremely beautiful and sweet-scented but of little traditional medical note.)
Hyoscyamus niger L. Solanaceae. Native.
Dioscorides: IV-69, ‘Yoskyamos melas, leukos, meloides, respectively identifie in Gunther as H. niger, H. albus, H. aureus. Descriptions a bit equivocal. First two cause frenzies or narcosis, and not normally used. Third [evidently meaning the second above] with white flowers is gentler. Juice from plant or seeds hard to store, but can be mixed with wheatmeal and dried for storage. Juice used for pains, in various preparations, for various areas of the body; also respiratory problems excessive menstruation, gout, swollen genitals, swollen breasts of nursing women, etc.
I-42, seed oil for poorly specified conditions.
Levey: Banj (derived from Indian bhang). Cold ailments, insanity, epilepsy, melancholy.
Avicenna: Banj. Cold and dry. Soporific. Externally for pain, swellings, earache, eyes. Internally for gout pain, coughing up blood, pain in uterus. Poisonous.
Nasrallah: Deadly poison, especially seeds. Cold and dry.
Graziani: Binj, banj. Medieval Arab uses for toothache, stings of poisonous animals, swellings, stomach disorder. Maimonides used it for poinsonous and painful stings.
Lev and Amar: banj, shawkarān, saykarān. Also H. niger. For palpitation, crying, toothaches, earache, bleeding, eyes, spitting blood, women’s diseases. With hellebore for cold, insanity, epilepsy, blck bile.
Kamal: bang, bang aswad. Sedative, narcotic,anti-epileptic, relaxant, painkiller, anti-colic, mydriatic.
Bellakhdar et al: H. niger and H. albus, both sikran. Narcotic, toxic, antihemorrhoidal, dental analgesic; magic. Atropa belladonna and A. baetica [closely related to Hyoscyamus and worth relating], zbib leydur, aphrodisiac, memory stimulant.
Ghazanfar: H. gallagheri, zgaf, for hair growth.
Nadkarni: Digestive, astringent, antihelminthic, as well as the narcotic effect.
Eisenman: Analgesic. Lef juice for tumors, earaches. Water infusion of seeds for convulsions; smoke from burning seeds for toothaches. Plaster of leaves on abscesses. Biomedical action includes use of atropine for bile ducts, stomach ulcers, intestinal spasms, etc., and mydriatic. Scopolamine formerly used as nervous system depressant; too toxic for much current use.
(Another plant with dangerous tropane alkaloids. Antispasmodic, analgesic.)
Hypericum perforatum L., Hypericaceae. Fariqun (Gr)
Dioscorides: III-171, ‘yperikon, Hypericum crispum, H. barbatum. Resin diuretic; as pessar, emmenagogue. With wine for malaria; seed for sciatica.
III-172, Askyron, H. perforatum. Fruit drunk with hydromel for sciatica. Expels choleric problems. Applied to burns.
III-173, androsaimon. H. perfoliatum and/or H. ciliatum. Same uses.
Avicenna: hīyūfārīqūn (from the Greek). Hot and dry. Attenuating, diluting, dissolving. Externally on large, cold, hard swellings; biurns; large wounds; malignant ulcers; dusted on soft ulcers. For hip and joint pain. Internally as diuretic, emmenagogue.
Nadkarni: Astringent, aromatic, antihelminthic, diuretic, emmeenagogue, purgative. For diarrhea, hemorrhoids, etc.
Eisenman: Commonly used. Decoction used as “astringent, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, tonic, and hemostatic, and is used to treat kidney diseases, heart diseasese, diarrhea, and hemoptysis” and externally for wounds (138). Still used for most of those uses in contemporary medicine in Central Asia. H. scabrum, similar uses; antimicrobial activity demonstrated in laboratory experiments.
(Traditional use in Europe as antidepressant recently confirmed by experiment and wide use, but less used now due to problematic interactions with commercial drugs.)
Hyphaene thebaica, Araceae. Listed in some sources as producing a gum used as or for mukul, but in the HHYF mukul is surely the gum of a Balsamodendron (Commiphora), q.v. Thus this tree is probably not really in the HHYF.
Hyssopus officinalis L., Lamiaceae. ZaFaSi.
Dioscorides: III-30, ‘hyssopos. Notes there are two sorts. Gunther identifies it (or one type) as Thymbra spicata, with figure of an Origanum sp. [I (ENA) believe at least one type is Hyssopus sp.] With green figs for stomach, purgative. Applied, with fig and nitre, for spleen, dropsy; with wine for inflammations. Decoction with figs for throat. Relieves toothache. Smoke for ears.
Levey: Zūfā. In oxymel for malaria, jaundice, etc.
Avicenna: Zūfā yābis. Hot and dry.Dissolvent. Usual minor uses for hot dry drugs; also, internal use toimprove complexion. Boined down with vinegar for toothaches. Vapors for ear. Poultoice with borax and fig on spleen. Orally for swellings. With caraway and orris root for worms, phlegm, etc. Laxative.
Lev and Amar: zūfā yābis. Hot and dry (at least to Maimonides). Chest, lungs, coughs, stomach, asthma, jaundice, blood lcots in eyes, diphtheria, toothache, earache, dropsy, bites, tears.
Graziani: Zūfa. Ibn Jazlah used it for lungs, cough, hard swellings, spleen, and vermifuge. Rāzī used it, citing Dioscorides, for swellings, vermifuge, chest. (Note lack of total overlap with the English Dioscorides.)
Kamal: Zofa, isof. Tops and leaves stimulant, carminative, tonic, expectorant, anti-catarrhal.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, stomachic, expectorant, diaphoretic, emmenagogue, carminative; used for hysteria, colic, coughs, asthma, sore throat, bronchitis, uterus, etc., and even for worms.
Eisenman: H. seravschanicus, infusion “expectorant, anti-inflammatory, astringent, tonic, antihelminthic, to heal wounds, and to treat bronchial asthma, gastrointestinal diseases, dyspepsia, rheumatism, anemia, stenocardia, neurosis, scrophua, meteorism and hyperhydrosis…applied to the mouth to treat stomatitis and bad breath, and externally to heal persistent wounds” (140). In short, the Central Asian cureall. Biomedically demonstrated antibiotic action.
(Widespread European use for many conditions. Biomedical value established for many of these. Has soothing effects.)
Imperata cylindrica P. Beauv. Poaceae. XiLi
Ghazanfar: Ḥalfa. Rhizome boiled for drink for painful joints.
(It is somewhat heartening to know that this notorious pest of south China and southeast Asia could be good for something medical. It is still widely used in folk medicine. It is also used for thatch, paper-making, cosmetics, etc.)
Inula conyzioides DC., Asteraceae. Shabanaj, shafanaj (Persian)
Manniche: I. conyza expelled fleas, and, after death, the crocodiles of the spirit land. (Perhaps crocodiles in the other world are no worse than fleas.)
Li: I. japonica, I. britannica, xuanfuhua. Authorities differ strongly on humoral values. Disperses phlegm and hardness; uses minor.
Inula helenium L., Asteraceae. Rasan (Persian). LaXin.
Dioscorides: I-27, elenion. Elecampane. Root warming. Decocted for diuretic and emmenagogue. Root taken in honey for cough, ruptures and convulsions, swellings, venomous bites, stomach. Leaves boiled and applied for sciatica.
III-136, konyza, I. viscosa, I. saxatilis, I. Britannica (three types mentioned). Leaves for snakebite and the like. Emmenagogue and abortifacient (taken or applied). For strangury, gripes, rashes, epilepsy, fits, etc. In herbal bath for womb problems including menstrual problems.
Levey: Rāsin. For stomach and rheums.
Avicenna: Rāsin. Hot and dry. Root used externally for pain, but causes headache. Internally in syrup withy honey, expectorant and purifying; relieves sore throat and cough. Thins blood. Diuretic.
Lev and Amar: Diuretic; for coughs, bites, stings, menstruation, poisons; intestines,digestion, cleansing lungs, strengthening mind. Hot and moist.
Kamal: Rasan. Persian Qanas. Root stimulan; for skin, bronchitis, amenorrhea.
Bellakhdar et al: I. viscosa, reconstituant.
Nadkarni: For bronchitis and rheumatism.
Eisenman: I. britannica. Infusion or decoction of roots for cystitis, diabetes, jaundice, catarrh, bone tuberculosis, rheumatism, hemorrhoids; vermifuge, hemostat, etc. Anti-inflammatory, astringent. I. grandis, tuberculosis, gastrointestinal conditions; vermifuge. Young stems, debarked, for restorative. Anti-oxidant. I. helenium, same uses plus diuretic, emmenagogue, etc. External use for eczema and scabies. Root tincture in vodka for gastritis, ulcers, nerves, heart disease, hypertension, etc. Biomedical uses for respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions; ulcers; expectorant, diuretic, etc. Effective vermifuge and skin parasite killer. Sesquiterpene lactones inhibit cancer lines.
(The anti-cancer effect of the sesquiterpene lactones of this and related species has been considerably investigated, but nothing significant has come of it so far.)
Ipomoea turpethum (L.) R.Br., Convolvulaceae. Turbud (Sanskrit)
Levey: Turbad. Purgative, widely used and recommended in medieval Near East.
Avicenna: Turbud. Produces dryness; used for nerves and phlegm.
Graziani: Mentioned; no use given.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Standard remedy in this work. Root a strong purgative. Arabic name, turbid, turbud or turbad, is from Sanskrit; a clear, early Indian influence.
Lev and Amar: Dry; purgative.
Ghazanfar: I. pes-caprae, seeds purgative.
Nadkarni: Roots cathartic and laxative; a “black” form is more drastic, to the point that it is no longer used.
(Odd that this common medicinal plant—an effective cathartic and laxative—is not found in more of the authorities. I. aquatica is used medicinally in China, but is so different a plant that it is not worth comparing here.)
Iris lactea Pall. Var. chinensis (Fisch.) Koidz. Iridaceae. Native. SuoShanGen (“Susan root”). HHYF term evidently includes other spp., probably I. ensata, I. florentina, I. germanica and other spp.
Dioscorides: I-1, iris, I. germanica and/or I. florentina. Dioscorides notes the name comes from the rainbow, because of the varied flower colors. Root warming, extenuating. For coughs, gross humors. Drunk in hydromel to purge away thick and choleric humors, cause sleep, provoke tears, heal stomach-ache. With vinegar for venomous bites, fits, etc. With wine, emmenagogue. Infusion for sciatica, fistulas, sores. With honey for abortion, but application not clear. Applied to hard swellings, etc. Various uses for skin and external ailments.
I-66, irinon, iris oil. Complex recipe for an oil with many herbs.Mollifying and warming, etc.
Levey: Sūsan: lily, iris, etc. Lily oil for swelling in ears, hemorrhoids, etc.
Avicenna: Sūsan for iris; īrsā’ for orris root. Hot and dry. Drying cleansing. Usual uses of hot dry drugs for skin conditions, sweelings, wounds, ulcers. Treats nervous breakdown; oil removes fatigues. Internally with vinegar or wine for convulsions, etc. Enema for pain and sciaticsa. Camomile oil, iris oil, for fatigue; dill oil for cold. Root boiled for mouthwash. Treats breathing problems. Laxative. Abortifacient. Treats most internal pains. Sitz baths and suppositories used for lower-body conditions; suppository expels yellow and black bile and phlegm. Treats fevers and insect bites. In short, this plant is a real cureall, to a degree rarely allowed by Avicenna.
Al-Bīrūnī: Apparently this is the īrsa or īrīsā he describes. “Sawsan” is partial equivalent. Orris is calorifacient, demulcent, lenitive, flatulent, deobstruent, detersive, purifier, etc. Juice resolves phlegm. Decoction for scirrhus, scrofula, pustules, ulcers, etc. Regenerates flesh. Sternutatory. Used in toothaches, ear problems, nostrils, wounds, gargling, hydrops, hemorrhoids, gripes, etc. Emmenagogue and much more. Basically a cureall, used in all conditions.
Lev and Amar: I. florentina or I. mesopotamica. ’īrisā, sūsān, sawsan. Kidney stone, wounds ears, palpitation, purgative, menstruation, abortion, eyes, etc. Cough, phlegm, sleeplessness, stomach pains, stings, bites, men’s and women’s problems, skin, wounds, earaches, mouth sores, hemorrhoids, eliminating wetness, etc. Another all-purpose herb.
Graziani: “Lily or Iris,” sūsan. Dioscorides for drawing out blood, inflammation of eyes, breast (note difference from English version!). Today in Egypt for detersive, liniment, emmenagogue. Lily in Iran for labor pains and headache.
Kamal: I. florentina, sawsan, irisa, qos-quzah (“rainbow”). Rhizome purgative.
Bellakhdar: I. germanica, I. pseudoacorus, I. florentina, reconstituant, antirheumatic.
Dash: I germanica, bitter, pungent, for insanity, epilepsy, evil spirits (rakshas).
Li: I. pallasii, lishi, and I. tectorum, yuanwei, various minor uses.
Ixeris denticulata (Houtt.) Stebb (Youngia denticulata)., Asteraceae. KeXiNi
A lettuce relative. The species identification is highly uncertain. Not mentioned in Li or other sources. Not scored in table of origins.
Juglans regia L., Juglandaceae. Walnut. Jawz.
Dioscorides: against poisons, dog bites, worms, internal infections, gangrene, etc.
Avicenna: jauz. Hot, pungent. Vinegar and honey drink treats being sick from walnuts (presumably from eating the fruit as opposed to the nut). Gum for hot ulcers. Oil for deep,m feveish ulcers. Bark for throat inflammation, etc. Nuts difficult to digest, but all right if preserved or fresh-peeled. Not for hot stomach, however. Various external uses of different arts of the plant.
Lev and Amar: Cholera, body blemishes, hemorrhois, kidneys, cough, stomach, liver. Unripe fruit for eyes, draining urine, etc. Shell for limbs and gums, and usable in regulating menstruation. Nut on skin. Leaves for ears, kidnesy, stomach, worms, lice, etc. Resin strengthens stomach.
Eisenman: Decoction of nuts to treat high blood pressure, heart, moth; from fruit husk, for external use on ulcers, eczema, dermatitis; tea of leaves drunk for diabetes, vermifuge, skin diseases, gastrointestinal conditions, tuberculosis; decoction for scrofula and rickets. Root bark slightly laxative. Biomedical use in area for skin conditions including bacterial sores; antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory action; leaves effectoive. Omega-3 fatty acids in nuts beneficial for arteriosclerosis.
Sun: Walnut (hutao胡桃): sweet, cool, astringent, nonpoisonous. One cannot eat too much. Otherwise it will arouse phlegm, make people sick, or make them vomit liquid or food.
Li: Hutao (“Iranian peach”—yet walnuts are probably native to China as well as Iran; presumably the large edible and medicinal variety came from Iran, as, of course, the English name “Persian walnut” also tells us). Sweet, neutral or hot or cold (!), warm, nontoxic. Fattening. Moistens muscle. Tonifies qi, nourishes blood, moistens dryness, dissolves phlegm. Reinforces gate of life (mingmen, “length-of-life gate”) and helps the three burners; Li adds a long monograph on these mysterious organs and their relationships. Relieves pain, hernia, dysentery, etc. Kills worms, treats poison; good on skin for leprosy, scabies, tinea, etc. Large number of formulas given. Separate discussions for green rind, and for bark of the tree.
(Common in Near Eastern medicine. In China, used very widely today, including as a brain strengthener because the nut looks like a brain. This bit of sympathetic magic is probably widespread. The extremely astringent, tannin-rich husk [fruit], bark and gum are used extensively in Avicenna’s healing, and are in fact very effective by any standards. The omega-3 fatty acids make this one of the most beneficial foods in this time of excessive consumption of omega-6 fats.)
Juniperus. See under Thuja orientalis. Very widely used medicinally around the world, actual juniper is not certainly mentioned in the HHYF; references appear to be to Thuja. Possibilities of juniper use should not be discounted. The well-known toxic, antibiotic, abortifacient, and astringent uses of many juniper spp. are well known in Central Asia (Eisenman covers four species) and China. A serious study of Cedrus, Juniperus, Tetraclinis, and Thuja in Near Eastern medicine is sorely needed to remove confusion of names, record actual uses (by genus and species), and compare with the well-known and quite dramatic biomedical values of these plants.
Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl., Cucurbitaceae. Incl. var. clavata and var. depressa Ser. Both native
Avicenna: ūbūṭīlān. Used on wounds, but Avicenna is very skeptical of its value.
Lev and Amar: widely used in various prescriptions, but probably mostly as a carrier. Fevers, liver, bile, earache, fever, headache, throat, cough. Diuretic.
Dash: Bitter; alleviates dosas.
Sun: Bottle gourd (tianhu甜瓠)[6]: sweet, balanced, smooth, and nonpoisonous. It mainly treats emaciation and thirst (xiaoke消渴), noxious ulcer, festering and aching in the flesh of the nose and mouth. It leaves are sweet and balanced. They primarily helps resisting hunger. Bian Que said, “If one has beriberi (lit. foot qi, jiaoqi 腳氣) or is weak and swelling (xuzhang虛脹), he should not eat it, or his illness will never end.”
Gourds (gua) [possibly bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, but the quote implies he may be thinking of winter melon] are sweet, cold, smooth, and nonpoisonous. They hold back thirst. The Yellow Emperor said, “In the ninth month, don’t eat frosted gourds (winter melon, Benincasa hispida). It is towards the winter and will cause cold, hot, or warm illness (han re ji wenbing寒熱及溫病).” When one starts to eat it, it causes nausea. After one finishes with it, it remains in the heart as water and it cannot be digested. Otherwise it returns to the stomach (fanwei反胃). If one eats gourds that sink into the water, he will have cool illness (lengbing冷病) and will not be cured in life.
Li: Hulu. Very important plant in Chinese culture, but medicinal uses few and minor, for various parts of the plant.
(Cooling in Chinese medicine; astringent; fairly effective diuretic; still a minor but well-known plant in Chinese folk medicine.)
Lagoecia cuminoides L., Apiaceae. Qardmana, qardamānā. JiErMaNa
Mediterranean herb and occasion cumin substitute (Uphof). Not in our sources, except for translation of name in Lev and Amar.
Lamium purpureum L., Lamiaceae Muntinat
Mediterranean; styptic, diuretic and purgative (Uphof) but not in our sources. Possibly a misidentification, very likely for another Lamium species or a close relative, since the genus is common, widespread, medicinally used, and actually bioactive in many cases.
Launaea angustifolia, (Desf.) Kuntze (syn. Sonchus, angustifolia, Zollikofera angustifolia). Asteraceae. Saliyy.
The only mention of this species in our sources is in Mandaville; he reports that in Arabia the herb is called marār from its bitterness, and has no use. Kong et al. identified the Arabic name saliyy as this species under the now long obsolete name Zollikofera. This is almost certainly a misidentification. Presumably they relied on some very early herbal that used that name. Some other Launaea species rate trivial mentions in Near Eastern herbals.
Laurus malabathrum, Lauraceae. Sādhaj hindī (“Indian malabathrum”; it is indeed from India but is not a malabathrum, though related)
Levey: For tears. (Levey thought it might be a spikenard.)
(A common enough Indian drug that even though rarely mentioned it is probably correctly identified here.)
Laurus nobilis, Lauraceae. H.abb al-ghār
Dioscorides: I:78, daphne. Scorpion sting, ears, liver, inflammations.
Avicenna: Bark hot and dry. Seed warming, relaxant. Oil useful for baldness, etc. Bark/seed extracts and oil for swellings, nerves, head, headaches, ears, chest, liver, spleen, abdominal pain. Oil causes nausea but stimulates menstruation. Withhoney and vinegar for diarrhea.. Bark can be abortifacient. Treats stings and scorpions.
Levey: In clyster for kidneys. Seed in formula for vermifuge and for air purifying.
Nadkarni: Astringent, stomachic, aromatic, stimulant, said to be narcotic (wrongly). Emmenagogue and for leucorrhea, etc.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Ghār. Minor uses.
Lev and Amar: ghār, rand. Stomach, hemorrhoids, palpitations, liver, spleen, kidneys, bites, poisons, worms, etc. Hot and dry.
(The stimulant yet soothing volatile oils are effective for symptomatic treatment of the less serious conditions above.)
Lavandula spp., notably L. stoechas L., Lamiaceae. Ustukhundus. WuSiTuHuDuXi.
Dioscorides: III-31, stoichas. Decoction for chest pains. Added to antidotes.
Avicenna: Usṭūkhūddūs, apparently from stoechas. Hot and dry. Bitter, dissolvent, opening, cleansing, somewhat constricting, strengthening, anti-decaying. Boiled down, relieves nerve pain, cold diseases of nerves, etc. Necessary for patients with cold diseases of nerves. Good for melancholia and epilepsy. Can induce vomiting, especially in those with excess bile. Strengthens urinary organs; purges phlegm and black bile.
Graziani: Azhar al-Khazān. Modern uses in India and Egypt as carminative, resolvent, antispasmodic, stimulant.
Lev and Amar: isṭūkhūdūs. Eyes, including things like lice on eyelid (it would work, being strongly insecticidal). Malaria, wounds, hair, lengthening life, strengthening heart, asthma, infections, swellings, etc. Maimonides considered it hot and dry.
Bellakhdar et al: calefacient, nervous diseases, antitussive. L. x abrialis for urinary and gynecological problems, and colds; also cosmetic uses. L. multifida gastro-intestinal, antiseptic, colds. (My observations confirm that this useful genus is exceedingly popular in Morocco.)
Ghazanfar: L. dentata, L. officinals, L. pubescens, carminative, for headaches, colds; L. dhofarensis, stomach, kidneys, nerves.
Lebling and Pepperdine: L. dentata. Khuzama. Gas, urinary problems.
Nadkarni: Unani/ Near Eastern uses as resolvent, deobstruent, carminative; for colic an chest. One unani source calls it the “broom of the brain”—it expels brain crudities, strengthens the intellect, etc. Also stimulant, carminative, emmenagogue, etc.
(Various species of lavender are used throughout the world medicinally; they are powerfully antiseptic. The scent is so universally liked, and found soothing and cheering, as to make one wonder about evolved attraction, and many would agree that it sweeps away worries—purges black bile and treats melancholia, as Avicenna put it. Experiments confirm that simply smelling it soothes the brain. This has led to extensive farming of lavender, for the scent and sometimes for flavoring food, in France, Morocco, the United States, and elsewhere. Lavender oil is insecticidal, which explains the name, cognate with “laundry”; the plants are still widely used to keep insects from eating stored clothing.)
Leonurus artemisia (Lour.) S. Y. Hu, Lamiaceae. Yimu Cao, motherwort. Native.
Dioscorides: IV-176, pyknokomon, L. marribuastrum? Seed causes grievous dreams. With meal as plaster, dissolves swellings and draws out thorns. Leaves, poultice for skin infections. Root for constipation and choler. At least some of this sounds wrong for Leonurus; identification needs checking. (Accordingly, this plant is scored Chinese in our count.)
Eisenman: L. turkestanicus, uncommon; decoction for heart, stomach, nervous system. Tea and infusion for hypertension, hysteria, epilepsy, tachycardia, stomach, female conditions; soprific, anti-inflammatory, diaphoretic, laxative. Biomedical possibilities include sedative and relaxing uses.
Li: L. heterophyllus, chongwei; L. pseudomacranthus, zancai. Grouped together. Former used for childbirth and some miscellaneous minor uses; latter a mere appendage. (L. artemisia is still used as a menstrual aid, etc.)
Lepidium latifolium L., Brassicaceae. Shitarāj. ShaYiTaLaZhi.
Manniche: Seeds found archaeologically. (Medical use seems likely.)
Dioscorides: II-205. Plaster for sciatica; leaves, beaten with root of elecampane. Hung around neck for toothache.
II-185, kardamon, L. sativum. Seed warming, sharp, bad for stomach but used to kill worms and produce abortion. Emmenagogue and aphrodisiac. Recognized as similar to mustard and rocket seeds. Presumably applied, it cleanses skin problems. Drives away serpents, stops falling hair, applied to carbuncles, etc. Used for a range of conditions; seed; also foliage, less effective.
The Greek name was transferred to the spice (see Elettaria) early, but survives in altered form as the scientific name Cardamine for a large genus of cresses closely related to Lepidium.
Levey: Shīṭaraj, Vitiligo. Ḥurf, L. sativum. Skin, ulcers, etc.
Al-Bīrūnī: Jarjīr; cites “arzūmūn” as the “Roman” name. Two varieties, the main one clearly a Lepidium, the other not. Cites Dioscorides for the first as calling it aphrodisiac, carminative, diuretic, detersive. Note that some of these uses are indeed in the English version, others not.
Avicenna: Shāhṭaraj, L. latifolium. Interestingly, not shīṭaraj, which Avicenna uses for Fumaria. Hot, dry, bitter. Rub with vinegar. Much more on: Ḥurf, thūm, L. sativum. Hot and dry. Dissolvent. Used on swellings, boils, ulcers, mites, ringworm, chronic skin diseases, joint pains, etc. Taken for lungs and asthma. Heat for stomach and liver. With honey as poultice for spleen enlargement. “Stimulates sexual desire, expels worms, promotes menses and causes abortion” (p. 487). In short, a typical Avicennian cureall.
Nasrallah: Seeds hot; abortifacient. Treat asthma, headaches. Expectorant, stimulant. Can repel insects. Leaves similar but moister and thus less hot and less effective.
Lev and Amar: Shītaraj. Skin conditions, gout, spleen.
Graziani: “cress,” qurdumanā, eaten in Persia and elsewhere.
Lev and Amar: L. latifolium, shīṭaraj. L. sativum, rashād, ḥurf. Skin; ulcers, weakness, teeth, gums, mumps, intestiness, emmenagogue. Wounds, bites, stings. Possibly for abortion. For pains, worms, hard stomach, spleen, etc.
Bellakhdar et al: L. sativum. Brocho-pulmonary infections; childbirth difficulties; tonicardiac; revulsive.
Lebling and Pepperdine: L. sativum, rashad, hilf, etc. Seeds. Blood cleanser; coughs; seeds or leaves eaten to sepeed up healing of broken bones; childbirth, eaten especially after delivery, with other nutritive spices, for recovery. Many remedies here. Also diabetes, hair loss, indigestion, kindney stones, sore throat, stomachache.
Nadkarni: L. sativum, seeds aperient, diuretic, alterative, tonic, demulcent, aphrodisiac, carminative, galactagogue, emmenagogue. (In short, about like every other spicy seed in Indian medicine.) Leaves somewhat stimulant, diuretic.
Eisenman: L. perfoliatum, minor uses, including ground seeds for nerves.
Li: Several spp. grouped as tingli. Seeds used as purgative, etc.
(Seeds and foliage of this mustard-like plant are very high in glucosinolates, which are safe yet strongly stimulant and carminative. The term Shīṭaraj is used in Indian and possibly Persian medicine for Plumbago rosea, rose-colored leadwort [Levey and Al-Khaledy 1967:191], which may have been taken—rather strangely—as a substitute for Lepidium. There is no way of knowing for certain if this is done in the HHYF. One assumes that the HHYF follows orthodox usage, however.)
Lepidium sativum L., ḥurf. See above.
Levisticum officinale Koch., Apiaceae. Kāshim. Lovage in English.
Dioscorides: III:51, ligystikon. Digestion, edema, urine, stomach.
Levey: Coughs, earache.
Avicenna: Sīsāliyūs, kāshim. Hot and dry.Internally for gas, abdominal pain, epilepsy, asthma, chest mucus, digestion, worms, urinary and uterine pain.
Lev and Amar: kāshim barrī. Coughs, earache, bruises; intestines, dropsy; expels
worms; induces menstruation.
(This well-known apiaceous plant is indeed effective for relieving mild stomach problems.)
Libanotis sp., Apiaceae. ZhaErNaBu
Dioscorides: III-87, libanotis, two types. Cachrys libanotis, Ferula nodiflora, Prenanthes purpurea suggested. Poultice for hemorrhoids and the like. Dry roots with honey for ulcers and gripes, and the inevitable use against venomous bites. With wine, diuretic and emmenagogue; dispels swellings. Applied, for sight. Helps epilepsy chest, rutures, convulsions, gout, etc.—more or less the usual things that every plant seems good for, to Dioscorides.
Linum usitatissimum L. Linaceae. KeTanBu(?). Hu-ma-zi. Hu:100
Dioscorides: II-125, linon. Flax. Seed for inflammations, internal and external; with honey and oil. Raw, as cataplasm with figs and nitre, for sunburn and skin conditions. With lye on hard swellings. A large number of other minor external uses. Aphrodisiac, with honey and pepper. Used in herbal bath for womb inflammations. Clyster/suppository for bowel conditions and constipation.
Avicenna: Hot. Neutral between moist and dry. Cleansing; produces gas. Paste for freckles. Various preparations for swellings, joints, head, chest, etc. Rinse or sitz bath for uterus.
Graziani: Ibn Jazlah used it in ointment for keeping body from heat and keeping it soft and moist; evidently linseed oil is meant.
Lev and Amar: kattān. Seed or oil used; hot and dry. Seeds for chickenpox, skin, stomach, coughs. Oil for embroactions, for various reasons.
Kamal: kittan. Ground seed demulcent; presscake for poultices.
Bellakhdar: zerri’at l’kettan. Laxative, emollient, antitussive.
Ghazanfar: Seeds for constipation, joint pain (externally applied), urinary disorders, venereal diseases.
Nadkarni: Demulcent, expectorant, diuretic; seeds hot and dry, aphrodisiac. Flowers for cordials.
Dash: Sweet, for strength and skin.
Li: Ya ma. Oil on leprous and other sores.
Flax has probably been known in China since the Han Dynasty (Liu et al. 2011), but this is not certain, since early records call both it and sesame hu ma, “Iranian hemp.” It was not grown as a fibre crop in China till the 20th century.
(Flaxseed oil is a good oil for the skin, as well as high in omega-3 fatty acids.)
Liquidambar orientalis Mill., Altingiaceae (Hamamelidaceae). Resin. Imported. Cai(Mi)A. Ma’yah or something similar in the Arabic. Morocco: ‘l-Mia. Su-he-xiang. Hu:547. Translated “rose maloes” in many cases. This is said to be derived from a Malay word (Stuart 1911).
Nadkarni: Storax; stimulant, expectorant, diuretic, antiseptic, disinfectant, astringent. Unani: tonic, resolvent, astringent.
Li: Suhexiang. The resin. Imported (he thought, wrongly, from southeast Asia; it probably came via that region, hence the Malay name used in East Asia). Sweet, warm, nontoxic. Powerful treatment for toxins, worms, noxious agents generally. He used the resin of the native L. taiwanensis, feixiangji, for various illnesses.
(Gum still widely used.)
Loranthus europaeus L., Loranthaceae. Muwizaj (Persian). MaiYuZaZhi
Dioscorides: III-103, ixos. This and/or Viscum sp. With wax and resin on swellings and skin conditions. With frankincense on old ulcers, suppurations, etc. With quicklime, or agate, or “Asiatic” stone, for speen. Unslaked lime and wine-lees increase its strength.
Li: L. parasiticus, L. yadorik, relatives. Sangshangjisheng. Whole plant for various minor uses including bleeding and debility.
Avicenna: Viscum album, dibq, moist literally but hot and dry humorally. Minor external uses; softening. Used for swellings of spleen.
Lupinus termis Forsk., Fabaceae. Turmus. DaErMuSi.
Dioscorides: II-132, thermos emeros, Lupinus sp. Seed meal with honey or vinegar, or leaves, eaten or in tea with rue and pepper, for vermifuge and for nausea. Various external uses for gangrene, ulcers, sores, skin conditions in general. Pessary, with myrrh and honey [presumably to soften down its poisonous qualities], for menstruation and for abortion.
Levey: Turmus. Spots, abscesses.
Avicenna: ālūsan, tarmus. Hot and dry. Bitter. Externally for pimples, wounds, swellings, tubercular lymph glands, etc. Taken with vinegar and honey for many of these as well as used externally. Boiled-down (soup?) for gangrenous conditions. Poultice for sciatica. Flour on head ulcers. Internally with vinegar, honey, rue, and/or pepper for nausea etc. Various uses for worms, etc. Can even be abortifacient, orally or “as a device with common rue and pepper or with honey” (684). Useful for rabid dog bites (whether externally or internally used is not stated).
Kamal: Lupinus albus, turmus, diuretic.
Bellakhdar et al: L. albus, termas, semqala beyda, hypoglycemiant; for liver disorders.
Nadkarni: L. albus, termas in Hindi as well as Arabic, antihelminthic, diuretic, tonic.
Lycium afrum L., Solanaceae. Hudud. HaQiQi. The Arabic name apparently covers both this sp. and Rhamnus infectorius, the latter being more obviously medicinal, and thus probably the one intended in the HHYF.
Dioscorides: lykion, Rhamnus infectorius. Medical qualities of this plant are so different from Lycium that summary seems worthless, especially since it is one of those curealls that he used for everything. He notes an “Indian Lycium” (Gunther 134:72) that may be a true Lycium. It was used, however, more like the Rhamnus, for inflammations of the spleen, diarrhea, emmenagogue, purgative.
Avicenna: ‘ūsaj, L. shawii. “the view of some that desert thorn counters the ill-effects of sorcery and the evil eye when it is hung over doors and windows” (p. 356). This of course means Avicenna believes no such thing. More realistic use as poultice for fevers and inflammations.
Levey: Ḥuḍaḍ. Scrofula, lesions, preventing miscarriage. Also as ‘ausaj, for pustules.
Lev and Amar: khawlān, ‘awsaj. Various species and the Rhamnus used for eyes, as well as gums, coughs, spleen, diarrhoea, swellings, dog bites, etc.
Graziani: Lycium sp. Hudad, used by Ibn Jazlah for swelling, eyes, leprocy.
Bellakhdar et al: L. intricatum, ‘ud l-gerteg, for women’s sterility and for itch.
Ghazanfar: L. shawii, stems boiled for diuretic, laxative, tonic; berries for colic and for eyes.
Sun: L. chinense, Chinese wolfthorn leaf (gouqiye枸杞葉): bitter, balanced, astringent (se澀), and nonpoisonous. It restores the body from being weak and increases the essence and marrow (jingsui精髓). The proverb says, “If you leave home for one thousand li, don’t eat luomo蘿摩[7] or wolfthorn.” This is because they are very strong in the Dao of yang and then will assist the qi of yin and soon cause diseases.
Li: L. chinense and occ. L. barbarum, gouqi. Fruit, leaf and root. Usually, the dried fruit is used, being a cureall. The roots of very old plants can take on the form of an animal; one estimated to be a thousand years old looked like a dog, and was therefore offered to the Emperor Huizong of Song as a medicinal prodigy. Li even quotes a bit of “doggerel” about this event.
(L. chinense (and probably L. barbarum) is actually more a medicinal food, or “nutraceutical,” than a drug; its biomedical value lies largely in the fact that its berries and leaves have almost the highest concentration of vitamins and minerals known in any natural product. It has thus been used for thousands of years, pragmatically and empirically, as biomedicine uses vitamin-mineral supplement pills. It is especially valued for convalescents and women recovering from childbirth. Handfuls of the dried berries go into the soups made for women “doing the month” of rest and high-nutrient eating after parturition.)
Mallotus philippensis Muell., Euphorbiaceae.
Levey: qanbīl. Red glands on fruit used for ulcers. Antihelminthic.
Nadkarni: Many names and uses; widespread, important. Cathartic, antihelminthic, aphrodisiac, purgative, etc. Powder (“kamala powder”) a standard vermifuge in India.
(This appears to be another Indian influence in the HHYF.)
Malus communis DC (Pyrus malus L.), Rosaceae. Tuffāh.. (domestic apple)
Avicenna: Sweet and thus relatively neutral; unripe, cold (sour); ripe warmer. Tasteless and unripe apples have no medicinal value. Fruit a mild stomachic and heart strengthener; leaves more valuable—used (evidently in tea) with apple extract for skin conditions. Avicennia recognized the value of apples for diarrhea as stomach soother and binder—still standard medical use (see the BRAT diet—bananas, rice, apples and tea—for diarrhea).
Lev and Amar: Eyes, bites, etc. Cold and dry.
Sun: Crab apple (linqin林檎, rinkin, Malus asiatica): sour, bitter, balanced, astringent, nonpoisonous. It ends thirst. It makes people want to spit. It cannot be taken too much. Otherwise it will make the mai weak.
Apple (Malus pumila, naizi奈子): sour, bitter, cold, astringent, nonpoisonous. It makes people endure hunger and is good for heart and qi. It cannot be eaten too much. Otherwise it will cause flatus (luzhang臚脹). If one has been sick for a long time, his situation will become even worse after eating it.
Li: M. micromalus, haihong, haitangli: sour, sweet, balanced, nontoxic. M. asiatica, linqin: For fever. Sour, swet, warm, nontoxic.
Malva rotundifolia Desf., Malvaceae. Khubbaz.
Dioscorides: III-164, alkea, Malva alcea, mallow. Drunk with wine or water for dystentery and ruptures.
Galen: Wild mallow (Malva sp.). Moist, moderately heating, viscid, glutinous, digestible. Thick juice. [The plant is very mucilaginous.]
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Usual uses. Today for coughs, chest and purging.
Lev and Amar: M. sylvestris mentioned but nothing given for it.
Kamal: M. sylvestris, kubbaza, khubbayzah (the modern vernacular is khubez). Leaves soothing, emollient [as they are almost everywhere, and effectively, as I know from experience]; used for poultices. Used in enemas for acute enteritis.
Bellakhdar et al: M. sylvestris, baqula, kubbeyza: laxative emollient.
Ghazanfar: M. parviflora, seeds and leaves for demulcent and fevcer and ulcers; external.
Nadkarni: Leaves mucilagionus, emollient as poultice. Seeds same; also demulcent; power taken for coughs, uncerated bladder, hemorrhoids, similar conditions. Other spp. also used.
Sun: [See taxonomic note for Li.] Mallow (dongkuizi冬葵子): sweet, cold, nonpoisonous. It mainly cures coldness, hotness, or weakness in the five internal organs and six hollow organs (wuzangliufu五臟六腑). It breaks the five kinds of urinary problems (wulin五淋). It is helpful for discharging urine. It also cures the difficulty of producing milk by women. It cures blood stoppage (blocking; xuebi血閉). If one takes it for a long time, it will strengthen the bones and make the muscles grow, lighten the body, and lengthen life. In the twelfth month, gather the leaves, which are sweet, cold, smooth, and nonpoisonous. It is good for spleen. If one takes it for a long time, it is good for the stomach qi. Its heart [usually this would mean central shoot and bud, but they are harmless and a common Chinese food, so woody lower stem is probably meant here] harms people. With every kind of medication, eating the heart is contraindicated. The heart is poisonous. The Yellow Emperor said, “If one takes frosted mallow that has previously been preserved without cooking it, it will cause five kinds of liquid illnesses (liuyin流飲)[8]. When the liquid accumulates too much, it will make him vomit. ” [I.e., it ferments too much.] When mallow and carp (liyu鯉魚) or fish in general (zha鮓) are taken together, this harms people. In all four seasons, when the earth is prosperous (tuwang土王), avoid raw mallow. It will cause indigestion and arouse chronic diseases. [Probably this means that if the mallow flourishes too much because of good growing conditions, it should be avoided; indeed, mallow, though highly nutritious, can become hard to digest and over-rich in nitrates if overgrown. Mallow is another plant notable for high levels of vitamins.]
Li: M. parviflora, tukui. Same species complex as M. rotundifolia (the small mallows are all closely related and taxonomically almost impossible to separate or sort out). Trivial, mostly magical uses. However, a common food.
(The small mallows represent a species complex, with M. rotundifolia, M. parviflora, and M. sylvestris, among others, poorly distinguished. These, like the Chinese lycium, are exceedingly high in vitamins and minerals, and thus have the same use in nutrition—de facto vitamin-mineral supplements. They fill this role in Arab culture especially, but were a major vegetable and nutrition aid in China too, especially in early times. They were a standard vegetable in ancient China, a low-status food in medieval China, and a famine food more recently—thus do less choice vegetables sink down the status hierarchy. Incidentally, kui now includes sunflowers and is often so translated, but sunflowers were introduced from North America in the last couple of centuries.)
Mandragora officinarum L. Solanaceae. Luffah. LiFaHei
Manniche: Probably shown in art, and, if so, surely used for tranquilizing etc.
Dioscorides: IV-76, mandragoras, Atropa mandragora, mandrake. Male and female varieties noted. These are obviously different species, but the dscriptions make it hard to pick these out. For sleep and pain relief. Expels black choler and phlegm, but is deadly in overdoes. Used in eyes and other topical applications. Pessary emmenagogue and abortifacient. Used for snakebite. Large number of other related uses. Use in love magic noted.
V-81, oinos mandragorites, mandrake wine. Root bark brewed with wine must. Causes sleep and relieves pain.
Avicenna: luffāḥ, yabrūj. Cold and moist. Anesthetizing. Used for swellings, abscesses, tubercular lymph glands. Power with vinegar for deep-red inflammation with fever and pustules. Poiultice on arthritis and eoephantiasis. In wine for sleep; anal suppositories are also soporific. Excessive use or even smelling cuases a stroke. Causes vomiting of bile and phlegm. Emmenagogue and abortifacient. Poisonous. Sirāj al-quṭrub, M. autumnalis: Hot and dry, though not very. Opening, but constricts vessels, so helps stop bleeding; “best drug for healing wounds” (p. 359). Poultices used. Internally for vomiting blood. Enema for intestinal ulcers. Antidote for scorpion stings. “Said” to tranquilize scorpions in the wild.
Levey: Sāsak. In a remedy for insanity and epilepsy. Luffāh., in collyrium and in insanity remedy. Narcotic, at least in other medieval sources.
al-Bīrūnī: Usual material and folkore, as above.
Lev and Amar: Leprosy, skin diseases, eyes, snakebite, headache, swellings, mumps, wounds, pains, stings, insanity, epilepsy, sleeping. Toxicity recognized. Anesthetic. Maimonides notes use for tightening vagina to simulate virginity, and holds it cold and dry.
Kamal: yabruh, mandraghorah, sirag al qutr, sabizak-Ibn al-Baytar, etc. Narcotic, sedative, anaesthetic.
Bellakhdar et al: M. autumnalis, bayd l-gul, narcotic.
Nadkarni: Sedative and anaesthetic; dangerouslyi toxic.
(Powerful, dangerous alkaloids probably as important as the alleged manlike shape of the root in making this a valued but feared drug in early times.)
Marrubium vulgare L., Lamiaceae. Farāsiyūn.
Avicenna: Farāsiyūn. Hot and dry. Cleansing, dissolvent, etc. For earache, eyesight, chest and lungs, laxative, emmenagogue.
Lev and Amar: Farāsiyūn. Earache, hearing, eyesight, lungs, womb, chest, liver, spleen, rabid dog bites; emmenagogue. All this from Ibn Sīnā.
Bellakhdar et al: Marrubium vulgare, merryut, notably important: diuretic, hypoglycemiant, hair-care, antihelminthic, anti-tinea, antipyretic, anti-jaundice, antidiarrheal, emmenagogue, and cosmetic.
Ghazanfar: Expectorant.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, expectorant, resolvent, antihelminthic, alterative; for respiratory and digestive conditios, jaundice, tuberculosis, rheumatism, amenorrhea, etc.
Eisenman: M. anisodon, decoction for chronic catarrh, thrat, toothaches. Biomedical use as sedative and heart aid.
(Bitter, astringent; standard cough remedy well within my own memory and experience, only replaced by better biomedical remedies in the last very few decades.)
Matricaria chamomilla L.; Anthemis nobilis L. Asteraceae. Chamomile.
Dioscorides: III,137, various chamomiles for febrifuge etc.
Galen: Laxative, resolvent.
Levey: Fuqqāh. Al-ard.. For fever, eyes, muscles.Carminative, stimulant, etc.
Related Anthemis nobilis, bābūnaj, used similarly and for spleen, liver, stomach.
Lev and Amar: M. aurea, bābūnaj. On skin; poultices, lotions, etc. for usual reasons. Also eyes. Hemorrhoids, settling liver and stomach, strengthening limbs. For urinary stones, menstruation, urination, sweating.
Nadkarni: Babuna and cognates. Antiseptic, antiphlogistic. Antispasmodic.
Melilotus officinalis (L.) Lam., Fabaceae. Iklil-al-malik YiQiLiLuMuLuJie
Dioscorides: III-48, melilotos, but apparently referring to clover, Trifolium.
Levey: iklīl al-malik. Liver, stomach, fever, etc.
Avicenna: M. arvensis, iklil al-malik. Somewhat hot and dry. Constricting, dissolvent. Tonic for organs. Externally on inflammations, ulcers, skin, ears, inflamed eyes, sore anus or testicles. Internally, diuretic, emmenagogue, abortifacient. (This indicates how desperate people were for abortifacients; the amount needed for coumarin—the toxic principle in question—to accomplish this would be cattle-feed quantities.)
Nasrallah: hot; diuretic.
Lev and Amar: M. albus, iklīl al-malik. Eyes, skin, wombs, bits, poisons, stones, fever, liver, etc.
Kamal: Iklil al-malek, handuq, nafl, ghosn al-ban. Used in eyedrops. Seeds stop diarrhea in children.
Bellakhdar et al: M. indica, azrud, hair care.
Ghazanfar: Otrah. Astringent, narcotic; poultice for pain.
Eisenman: Infusion for catarrh, migraines, hypertension, bladder and kidney pain, menopause. Externally in compresses, plasters, wash, for various wounds and infections. Biomedically, coumarins in this plant suppress nervous system action and—as is well known—inhibit blood clotting.
Li: Many close relatives used for various purposes.
(Coumarin, which interferes with blood clotting, makes this a dangerous remedy.)
Melissa officinalis L., Lamiaceae. Badranjubuyah (Persian) BaDeLanZhiBoYa
Dioscorides: III-118, melissophyllon, lemon balm. Leaves with wine, or applied, for scorpion stings, dog bites, etc. Herbal bath, emmenagogue. Put on teeth for pain. Clyster for dysentery. Leaves drunk with nitre for mushroom poisoning and gripes. Uses for ulcer, gout, etc.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Minor uses; today in Persia as carminative and tonic.
Lev and Amar: bādharnabūyah (the source of the HHYF name), bādīrnabīh. Plant reelieves snakebite, abscesses, cough, respiratory problems, lung diseases. Seeds a component of a drink that cleans the heart. Cures black bile, stings, etc. Many minor uses including sexual energy, eliminating phlegm, aiding digestion, etc.
Kamal: Torongan, ibn al-baytar, hashishet al-nahl, habaq torongani. Stomachic, cardiac, carminative, anti-epileptic. Infusions for fainting and indigestion. (Most of these uses are still in folk practice in the European world, including sniffing to treat depression.)
Lebling and Pepperdine: For stomach; also tiredness and run-down condition. Reported in medical literature as antiviral and improving mood.
Nadkarni: Minor; for swellings, bowel complaints.
Eisenman: For migraines, insomnia, women’s conditions, goiut, dizziness, anemia; for cardiovascular disease, and as analgsic, sedative, hypotensive, diuretic, digestive, toxicosis. Biomedically, most of these uses are confirmed, albeit not very dramatically. One Central Asian study found use in Alzheimer’s disease [though this should not be taken very seriously]. Essential oil anti-oxidant.
(The limoniol and other volatile oils have a strongly soothing and stomachic function. Even the scent is relaxing and relieves worries and sadness; experience with myself and many others confirms the old writers on this. The many volatile oils in this plant have well-demonstrated relaxing effect when smelled, and whether this is a “psychological” or a “biological” effect, it works.)
Mentha aquatica L., Lamiaceae. Futanj-maiyy. FuDaNaZhi (M. sp.)
Dioscorides: III-42, ‘edyosmos agrios. Properties similar to following; less good.
III-41, ‘edyosmos emeros, M. sativa (?). Warming, binding, drying. Juice of leaves stops bleeding, kills roundworms, provokes lust. Sprigs in pomegranate juice stop hiccups, vomiting, choler. Applied in plaster for skin conditions, headaches, etc. With salt on dog bites. Juice for ear pain. Applied as birth control agent (?). Good for stomach.
Levey: Ḥabaq nahriyy, mint. Fevers, jaundice, pains. For smell. Now stomachic, etc. Faudanaj, fautanaj, faudhanaj, M. aquatica and other mints, for poultices for spleen, liver, stomach, binding sinews, oxymel for humors.
Al-Bīrūnī: many comments on mints, under the usual names, esp. na’na’, but no serious medicinal comments.
Avicenna: Na ‘na ‘, pūnah. Hot and dry. Pungent and bitter. External uses: boiled down with wine for removing black spots; poultice with flour for abscesses, headaches. Heals fractures and ruptures. Bath for itches. Internally for leprosy, worms. Digestion, coughing up blood, jaundice, purging phlegm; for appetite, etc. Aphrodisiac. “The pre-coital use of mint as a suppository prevednts pregnancy” (743; see following entries). Emmenagogue. May kill sperm and prevent nocturnal emissions. Removes black bile. Tonic.
Nasrallah: Hot, dry, sharp, stimulates appetite and digestion, relieves bloating and headaches, etc. Good for heart and for sexual performance. Contraceptive (women using as suppository).
Lev and Amar: M. sativa, nammām, na‘nā. Convulsions, tetany, fever, colic, spleen, liver, stomach, sinews, bites and stings, cleanses menstrual blood, strengthens lungs, soothes hiccup, and even claimed to prevent preganncy and contribute to sexual ability. Hot and dry.
Kamal: M. aquatica, n‘nai’ al-mazare’; M. piperita (a hybrid possibly not yet existing in Dioscorides’ time), ma‘na’, na‘na’, saisambar. Aromatic, carminative, stomachic, anti-convulsive, emmenagogue, rubefacient; for colic, flatulence, headache, rheumatism etc. Mints smelt for nausea.
Ghazanfar: M. longifolia, na‘ana, for coughs, breathing, stomach, chills and fevers.
Lebling and Pepperdine: mint species in general, for abdominal pain, stomach, throat, colds, colic, headache, insomnia, menstrual pain. With other spice foods for mother after delivery, to restore strenghth.
Nadkarni: M. arvensis, and mints in general (including M. aquatica as well as M. sylvestris and others), aromatic, carminative, stimulant, antispasmodic, stomachic, emmenagogue. M. x piperita antiseptic, also, and used for external as well as internal preparations.
Eisenman: M. asiatica, anti-inflammatory, hemostatic; for wounds, gastritis, dysentery, diarrhea, colitis, tuberculosis, respiratory tract, coughs, toothache, gall bladder.
Sun: Mint leaves (Mentha spp., fanheye蕃荷葉): bitter, spicy, warm, nonpoisonous. Can be frequently taken. These make the qi of the kidneys recede. They make one’s breath pleasant and clean. It is especially good for dispelling noxious poison (xiedu邪毒) and it eliminates tiredness (laobi勞弊). If one is thin and tired, he should not take it frequently, or it will arouse the illness of losing weight and feeling thirsty.
(Mints are still used worldwide for stomach, skin, throat, coughs, colds, and many other minor purposes. Very effective for stomach, throat, etc., and by wide agreement—if not medical proof—as a mood-improver, even when merely smelled. They are grown in a very large percentage of the world’s gardens, and in the aggregate are probably the most widely grown medicinal herbs in the world. They are a major commercial crop in the United States and elsewhere, for medical and flavoring uses.)
Mentha haplocalyx Briq., Lamiaceae. Native. SaDaBu. Satar, Zatar (Yemen; the Arabic word zahtar, “thyme” by extension “mixed herbs”).
Li: Bohe. Pungent and nontoxic; disagreement about other qualities. For fevers and digestive complaints. Expels both yin and yang poisons, and toxins generally. Many other uses, but the cooling and digestive functions are obviously well recognized.
Mentha pulegium L., Lamiaceae. Futanj (Persian)
Dioscorides: III-43, kalaminthe, M. sylvestris, calamint. Three types; one clearly M. pulegium; another, described as having longer leaves and being less effectual, is surely M. sylvestris. Warming, sharp. Helps snakebites (and even drives away snakes), urine, ruptures, convulsions, gripes, and the rest of the standard Dioscorides catalogue. Emmenagogue, abortifacient, and kills worms (virtually guaranteeing that M. pulegium is the primary reference here). Juice dropped in ears to kill worms there.
Kamal: filayah, fulayah; fawtang, fawthang. Stimulant, carminative, emmenagogue.
Bellakhdar et al: Fliyyo. Against chills; cure for broncho-pulmonary infections. M. rotundifolia (timijja, marsita, timersit) anti-hemorrhoidal and against chill. M. viridis, na’na’, liqqama refreshing and against headache. (It is not clear what species are really involved. Spearmint, na’na’, a hybrid or variety of the above and/or M. aquatica, is famously the signature herb of Morocco, used not only in food and medicine but as the universal tea, drunk sweetened on all occasions.) Calamintha officinalis, menta (loanword), for pulmonary infections, refreshing. (Many of these uses are widespread in the Mediterranean and the whole complex is worth reporting here.)
Menyanthes trifoliata L., Menyanthaceae. YiTiLiFei (?)
Kamal: Itraifel. Emmenagogue, tonic, antipyretic, diuretic, anti-caries. Leaves used.
Li: Shuicai. Sweet, slightly bitter, cold, nontoxic. Helps sleep, but also may keep awake; Li knew it poorly and was not sure of its values.
Mesua ferrea L., Clusiaceae. Narmushk (Persian)
Avicenna: nārmushk. Hot and dry. Diluting, dissolving. Used for cold stomach and liver. Similar to nard. (Another Persian-Indian drug notably lacking in more western sources but picked up by Avicenna.)
Madanapala: Nāgakeśara. Hot; For bad smells, serious skin diseases, erysipelas, poisons.
Nadkarni: Flowers astringent,stomachic, stimulant, carminative; unani use for heart, expelling winds, antispasmodic, diuretic.
Meum athamanticum Jacq., Apiaceae. Spignel. Muwwa
(This common medicinal herb, used like other medicinal Apiaceae as stomachic, carminative, etc., is strangely absent from the classic herbals, though mentioned in the HHYF.)
Moringa oleifera Gaertn., Moringaceae. Not. Ban. Bang.
Manniche: M. pterygosperma and/or M. aptera Gaertn. oil for stomach ache; enema for anus; mixed with other things to apply to sore gums; refreshing ointment; used in poultices, eardrops, mosquito repellent, etc.
Levey: M. pterygospermaGaertn. For hair oil, teeth and gums, nosebleeds, ointment.
Kamal: Hab al ban, gos al-ban, al-habbah al-ghaliah (“costly seed”), yasar. Ban or ben oil produced from seed. Used in perfumes and cosmetics, as well as for lighting etc.
Lev and Amar: M. peregrina, bān. Oil strengthens teeth and gums, acts against nosebleed and aging, strengthens senses and sexuality. “Treats leprosy skin diseases, toothache, boils, spleen and liver troubles, rheumantism; it is an emetic and a purgative” (p. 356).
Ghazanfar: M. peregrina, source of ben oil. Oil for headache, fever, abdominal pain, constipation, burns, back and muscle pains, and for childbirth.
Nadkarni: Notably important in India. All parts used. Antispasmodic, stimulant, expectorant, diuretic. Fresh root acrid and vesicant; internalliy stimulant, diuretic. Gum bland. Seeds acrid and stimulant. Bark emmenagogue, abortifacient. Flowers stimulant, tonic, diuretic. Unani conisder the flowers hot and dry. Plant is cardiac and circulatory tonic and antiseptic.
(M. oleifera is famous throughout Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia as a medicinal and nutritional aid, but does not seem to have reached China by Li’s time. It is there now. It is widely planted, and recommended by aid agencies, as a food and medicinal crop.)
Morus sp., Moraceae. Mulberry.
Mentioned as a food in one place. In China it would be M. alba L., but the Near Eastern one is usually M. nigra L. Both, especially the latter, are common foods, but of little medical note.
Avicenna: M. alba, M. nigra. Tūth Sweet, hot, moist (white sp.). Minor external uses;soothing. Sour ones not good for stomach. Salted and dried ones very constipating, so used for dysentery. Batrk purifying and purgative.
Eisenman: M. alba, leaves for angina; fresh leaf juice for toothaches; fruits and juice for “oral and throat bumps, dysentery, anemia,… diuretic, hemostatic” (175), rashes, scarlet fever. Biomedically, some very tenative results for blood pressure, leukemia cells, blood sugar. Leaves contain tannins, coumarins, and other bioactive chemicals.
Li: M. alba. Sang. Sweet, cold, nontoxic. Various differences of opinon ecorded on this. Tonifying, treats strains and extremes, nourishes. Helps lung and intestines. Disperses stagnation of blood. Many meedical prescriptions, for root, bark, etc. as well as fruit.
Muscus spp.? AzhiNa.
Dubious identification.
Li: Various mosses used but unclear as to full range of taxa.
Myristica fragrans Houtt., Myristicaceae. Rou-dou-kou. Hu: 973.
Dioscorides: I-110, maker, mace. Called a bark. Drunk (as tea) for spitting blood and dysentery.
Levey: Bisbāsah. Mace. Strengthens breathing. Jauz bawwā, nutmeg, for teeth, breathing.
Al-Bīrūnī: Jauz buwwā. Antipyretic, antiphlogistic.
Avicenna: Jauz būwwā’. Mace is bizrkitān. Hot and dry. Mace is constricting of tissues and improves body odor. Nutmeg used to scent breath. Mace used in ointment for swellings; nutmeg for eyes. Mace strengthens stomach and liver, nutmeg strengthens liver, spleen, stomach.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Bisbās, mace, appears in compounds. Strengthens spirits. Today tonic, stomachic, liniment, internal and external aromatic.
Lev and Amar: jawzbuwā, basbāsa, jawz al-ṭīb. Breathing, colic, coughs, colds, sexual desire, etc. Hot and dry.
Bellakhdar et al: guzt sh-sherq, s-sibisa, besbasa. Aphrodisiac, stimulant, calefacient, anti-hemorrhoidal, vaginal infections.
Madanapapa: Jātīphala. Hot. Digestive, carminative. For vomiting, parasites, rhinitis, cough. Mace used similarly.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, carminative; nutmeg narcotic in large doses. Oil rubefacient, stimulant, aperient. Mace is carminative and aphrodisiac. Wood astringent. Unani use as stomachic, aphrodisiac, and for many conditions from diarrhea to fevers.
Dash: Pungent, hot, aromatic. Cures poisoning. For diarrhea and urinary troubles.
Li: Roudoukou. Pungent, warm, nontoxic. Nut used, as elsewhere. Warming, digestive, antidiarrheal. Most of the various virtues seem to reduce to this.
(The warming, stimulant, carminative, and stomachic qualities of nutmeg and mace are widely known; the narcotic use perhaps too widely known! Nauseating in large doses.)
Myrtus communis L., Myrtaceae. Murd (Persian from Greek), ās (Arabic/Persian). MuErDi.
Manniche: Various dubiously identified conditions. Mixed with other ingreidents. Usually external, as for penis, chest, stomach, swellings, limb stiffness, indeed almost any body pains; also hair ointment [it would alleviate several scalp conditions]. Internally for cough.
Dioscorides: I-155, myrsine, myrtle. Berries given to those who spit blood etc., juice for same and for stomach and other conditions including scorpion stings. Fruit used to make hair dye. Herbal bath for womb fluxes (leucorrhea?), and for various skin conditions. A large and repetitive catalogue of external uses, for every imaginable condition.
Galen: Fruit astringent, constipating, cold.
Avicenna: ās. Cold, dry, though “box myrtle” is hot. Stops diarrhea, prspiration, bleeding, etc. Boiled-down tea poured over broken bones helps them set. Syrup good for diarrhea and pain. Good with olive oil on inflammations, wounds, ulcers, etdc. Fruit used for joints. Stops nosebleeds (fruit? Juice?). Helps eyes, chest, etc. Paste of fruit strengthens stomach. Fruit diuretic and helps with inflammations of urethra. Many other uses—something of a cure-all.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Long history of uses, going back to Talmud as well as Dioscorides and down to many modern uses. In India astringent, for epilepsy, stomach and liver diseases, etc.
Lev and Amar: ‘ās, marsīm. Usual uses for eyes, stomach, hemorrhoids, etc., but also for dyeing hair black and other cosmetic uses. Also, oil on spider bites and on glans penis, etc. Reported even for hearing and kidney stones. Cold and dry.
Kamal: Juz al-tib. Mace is bisbasah. Carminative; good for rheumatism.
Bellakhdar et al: r-rihan. Hair-care, antidiarrheal. For gastro-intenstinal disorders.
Ghazanfar: Yās. Introduced and cultivated in Arabia. Leaves for colic, couighs, fevers, headache, nosebleeds. Various topical uses on blisters, stings, ulcers. Insecticide.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Stimulant, antispasmodic, diaphoretic, etc.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, astringent. Leaves antiseptic and rubefacient.
Li: Wide range of Myrtaceae used in China, for all purposes, but not this sp.
(The species is effective as antiseptic; slightly toxic.)
Narcissus tazetta, Amaryllidaceae. Chinese sacred lily. Shuixian. Uncertain identification.
Avicenna: Narjis (Persia nargis). Cleansing, drying. Powdered root for swellings, whole root with vinegar for skin spots. Used on wounds, nerves, joints, head, chest. Root causes vomiting but treats pain in uterus and bladder.
Li: Combats pathogenic wind. Root bitter, slightly pungent, slippery, cold and nontoxic. Many minor medical uses, from “removing a fish bone stuck in the throat” (vol. II, p.1437) to fragrant otions, dispelling heat and fever, etc.
Nardostachys jatamansi DC, Caprifoliaceae (Valerianaceae). Imported
Dioscorides: I-6, nardos, nard. Warming, drying. Stop various fluxes and nausea, flatulation, liver and kidney problems, etc. Applied for inflammation of vulva. Good for eyelids. Mixed in antidotes.
I-75, nardinon myron, nard ointment. A complex mix for unspecified uses, presumably those above.
Graziani: Sunbul. Used by Ibn Jazlah for swellings, sweat, brain strengthening relieving chest pain and palpitations, and for stomach. Today in India and Egypt for convulsions, hysteria, epilepsy; Iran and Iraq for nervous disorders.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: For stomach.
Lev and Amar: sunbul, nardin, nard. Hot and dry; opens obstructions in urinary tract, heats kidneys, arouses sexual desire, protects against miscarriage, regulates heartbeat, cleanses womb. Also for headache, eyes, poisons, bites, stings, bladder, etc. Strengthens heart and stomach.
Kamal: nardin, sunbul-rumi, sunbul, sunbulat al-tayib, ith-khir, nardision. Root/rhizome stimulant, good for brain. Liver, spleen, kidneys, Nerve tonic, antiepileptic, digestive, sedative.
Madanapala: Māmsī. Cold. Good for alleviating excess of dosas; for blood, burning syndrome, erysipelas, skin.
Nadkarni: Root bitter, aromatic, antispasmodic, diuretic, emmenagogue, sedative, tonic, carminative, deobstruent. Unani uses: tonic for heart, liver and brain; removes obstructions; diuretic, emmenagogue, etc.
Dash: Bitter, cold, pungent, fragrant, cures poison and burning.
Li: Gansongxiang (includes N. chinensis). Sweet, warm to balanced, nontoxic. Rhizome used. Various uses.
Nigella sativa L. Ranunculaceae. Seeds. Shūnīz
Avicenna: Shūnīz. Hot and dry. Pungent, cleansing, gas relieving, purifying. Externally with rue for swellings of liver and other problems. Mouthwash; can add pine bark. Taken for breathing, asthma; liver; stomach relief; worms. Also for paralysis of face, so relevant to stroke treatment.
Levey: Shunīz. In salve for itching, and for insanity.
Lev and Amar: Shūnīz, qizḥ. Colds, worms, leprosy and othger skin problems, nose infections. Increases semen and sexual energy. Against poisons and stings, bites, etc. Hot and dry. Insecticidal and good on skin. Treats paralysis and facial spasms.
Ghazanfar: Seeds for conjunctivitis (drops with rose oil); seeds eaten for stomach and breathing; with ginger and other plants on paralyzed limbs.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Acne, topically with honey. Taken for asthma, childbirth (with milk etc.); sniffed for colds; oil with tea of anise, cumin, sugar and peppermint for colic (which would be very effective!). Coughs, diabetes, heart, kidney stones, nausea, rheumatism, stomachache, toothache. A Saudi Arabian cureall. Noted that modern medicine holds it effective as bronchodilator, antioxidant, etc.
Madanapala: Various names; none seems standard. Flatulence, vomiting, etc.
Nadkarni: Seeds armoatic, diuretic, diaphroetic, antibilious, stomachic, stimulant, carminative, digestive, antihelminthic, emmenagogue (in short, like all other medicinal seeds, Indian medicine uses this quite promiscuously).
Eisenman: Toothaches, gsatric and intestinal diseases, pains; diuretic, soporific, vermifuge. Biomedically, some minor antibiotic effects; helps heart fiunction by increasing cardiac output, but other studies show it reduces heart rate. Wide range of bioactive compounds.
(Many plants in this family are extremly toxic to humans but have strong antibiotic and possibly other activity. The many chemicals in this species should be investigated.)
Ocimum basilicum L. Lamiaceae. Biranj-mashk, falanj-mushk.d Luo-le. Hu:1061
Dioscorides: III-50, akinos, O. pilosum (possibly a mistake for O. basilicum), basil. For stomach ache. Stops menstrual flow. Applied on skin.
I-59, okiminon, basil macerated in olive oil. Applied. Used like marjoram oil.
Avicenna: Hot and dry. Cleansing, purging, relieves gas, thins blood, constricts tissues. Can be either laxative or constipating, because though it generally constipates it can purge. Wild basil expels yellow and black humors. Seeds stop black bile. Used, mostly the wild form, for a very wide range of items: uclers, gout, etc., and facial paralysis. Used for pains, eyes, heart, chest, sticky matter in stomach, piles, etc.
Levey: This sp. and probably others. Rheumatism, eyes.
Al-Bīrūnī: Bādrūj. Astringent, cathartic, resolvent, maturative, flatulent. Decays fast. Promotes bad humors (leading to dim eyes, etc.). Seeds used for mental derangement. External applications for inflammations, nosebleed, etc. On teeth for pain. Thyme can substitute, for at least some uses. Shāh safaram, apparently Persian name for same plant, for heat, headache, irritation; soporific; seeds against diarrhea.
Nasrallah: scent cheering (a belief still current and widespread)
Lev and Amar: rheumatism, eyes, etc. Maimonides: appetite, sexual aid, cleans breth, relieves depression. Many other uses from other authorities, including bleeding, stings, digestion, etc. Modern uses for skin, wounds, itch, scent, heart medicine, diuretic, etc. Brain, nose, hemorrhoids.
Kamal: Rayhan, huk, habaq. Stimulant, antispasmodic.
Bellakhdar et al: l-hbeq. Against mosquitoes. Used for sinusitis, tachycardia, hemorrhoids.
Ghazanfar: Reḥān. Cataracts, colds, abdominal pain, diarrhea. Keeps hair from turning gray (paste of leaves). Topical uses of leaves on wounds etc. Aphrodisiac. Many cosmetic and social uses.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Topically on ant bites and cuts, tea for colds and coughs, in formulas for indigestion and insomnia, tea for stress.
Madanapala: Vatapatrī. Hot, astringent; cures diseases of female genitalia. Seeds constipative.
Nadkarni: Usual herbal uses as carminative, stimulant, aphrodisiac, diuretic, etc.
Dash: Bitter and hot. Cures parasites, difficult skin diseases; relieves scorpion bite. O. sanctum for cough, hiccup, asthma, poison, skin.
Sun: Basil (Ocimum basilicum, luole羅勒): bitter, spicy, warm, balanced, astringent, and nonpoisonous. It eliminates the water remaining in the body (tingshui停水) and dispels poisonous qi. It cannot be frequently taken, or it will make the circulation of qi in the body difficult (se rongwei zhuqi澀榮衛諸氣).
Li: Luole. Interestingly, in his volume on vegetables rather than among the herbs. Foliage or seed used. Various minor uses.
(The plant is rather uncommon in China, though fairly well known in the north and west. The enormous use and value of basils in west, south, and southeast Asia forms a striking contrast to their trivial role in China. Basil is an effective stomach and sore throat treatment, widely used; many species are used, worldwide; the Native American peoples of Mexico have independently discovered the value of the local wild species, O. micrantha, and use it very widely.)
Olea europaea L.. Olive. Oleaceae. Za’itūn, zaitūn; the oil is zait, and zaitūn just means “oil plant.”
Dioscorides: II-105. Oil, probably of the wild form (“O. oleaster”—not a valid scientific name), for eyes, erysipelas, herpes, carbuncles, ulcers, etc.
Levey: Leaves for sprue, gums, etc.
Avicenna: zaytūn. Oil from unripe olives is cold and dry, from from ripe is hot and moist (giving some clue to how the codings are determined—the green-olive oil is sour, astringent and biting, “drying,” while the ripe is fatty, lubricating and moistening). Wild olives make more medicinal oil. Used on all skin conditions. Enema for sciatica. Used for all the usual lubricating and soothing purposes. Leaves, in tea, used for sores, infections, teeth, eyes, etc/
Lev and Amar: zayt (the oil). Eye, skin, general external soothing (hair, head, bites, stings, wounds, teeth and gums, joints, burns, scratches, etc.). Internally for intestines, stomach, etc., and even for worms.
Ghazanfar: Itm. Resin, fruit, leaves, and bark all used, for many applications. Olives with salt and dates are made into a paste for broken bones. Leaves for poultice for boils. Juice of fruit for eyes. Leaves and bark for rashes. Ash of leaves on blisters and ulcers. Bark made into a tea for constipation. Twigs used for toothbrushes.
(Olive oil is, of course, unsurpassed for soothing and oiling the skin, and recently the extra-virgin oil has been found to have some heart and other beneficial effects from the antioxidant chemicals in the juice.)
Many medical uses are found in Varisco and Johnstone (2011).
Onopordum (Onopordon) macracanthum Schousb., Asteraceae. BaDiAWaErDi.
Avicennia: O. arabicum Strong and biting medicine. Mouthwash for toothache and sore uvula. Tea of root for excessive menstruation. Boiled down extract for suppository or bath for anal swellings.
The related O. acanthium of Europe and the Middle East is recorded in Wikipedia as having minor medical uses.
Eisenman: O. acanthium, “used internally to treat inflammation of the bladder and urinary system, bronchial asthma, pertussis, scrofula,… colds, hemorrhoids, as a blood cleanser,” etc. Infusion of top of stem in flowering drunk for nerves, colds, inflammation of respiratory system. Put in baths for frightened children. Biomedically, cardiotonic, hemostatic, styptic, diuretic, and bacteriocidic properties and raises arterial pressure…tonic…” and other uses (178).
(This rather little known thistle would seem like the perfect cureall, if Central Asian medicine is correct—but Wikipedia devotes much more attention to controlling its thorny, weedy presence.)
Opopanax chironium (L.) Koch. Apiaceae. Jawshir (Persian). ZhaWuZhiEr, ShaHaMuHanDaLi, ShaHeiMiHanZanLi
Dioscorides: III-55, panakes (panax) herakelion, Ferula opopanax or Opopanax hispidus [the figure looks more like Ferula]. Sap and roots; bitterest is best. Warming, mollifying, attenuating. Drunk, often with wine, good for agues, rigors, convulsions, rputures, pain in the side, coughs, gripes, dysuria, scabies. Like almost everything else Dioscorides uses, it is emmenagogue and abortifacient (also the root, topically) and is topically applied on all sorts of skin and eye conditions, including bites of mad dogs.
Seed taken with aristolochia or wormwood for menstruation, etc.
Levey: Jawāshīr. Rheumatism, phlegm, melancholy. Other uses in old sources for antispasmodic, emmenagogue, etc.
Lev and Amar: jāwshīr. Eyes, convulsions, tetany, fevers, colic, penile erections, rheumatism, phlegm, black bile. Detersive. For abscesses.
Kamal: Gawshir (Farsi, “cows’milk”). Juice for pharyngitis, bronchitis, brain disease, paralysis. Used on skin wounds.
Nadkarni: Gum stiumlant, antiseptic.
Orchis chusua. Apparently a misidentification (not scored in counts below).
Avicenna: various orchid uses.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: An orchid may be mentioned in one recipe.
Origanum majorana L., Lamiaceae. Marzanjūsh (Arabic and Persian; the general dried-herb name sa‘tar is used for this as well as thyme, etc.). MaErSangGuoZhi.
Origanum maru L., Lamiaceae. Marmahuz. MaErMaHuEr
Theophrastus: II, p. 295, diktamnon, O. dictamnus. A great deal of lore on three different kinds of Cretan dittanies. Eases labor of women, and pain in general. Goats shot with arrows eat it and it makes the arrows fall out.
Dioscorides: III-32, origanos ‘erakleotike, Origanum vulgare. Warming. Tea for posionous bites and antidotes to poison hemlock, etc. Eaten with figs for convulsions, ruptures, coughs, etc. Emmenagogue. Usual topical applications. With onions, sumac, etc., kept 40 days in burning summer heat, makes a medicine that brings on vomiting.
III-33, Origanum onitis? O. sipyleum?; III-34, O. vulgare, wild; various confused drawings; all seem used more or less similarly; short, confused accounts.
III-37, diktamnon, O. dictamnus, dittany. Retails with evident disbelief Theophrastus’ tale about the goats. Used for pain of spleen. Root hastens birth and helps with snakebite. Various other uses similar to above.
I-58, sampsychinon, an oil of this and many related herbs pounded and infused in olive oil. For drawing out menstruation and afterbirth, and abortifacient. Applied for pain relief.
Avicenna: O. majorana and O. vulgare (oregano): hot and dry. Usual all-purpose minor uses for sores, swellings, stomach, diuretic, emmenagogue. Also vermifuge. Avicenna mentions dittany, but here identified (perhaps wrongly) as Dictamnus albus, a completely different plant from O. dictamnus. Hot and dry. For pain, menstrual problems, urination. Abortifacient.
Levey: Marzanjush. Liver, stomach, spleen, kidneys; ear infections with suppuration. Eyes.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Dittany, mishkatarā mashīr, occasional. O. maru, marw, seeds mentioned; marmāh.ūz, herb used; apparently Al-Samarqandī thought they were different plants, though the names are usually synonyms.
Graziani: Marzanjūsh, mardaqush. Headaches, constipation, scorpion stings (Ibn Jazlah). Ibn Butlān used it for chest pains and cough. Egypt today for vulnerary, nerve disease, cephalic, emmenagogue, sternutatory.
Lev and Amar: O. maru, O. syriaca, za’tar, sa’tar, for gynecological, kidney and urinary problems; for anemia; etc. Note that the general name za’tar (like the Hebrew ezov) also covers wild thyme and similar wild herbs, but Lev and Amar are confident that these—primarily the latter—are the species called for in the Genizah documents. O. majorana, mardakūsh, marzanjūsh, for various women’s complains, kidneys, urinary tract.
Kamal: Bardaqush, marzangush, habq al fil-Ibn al-Baytar, a’bqar, etc. Stimulant, tonic, stomachic, sneezing, carminative, anti-inflammatory. O. vulgare, za-tar, antiseptic, antirheumatic, externally on ulcers etc., internally for worms and antisepsis. Includes thymol, which is powerfully antiseptic.
Bellakhdar et al: O. compactum, za’tar. For all diseases, gastro-intestinal antiseptic, mouth hygiene, antiacid. O. majorana, merdeddush, against chills and fevers.
Nadkarni: Plant stimulant, carminative, diaphoretic, emmenagogue, tonic. Oil used for stimulant, especially digestive.
Eisenman: O. tyttanthum, for appetite, digestion, inflammation of respiratory tract, nerves. Externally in compresses for abscesses, bath for rickets and scrofula in children. Water extracts of plant for gastritis, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc. Tea for tympanites, lryngitis, stomatitis, angina, etc. Biomedically for hypertension, atherosclerosis, kidney, liiver, and epilepsy; sedative; expectorant; regulating intestinal action; diaphoretic tea, etc. O. vulgare, for the usual reasons, including insomnia, gastritis, etc.; as expectorant; as anti-spasmodic, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory. Essential oils do show antibiotic effect.
(Modern biomedicine agrees with the stimulant, carminative, and tonic parts of this. The plant is rich in volatile oils with medicinal effects.)
Oryza sativa L., Poaceae. Rice. ‘Aruzz. Dao. One mention of husks, probably a Chinese substitution for some Near Eastern husk preparation.
Nadkarni: Pages of products and medicinal uses. Soothing, especially to stomach or rice-water as enema. Invalid food. Rice poultices are used for all sorts of purposes, being soothing, available and cheap. Nothing said about medicinal uses of husks.
Li: Vast range of broadly similar uses (soothing, poulticing, etc.). No medicinal use of husks.
Significantly, this basis of Chinese food is otherwise missing in the HHYF.
Osmanthus fragrans Lour., Oleaceae. Native.
(Not in Li, but, in modern China, the flowers are very commonly used to flavor tea or to make a tea by themselves, and now often considered cooling and otherwise medicinally valuable.)
Paeonia suffruticosa Andr. Paeoniaceae (Ranunculaceae). Fawaniya. Native. SaLiHa Egyp. Ubsalib, Iran Assalib
Dioscorides: III-157, paionia arren, P. corallina; paionia theleia, P. officinalis. Dioscorides recognizes male and female varieties. Roots given to women after childbirth to eliminate afterbirths; also for menstruation (apparently both too much and too little) and cramps. Helps kidneys, stops diarrhea, etc. Black roots for nightmares and “suffocations of ye womb” (Gunther 1934:383).
Avicenna: Fāwāniā, from the Greek, is one name. Several others discussed. Treats epilepsy—by being hung around the neck or over him; Avicenna has seen this work. When the suspended plant was removed, the condition returned. Used as snuff for insanity and epilepsy, also. Also for gastric irritation, protecting stomach, jaundice, liver obstructions. Regulates discharge of menses and helps with placenta, etc., after birth. Good for kidney and abdominal pain. Can remove stones, at least in children. With honey wine for hysteria due to pain in uterus.
Kamal: P. officinalis, ‘anzarut, sarqoqola, etc. Powder for purulent conjunctivitis, wounds, ulcers.
Ghazanfar: P. officinalis, Aphrodisiac and tonic.
Li: Mudan. P. lactiflora and P. veitchii are shaoyao and are next to mudan in Li’s book. Cortex of former, root of latter, widely used for countless purposes.
Papaver somniferum L., Papaveraceae. A FeiRong, LaLaHua, for the resin; ShaoNiZi for seeds; Ying-su-ke. Hu973
Manniche: Rather shakily identified in a tranquilizing remedy; seeds used.
Dioscorides: IV-64, mekon roias, P. rhoeas. Sleep, healing inflammations, etc.
IV-65, mekon agrios, mekon emeros, P. somniferum, opium poppy. Obvious use for sleep and pain, used internally or externally; also for inflammations and rashes, coughs, diarrhea, menorrhagia,
IV-66, mekon keratites, Glaucium luteum. Sciatica, liver, urinary problems (infections?), purging, etc. Externally on ulcers etc.
IV-67, mekon aphrodes, Silene inflata. Purges by causing vomiting.
IV-68, ypekoon, Hypecoum procumbens. Use similar to poppy.
Galen: seed produces lethargy. Not nutritious.
Levey: Used in combined medicine for insanity. Wild poppy, presumed P. rhoeas, nār-kīwā, provided an oil used in clyster for kidneys and for bringing back blood to face.
Al-Bīrūnī: Afyūn: Detailed discussion of opium, used for the usual reasons. Khashkhāsh (the normal Arabic name for poppy): Cures cough. Opium-bearing kind narcotic to point of danger.
Avicenna: Notes many kinds. Khashkhāsh, seeds; afyūn, opium. Cooling and dry. Usual anaesthetic uses, but also seeds used for coughs, congestion, vomiting, stomach, etc.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Usual uses; important.
Nasrallah: Black and white seeds known. Opium known and widely used; cold, dry, sdative, treats coghs and humidity and diarrhea.
Lev and Amar: afyūn. In addition to the obvious uses for sleep and diarrhea, used for jaundice, loss of teeth, etc., and in gargles and other preparations. Root of plant used for pains of thigh, liver, head. Seed for cough, liver, intestines. (Glaucion corniculatum, māmīthā, for the usual minor matters: eyes, pains, soothng, etc. Cold and dry.)
Kamal: khashkhas (the seeds), abu-al-nom. Sedative, anaesthetic, soporific. Fruiting head, cooked, for stomach ache, meteorism, pains, including toothache. A formulation by Mesue the Younger uses roses, gum arabic, starch, tragacanth, liquorice juice, spodium, and saffron with poppy syrup for tuberculosis, pleurisy, and the like (Kamal 1975:519).
Bellakhdar et al: P. rhoeas, belle’man, shqayeq n-ne-man, measles, children’s fevers. P. somniferum, korkasha, analgesic, children’s insomnia, hiccups.
Ghazanfar: Coughs and insomnia. Dried capsules ground and mixed with rose water, applied to forehead, for nervous tension.
Lebling and Pepperdine: P. rhoeas, coughs.
Madanapala: Khasatila, seeds. Aphrodisiac, strengthening, constipative. Ahiphena, presumably gum or whole plant, constipative.
Nadkarni: usual narcotic and sedative uses. Causes constipation. For a vast range of purposes, in many preparations, but basically for sedative reasons.
Eisenman: P. pavoninum, for heatstroke, eyes. Other poppies used for tea for coughs. These are not very close to the opium poppy.
Li: Yingzisu. Seed sweet, plain, nontoxic; food and minor medical uses. Capsule and drug used for coughing and especially for diarrhea and dysentery (called “wonder drug” for this, and still is, in modern biomedicine). Narcotic uses not noted (not important in China in Li’s time).
(Opium remains as good a drug for treating some types of diarrhea as medicine can offer. Causes constipation if much used.)
Pedicularis sp. Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae). Mentioned in Index; otherwise not in the HHYF. Species of this genus are used in folk medicine in various parts of the world.
Peganum harmala L., Zygophyllaceae. Muli (Gr), MuLi
Dioscorides: III-53, peganon agrion, Peganum harmala. Seed beaten up for dullness of sight; applied with many other ingredients.
Levey: ḥarmal. Insanity, epilepsy, baldness, hemorrhoids, etc.
Avicenna: ḥarmal. Hot and dry. Minor uses, much like those of Ruta.
Lev and Amar: ḥarmal. Emetic, aphrodisiac, diuretic; for intestinal diseases, hemorrhoids, nerves, epilepsy, insanity, colic, sciatica, arthritis.
Bellakhdar et al: harmel. Toxic, hair-care, antihelminthic, antirheumatismal, antalgic, antidiarrheal; for bowels and nervous diseases.
Ghazanfar: H.armal. Leaves rubbed on joints for rheumatic pain. Tea antihelminthic. Tea of blossoms for stomach. Seeds for same, or topically with black pepper for joint pain. Seeds used as narcotic and for removing kidney stones.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Alterative, purifying, aphrodisiac; seeds used. Also emmenagogue, diuretic, vomitive.
Nadkarni: Alterative, antiperiodic, stimulant, emmenagogue, abortifacient. Purifying, aphrodisiac, antihelminthic. Seeds narcotic, anodyne, emetic, emmenagogue.
(Important mind-altering drug in Iran and elsewhere; possibly one of the “soma” plants of the ancient Aryans.)
Eisenman: Decoction or infusion for “olds, malaria, fever, syphilis, neurasthenia, and epoilepsy, and…as a mouthwash… smoke…for headaches…epileptic diseases…mixed with chil pepper to treat syphilis, and it is used as a diuretic and diaphoretic” (187). Biomedical uses as soporific; harmine alkaloid a strong nervous system drug, causing deperssion or hallucinations. Peganine has effectcs on cholesterol metabolism. Other chemicals await further study; contains many alkaloids.
(Well-known psychoactive plant, possibly the “soma” of the Aryans.”)
Penaea mucronata, sarcocolla. See Astragalus.
Petroselinum hortense (=P. crispum (Miller) Nym.), Apiaceae. Asaliyun
Dioscorides: III-76, oreoselinon, P. sativum (=P. crispum). Diuretic and emmenagogue.
Avicenna: Hot and dry. Dissolving. Cleanses ulcers and similar problems. Used for chest and lungs.
Graziani: Karafs. Ibn Butlān used it as diuretic, emmenagogue, anti-constipation.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Today as carminative, aromatic, tonic. Seeds of this and related apiaceous plants noted by Al-Samarqandī as used for the usual reasons. Levey and Al-Khaledy mistakenly equate it with celery; the plants, uses and words and quite different.
Kamal: baqdunis. Roots sudorific, stimulant, diuretic, emmenagogue. Leaves as hot applications for inflammatory conditions, mastitis, haematomas. Fruit carminative (effective, like almost all apiaceous spices). Active ingredient apiol, antipyretic and emmenagogue.
Bellakhdar et al: hypnotic.
Ghazanfar: Leaves and seeds for diarrhea and stomachache. (Effective.)
Nadkarni: Minor in India. Diuretic, etc.
Peucedanum ammoniacum H. Bn. (Dorema ammoniacum D. Don), Apiaceae. Ushshaq. Gum ammoniac. WuCaJi, WaShaJi
Dioscorides: III-92, peukedanon, P. officinale. Root sap anointed with vinegar and rose oil for lethargy, frenzy, vertigo, epilepsy, headaches, paralysis, convulsions, earaches, and so on. Smelled for womb strangling and swoons. Drives away serpents. Root decoction drunk (and applied?) for ulcers, scales on bones, etc.
Avicenna: Ushaq. Hot and dry. Dissolving and drying. Opens vessels; laxative and absorbent. Externally for wounds, tubercular lymph glands. In eyes for cleansing, etc. Internally for joint pain, asthma, labored breathing, ulcers of diaphragm, hardness of spleen and liver, worms, mesnstruation, abortifacient, and other minor uses.
Levey: Gum from this plant and Ferula marmarica. For fistulas, abscesses, eyes, insanity.
Avicenna: said it cools the blood, cleanses, helps with tumors. Modern uses as laxative, abortive, emollient, resolvent. Widely used in Persia.
Kamal: P. oreoselinum, atrilal, “ibex parsley, devil’s carrot, crow’s leg.” Seeds used for leprosy.
Lev and Amar: Eyes, pains, worms, etc. Purgative. Hot and dry, but cools blood, etc. Disinfects.
Nadkarni: Used for liver and spleen; oil.
Li: P. praeruptorum, P. decursivum, qianhu. Root important. Various dispersing and regulating uses. P. japonicum, fangkui, much more important and highly regarded. Various uses from digestion to mania! In all species, commentators disagree about qualities, even toxic vs. nontoxic.
Pharbitis nil (L.) Choisy & spp., Convolvulaceae. Native.
Li: This and P. purpurea are qianniuzi. Seed. Various quality ascriptions. Several pages of uses, especially digestive.
Phoenix dactylifera L., Arecaceae. Date. Tamr.
The HHYF mentions something that seems to equate with sukk, an Arab medicine including date, but this is tentative enough that we have not seen fit to do a full search on dates. But, also, terms for jujube in the HHYF probably mean dates, and “ten-thousand-year jujube” certainly does.
Avicenna: Nakkhl (tree), raṭab (ripe fruit), other names for every part and aspect. Cold and dry. Unripe dates cause indigention. Various medical uses for both flesh and kernewl—ash of latter has many external uses.
Lev and Amar: Aphrodisiac and for diarrhea, but little used, though often mentioned, in Near East medicine.
Li: Wulouzi. (Also, in Chinese colloquial, various such as fan zao “foreign jujube” and qian nian zao “thousand-year jujube”—a neat reverse of the English name “Chinese date” for jujubes.) Minor use as tonic.
Phyllanthus emblica L. (=Emblica officinalis Fr.), Euphorbiaceae. AmiLa, from Perso-Arabic amlaj, in turn from Sanskrit āmālaka.
Levey: Depression, breathing, stomach, liver, etc.; usually with musk or other items, in mixed medicinal preparations. For happiness and strengthening the heart.
Avicenna: Amlaj, suk. Hot. Cites Indian physician on this. Opening, dissolvent. Aphrodisiac. Expels black bile and phlegm. Good on piles.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Myrobalans are very important to Al-Samarqandī, but not well distinguished. This would have been major. The rise of myrobalans from early times to the HHYF indicates the rise of Indian influence. Belleric myrobalans with milk made a remedy used by Al-Samarqandī.
Madanapala: Āmalaka. Cold; aphrodisiac.
Nadkarni: Fruit refrigerant, diuretic, laxative. Carminative and stomachic. Dried, astringent. Flowers cooling and aperient. Bark astringent. Unani uses as heart and brain tonic, and to prevent humors in stomach and intestines; for diarrhea, fevers.
Dash: Fevers, appetiser.
Li: Anluoguo. Barely known. One report of fruit and leaf for minor uses.
Picnomon acarna (L.) Cass., Asteraceae. Badaward (Persian)
European/Near Eastern plant, not mentioned in our sources.
Pimpinella anisum L. Apiaceae. Anīsūn.
Dioscorides: III:56. Antidotes, headache, ears.
Galen: Diuretic, aphrodisiac, general antidote.
Levey; Levey and Al-Khaledy: In an electuary for liver, kidneys, etc; in eye medicine; stomachic; for rheums. Current uses as stomachic, carminative, stimulant, emmenagogue.
Avicenna: anīsūn. Hot and dry. Opening, biting, acrid. Relieves stomach ache and gas. Relieves headache (smoke of seeds); powder with rose oil in ear. Treats chronic eye problems. Lactagogue, diuretic, aphrodisiac, Laxative for kidneys; stimulates uterus and helps women after blood loss (presumably vaginal hemorrhage). Treats chronic fevers.
Lev and Amar: Palpitations, eyes, inflammation, etc. Maimonides used it for heart strengthening. Brain, sexual medicine, emmenagogue, fever, etc. Hot and dry. Modern uses include stomachic and carminative (as in European folk medicine), emmenagogue, etc.
Ghazanfar: Anasīn. Fruit digestive. Mixed with cumin and fennel for women after childbirth, to increase milk and ease pains.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Strengthens a mother following childbirth, along with fenugreek, nigella, wheat, dates. For colic. Chewed or in various formulas for cough, headache. Boiled and drunk for indigestion, stomachache, stress, toothache, and menstrual cramps. For insomnia.
Nadkarni: Usual apiaceous-seed uses as stimulant, carminative, diuretic, stomachic.
(Still used widely, throughout the world, for coughs and as carminative and stomachic; very effective.)
Pinellia ternata (Thunb.) Breit., Araceae. Native.
Li: Banxia. Tuber. Pungent, cool to warm (depending in part on processing), toxic. Several pages of uses, many for phlegm and respiratory affections, but also digestive and some other uses.
Pinus koraiensis Sieb. Et Zucc., Pinaceae. Native
Li: Haisong. Seeds used. Sweet, warm to hot, nontoxic. The uses center on nutritional value. Used classically as a food to prolong life; said to make one an immortal if eaten enough. Li notes that “Whenever Taoists talk about Songzi [pine kernels], they always mean Haisongzi” (2003:2804).
(The use for nutrition for longevity is partly sympathetic magic—pines live for centuries—but partly also because pine kernels are a concentrated source of high-quality protein, minerals, and unsaturated oils. They are a perfect supplement or, better, replacement for the dismal traditional North Chinese diet of grain and low-protein, low-mineral vegetables. Taoist and Buddhist adepts, especially, ate ascetic diets, and were at major risk for malnutrition. People living on such diets would indeed feel better and live much longer if they ate large quantities of pine kernels.)
Pinus spp. P. massoniana Lamb. & spp. Resin. JiFuTi
Dioscorides: I-86, pitys, P. halepensis; peuke, P. maritima, P. cembra (and/or other evergreens?). Bark ground and eaten; binding (constipating). Used for cataplasm for ulcers, sores, etc., or eaten for boils. Aids in childbirth. Drunk, presumably in tea, it stops the belly and is diuretic. Leaves in cataplasm for inflammations and wounds; sodden in vinegar for toothache; leaves or cone drunk in a tea for liver. Soot for eyelids and eyes. I-87, pityides, seeds; I-88, strobiloi, cones, ground, taken for coughs.
These species are closest to P. massoniana, except for P. cembra, which is closer to koraiensis.
(Gunther identifies IV-166, pityosa, as P. halepensis, but the description and picture cannot possibly apply to a pine. It has flowers, among other incompatible things!)
Galen: Pine cones eaten! But not well digested, unsurprisingly. Possibly he confused them with pine seeds.
Levey: ṣanaubar. Various spp. Seed for electuary for throat. Rātinaj, resin of pines and other conifers. Ulcers.
Avicenna: P. gerardiana, ṣanūbar, pine; large pine seeds, ḥabb al-ṣanūbar. Resin is rātiyānaj. Small seeds, jillauz. Resin hot and dry. Bark constricting. Resin, and dust of bark for wounds and sores. Seeds for lungs, pus, cough. Gargling with boiled-down bark evacuate phlegm. Pine smoke for falling eyelashes, etrc. Various internal uses, but bark irritates stomach. Seeds candied, for use in stomach and reprodiuctive health incliuding volume of semen. They can cause constipation; bark definitely does. Eating too many seeds can cause abedominal pain, but help with urination.
Lev and Amar: P. pinea, ṣanawber, bladder, kidneys, drying wetness, coughs, phlegm, paralysis, skin, spasms, jaundice, etc. Resin also used. Needles in a medication to strengthen the penis and constrict the glans.
Kamal: P. pinea, snonobar (snubar, snobar—this specifically means pine nuts). Resin for respiratory and dental conditions; diuretic.
Bellakhdar et al.: P. halepensis, tayda, dbag, for tuberculosis, skin abcesses. Pinus sp., u-mennas, er-rzina, cosmetic.
Madanapala: P. gerardiana, nikocaka, aphrodisiac, nourishing, for strength,etc. P. roxburghii, śrīvāsa, presumably seeds, for head and eyes; laxative.
Nadkarni: Various pines used. P. gerardiana seeds stimulant, nutritive, tonic, aphrodisiac. Pinewood is aromatic, antiseptic, deodorant, stimuant, diaphoretic, refrigerant, rubefacient, carminative; sapwood, oil, resin of P. longifolia and presumably other spp. used.
Dash: P. roxburghii for earache, etc.
Li: Song, pine in general; this species the common one of south China, replaced northward by P. tabuaeformis and others, westward by P. yunnanensis and others. (The very different P. koraiensis is found only in the far northeast, near Korea.) Resin and foliage for various purposes. Seeds used, but very small and dry, not a food like those of P. koraiensis.
(Pine oils used medicinally as antiseptic, skin treatment, etc. well into modern times, worldwide. I remember them from my childhood. Seeds advocated throughout early Chinese history as the best food for longevity. The pine lives long, and some sympathetic magic is clearly involved here, but the main reason for this tradition is obviously that pine seeds supply the protein, oil, and minerals that China’s traditional grain diet so conspicuously lacked. Common experience with eating pine seeds lies behind the tradition.)
Piper cubeba L., Piperaceae. Imported/introd.
Avicenna: Kabābah. Fāghirā for the fruit alone. Opening, thinning. Dissolving, constricting. Useful for mouth ulcers, etc. Laxative. Used for cold stomach and liver, and indigestion from coldness. Cleanses urinary tract, dissolves stones. “Coital pleasure in women is enhanced by the local use of saliva secreted by chewing cubeb” (p. 332).
Levey: Kabbābah. Gums, mouth, throat, teeth.
Al-Bīrūnī: Tanbūl. Astringent, tightens gums, desiccant, carminative. Chewed with areca nut.
Lev and Amar: kabāba, qūbība. For throat, mouth, diuretic, liver.
- betel, tānbūl, for teeth, gums, skin.
Kamal: kababah, kababa-sini, al-fulful thu al-thanab “tailed pepper,” hab al-arus. Stimulant, diuretic; for gonorrhea, leucorrhea, urethritis, etc. P. betel, tanbul, tamul, used as stimulant, appetizer, aphrodisiac.
Bellakhdar et al: kebbaba. Bladder and uterus diseases, urinary disorders, aphrodisiac, calefacient.
Madanapala: Kankola. Hot. For heart disease.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, carminative, expectorant. P. betel used for these and many other purposes.
Dash: Pungent, bitter, hot. Appetiser. Cures bad taste and “sluggishness in the mouth.”
Li: Bichengqie. Pungent, bitter, warm, nontoxic. Digestive for many purposes. In mixes for several other conditions.
- longum L., Piperaceae. Bi-ba. Hu 973
Theophrastus: II, p. 315: this and P. nigrum for heating; this one stronger.
Dioscorides: II-189, piperi, “long” noted as particularly sharp and biting, otherwise used like nigrum.
Levey: Dār filfil. In electuaries, eye powders, arthritis drug, etc. Stomachic.
Al-Bīrūnī: Dār-i-filfil. Cleans out uterus, etc.
Avicenna: Dār filfil. Hot and dry. Dissolvent. Heals cold diseases. For gout. With juice of roasted goat liver for day blindness (probably extreme sensitivity to light). Digestivve. Aphrodisiac. Root for abdominal pain.
Lev and Amar: dār fulful and variants. Eyes, palpitation, purgation, tonic, indegestion, hemorrhoids, stomach, colic, sexual medicine, etc. Hot and dry (Maimonides).
Madanapala: Pippalī. Very hot. Aphrodisiac, rejuvenating, purgative. For dyspnoea, cough, fever, skin, urinary diseases, piles, abdominal conditions, spleen, colic, rheumatism.
Nadkarni: Stimulant, carminative, alterative, aphrodisiac, diuretic, vermifuge, emmenagogue.
Dash: Cures cold diseases. Aphrodisiac, laxative. For asthma, cough, rejuvenation, etc. Root for a number of digestive conditions.
Li: Biba. Pungent, very warm or hot, nontoxic. Digestive uses including cholera and other diarrheas; various other uses. P. betle, jujiang, follows it in Li; root, leaf, spike all used; pungent, warm, nontoxic, for coughing, digestive purposes, other minor uses.
(This important medicinal plant, universally used in old Asia for its very “hot” and stimulant qualities, has fallen dramatically from favor since chile reached Asia. P. longum is “hotter” [more piquant] but less flavorful than black pepper, so chile replaced it almost totally in cooking, and to a great extent in medicine. Often, the very name was transferred to chile, its original meaning being forgotten, e.g. Malay/ Bahasa Indonesia lada. Could lada be the source of or cognate with Chinese la, Cantonese laat, “piquant”?)
- nigrum L., Piperaceae. Hu-jiao. Hu 659
Dioscorides: II-189, piperi. Warming, dissolving, etc. Cleans eyes. Drunk or anointed for malarial attacks, poisonous bites, abortion. Pessary for birth control. Taken for chest, coughs, etc. Gripes, pains, etc. In sauces for provoking appetite. With pitch, applied for scrofulous conditions, and with nitre for white skin infections. Root warming.
Levey: Filfil. Pain of gum and throat, collyrium, happiness, stomachic.
Avicenna: Filfil. Hot and dry (very). Used for skin, tubercular lymph glands, eyes, coughs, sore throat, digestive, appetizer, diuretic; birth control; bowles.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: This and the other pepper spp. are important in Al-Samarqandī’s drugs, for the above reasons.
Lev and Amar: Filfil, fulful. Cureall: bladdertones, inflammations of tongue and gums, teeth, crying, laughing, cold, heat, paresis and weakenss of sexual organs, aphrodisiac, deafness, earache, hedche, joints, epilepsy, ulcer, colic, vision, etc. Hot and dry. Against insects. Topically on skin. Even said to prevent pregnancy. Basically a cureall.
Kamal: felfel aswad. Carminative, counterirritant, stimulant, antiperiodic, antipyretic, anthelminthic, aphrodisiac, rubefacient.
Bellakhdar et al: l-bzar lekhel, labzar labyed. Aphrodisiac, calefacient, reconstituant, antitussive. P. retrofractum, first 2 same.
Ghazanfar: Filfil. In honey for earache. Stomachic, jaundice cure, reduces phlegm. Tonic, stimulant. Topically for eyes, for vision.
Lebling and Pepperdine: In mixed spice foods, especially for women after childbirth, where it appears to be a universal restorative.
Madanapala: Marica. Hot. Digestive stimulant. For colic, dyspnoea, parasites.
Nadkarni: Acrid, pungent, carminative, antiperiodic; externally, rubefacient, stimulant. Widely used in many preparations.
Dash: Digestive, for parasites. Cures cold diseases.
Li: Hujiao. Pungent, warm or hot, nontoxic. Digestive, respiratory, general heating uses. Strongly heating rather than warming, so used with caution. In Li’s book, followed by cubeb pepper in the “fruits” section, while long and betel peppers are together in the “herbs” section, though the uses are similar and Li must have seen the relationships.
(Pungent, stimulant, carminative, and antiseptic value of volatile oils is widely known and still useful.)
Pistacia terebinthus L., Anacardiaceae. Butm.
Dioscorides: I-177, pistakia, P. lentiscus. Nuts eaten or ground and drunk with wine, for stomach and for snakebite.
Avicenna: P. terebinthus, buṭm. Several other names. Hot and dry, but changeable in degree, according to condition and part of the plant. Cleanses skin conditioins, treats paralysis. Oil for facial paralysis. Treats ear, eyue, pains, other external uses. Internally for spleen and liver. Diuretic and somewhat aphrodisiac. P. lentiscus, maṣṭakī. Hot and dry. Dissolving; dissolves phlegm. Usual external uses for a hot, dry drug. Strengthens stomach and liver, respores appetite. Strengthens kidneys, intestines. Used for diarrhea and dysentery. For coughing up blood, also prolapse of uterus and anus (its drying, constricting action). P. vera, fustuq (Persian pistah), laxative, good for stomach. Oil for liver pain.
Graziani: P. lentiscus, mastakā, medieval uses as stomachic, obstructions, nausea.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Mastic from P. lentiscus very important in Al-Samarqandī’s remedies.
Lev and Amar: P. lentiscus, maṣṭakā. Diet for weight increase. Diarrhea. Malaria, black bile, phlegm, obstruction, wind, pleurisy, trembling, eyes, etc. Constipative. Expectorant, analgesic, etc. Also used in food. P. atlantica, but.m, ‘ilk (resin). Oil for kidneys, internal conditions, colds, birth pangs. Resin for various dressings. Hot and wet. Benefits stomach. P. vera, fustaq, fustuq, resin for same or similar uses.
Kamal: bottom [butm], fustuq, habbah khadra. Fattening. Expectorant, diuretic. Galls used for ashthma and chest diseases. P. lentiscus for diarrhea, incontinence, moth conditions, etc. P. vera, food only.
Stol (1979): Nuts of P. terebinthus and P. vera eaten since ancient times in Iran and elsewhere in the Near East; mentioned in cuneiform texts (apparently P. terebinthus). Medicinal uses for terebinth resin also go back to cuneiform texts. Ancient Egypt also used resins from Pistacia spp. as aromatics.
Bellakhdar et al. (1991): Modern Moroccan use of P. atlanticus for stomach-ache, fever, cosmetics; P. lentiscus for oral hygeine and heart, emmenagogue, stomachic, diuretic, astringent.
Ghazanfar: P. lentiscus, mistakah, mustaka, resin for fevers; applied on wounds; chewed as breath freshener; taken for coughs and chest cramps. Topically on swellings.
Lebling and Pepperdine: P. lentiscus mastic. Mastaka, etc. With, or instead of, other incense gums, as incense for drying up womb after childbirth.
Madanapala: P. vera, pistā, aphrodisiac, nourishing, etc.
Nadkarni: P. lentiscus, stimulant, diuretic. P. terebinthus, astringent, restorative; resin used.
Li: P. vera, ayuehunzi, seed, pungent, warm, astringent, nontoxic; for genitalia and thus used in sexual medicine (and pleasure). Also for dysentery, cold, general nutrition (the last of these explains the sexual value; most of the Chinese sexual nutraceuticals actually work by providing concentrated protein and mineral nutrition in an easily-digested form).
Plantago asiatica L. & P. psyllium. Plantaginaceae. Seeds. Native. BaZiLiHaTuNa, Iran Barihang
Dioscorides: II-153, arnoglosson, P. major; arnoglosson mikron, P. lagopus. Leaves drying and binding, so applied for essentially all types of wounds, sores, and skin conditions, up to and including dog bites and mouth sores. Taken or as clyster for dysentery, etc. Taken for epilepsy, tuberculosis and asthma. Taken or as pessary for womb conditions. Seeds taken to stop diarrhea and spitting blood. Root for mouthwash, or chewed, for mouth sores and toothache. Root and leaves for bladder and kidneys. “Some say” (generally a sure-fire indicator that Dioscorides disbelieves what follows) that three roots in wine help tertian, four roots quartan, malaria, and that amulets help scrofulous conditions.
Avicenna: Lisān al-ḥamal. Cold and dry. External for the usual sores, ulcers, skin diseases, and pains. Treats earache and mouth. Treats epilepsy. Treats coughing up of blod. With lentils for asthma. For liver, kidney obstructions. Extract or enema for internal ulcers and cholera. Stop bleeding piles. For kidney and bladder pain.
Levey: P. albicans L., shawīk. Scrofula, boils, ulcers, hemorrhoids, tooth care, wounds.
- psyllium, qat.ūnāa, for coughs, mouthwash, head, sciatica, back pains, rheumatism.
Avicenna: bazr qaṭūnā, P. ovata. Husk of seed used. Cold and moist. Causes constipation, so used for diarrhea. Put on swellings, herpes, inflammation, nerves, rheumatism, headaches, chest. Used internally for bilious thirst.
Lev and Amar: P. afer, dūfus, other names. P. major, lisān al ḥamal. Crying in infants; kdney stones; women’s diseasese; eyes. Various minor conditions. Infection of large intestine; oedema. Hot and dry.
Kamal: P. major, lisan al-hamal, mesis, massas, musas, zummarat al-Ra’i. Roots and leaves astringent, refrigerant, diuretic. P. psyllium, hashishet al-Garaghith, bizr qatuna, burghuthi ibn al-Baytar, hunayn-physilion. Seeds for poultices, dressings, fomentations, sedating drinks, inflammations, vomiting, urinary troubles, skin conditions, eyedrops. (Just about everything except the standard modern use for constipation!)
Bellakhdar et al. Plantago sp., messasa, for ripening of abcess, analgesic, local anti-inflammatory.
Ghazanfar: Seeds for diarrhea, dysentery, fevers, tonic. Leaves on ulcers and abscesses.
Lebling and Pepperdine: P. major, laxative, and for dysentery and diarrhea. Poultices for boils. Seeds used.
Nadkarni: P. ispagula and other spp., including asiatica, but primarily ispagula: Seeds cooling, demulcent, emollient, laxative, diuretic. Mucilaginous seeds as laxative particularly important.
Eisenman: P. lanceolata. Decoction diuretic and for cystitis, gastric conditions, tuberculosis, headaches, snake bites; antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, expectorant, used to treat all sorts of ulcers, wounds, internal inflammation, malaria, etc. Biomedically, seems effective as hemostat and anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, possibly other uses. Many chemicals isolated. P. major, similar uses, and diarrhea, bladder inflammation, expectorant. Also has many compounds under investigation.
Li: P. asiatica, P. depressa, cheqian. Seed, root, foliage; sweet, cold, nontoxic. Diuretic, laxative, cooling; other uses. Foliage has external uses for poultices etc.
(Seeds still a major laxative, especially those of P. psyllium.)
Meserve: P. major. “Leaves made into a plaster for ‘Siberian Sore.’” (Meserve 2004:73). Also to stanch blood, etc. She presents a great deal of comparative material.
Platycodon grandiflorum (Jacq.) A. DC., Campanulaceae. Native.
Li: Jiegeng.. Root cold, bitter, pungent. General tonic with many uses; a major Chinese drug.
Plumbago sp. Plumbaginaceae. Shitarāj. Usually, and presumably in the HHYF, this Arabic name means Lepidium, q.v. (Thus not scored.)
Madanapala: Citraka, P. zeylanica. Digestive,stimulant, carminative. For sprue, skin, edema, piles, parasites, cough.
Nadkarni: P. rosea alterative, gastric stimulant; P. zeylanica, root, same uses.
Dash: Same uses in Tibet as in Madanapala; he cites to the Tibetan sources, so the copying is presumably old.
Polygonum multiflorum Thunb., Polygonaceae. Native. Tuber. BaHaMan.
Dioscorides: IV-5, poygonon arren, P. aviculare, knotgrass. Binding, refrigerating. Used for blood spitting, fluxes, choler, strangury. Helps with venomous bites and with malaria. Pessary for vaginal flow. Dropped in for earache. Applied with wine for ulcers of genitalia. Applied for wounds, inflammations, and related conditions.
II-191, ydropeperi, P. hydropiper. Leaves and seeds applied to destroy swellings and the like. Used to season food. Root useless.
Al-Bīrūnī: P. bistorta. Leaves for dog bites, ulcers, cankers, pustules, inflammations. P. hydropiper, zanjabīl, aphrodisiac, stomachic, dries out phlegm.
Avicenna: P. aviculare. Haft band, Narsiān dārū, etc. Poultices for many external purposes and for uterus and intestineal ulcers. Extract for ear worms, ear ulcers. Useful for coughing up of blood. Cooling. P. hydropiper, filfil al-ma‘. Warming, but not much use.
Kamal: P. bistorta, leflafah, godwar rokny. Root astringent; contains tannins; hemostatic, and for diarrhea, gonorrhea, angina, exudations.
Nadkarni: P. aviculare, expectorant, diuretic, tonic, astringent, antiseptic, antiperiodic; usually decoction of root used.
Eisenman: P. aviculare, for stomach spasms, intestinal infections, diarrhea, tonic, hemostat, etc.; decoction or infusion. Bath for skin infections and fungus, wounds, etc. Infusion on head for hair growth. In milk for convulsions. Biomedically, incresaes blood coagulation, decreases blood pressure, etc. Used as hemostat for women. P. coriarium, astringent, tea for diarrhea. Biomedically seems to be effective.
Li: Heshouwu. Bitter, astringent, slightly warm, nontoxic. Wide range of uses.
Fully a dozen other species are mentioned in Li, and this certainliy does not exhaust the range of species used in China. The dozen have different uses and names. The genus has long been very important as food, spice, and medicine throughout eastern Asia.
In the HHYF, bahman—normally a word for Centaurea behen—is identified in the Chinese text as this sp.
Polypodium vulgare L., Polypodiaceae. Basbayah, baspayah, basbayaj, basfayaj BoSiBaNaZhi(Persian), BaXSiFaYiZhi in tr, or Fu or HaMaMa.
Dioscorides: IV-188, polypodion. Root for purging, with foods, or powdered. Also for phlegm and choler. Root applied for certain sores.
Levey: Basbāyij. Teeth. Modern uses noted as aperient, alterative, deobstruent, etc.
Lev and Amar: basbāyaj, basfāyaj. Roots cleanse intestines, liver, spleen; reduce swseelings. Teeth. Purifies blood and gall bladder. A sthma. Can cause diarrhea. Reduces swellings. Said to be hot and dry.
Nadkarni: Minor use of P. quercifolium for fevers and diseases and P. vulgare for aperient and alterative.
Polyporus officinalis Fr., Polyporaceae, and/or Boletus purgans Gmel., Boletaceae. Ghariqun (Gr). Probably the former here.
Kamal: P. fomentarius, soffan. Powder astringent for bleeding.
Nadkarni: P. officinalis, astringent, emetic, purgative.
Li: P. umbellatus, zhuling. Sweet, plain, nontoxic. Important for several serious conditions from fevers to leukorrhea. (Still an important medicine in 21st century China; astringent and drying qualities.)
Populus diversifolia Schrenk, Salicaaceae. Resin. NaTiLong. Hu-tong-lei. Hu 890
Dioscorides: I-109, leuke, P. alba, white poplar. “It is reported” (a very skeptical phrase for D.) to be contraceptive if drunk with a mule’s kidney, and leaf tea drunk after menstruation for same! (Gunther 1934:59.) More seriously, bark drunk in tea for sciatica and strangury. Leaf tea for earache. Buds mashed with honey for dullness of eyes.
I-113, aigeiros, P. nigra, black poplar. Leaves with vinegar applied for gouit. Resin for various medicines. Seed with vinegar for epilepsy. An amber-like resin drunk for diarrhea.
Levey: Probably P. alba, ḥawwar. Leprosy.
Avicenna: P. alba, aṭā, gharab. Pungent, drying. Powdered for cuts and fresh wounds. Rinse for gout. Ear drops, ec. Gum for eyes. Used for coughing up blood.
Graziani: “Hawarī — resin of the poplar [probably P. nigra] used by Ibn Jazlah to strengthen the eye, ease urination and as a contraceptive” (1980:203).
Kamal: P. nigra, balsam for piles.
Bellakhdar et al: P. alba and P. nigra, wraq ssefsaf, stomach and bowel complaints; swallowing air.
Nadkarni: P. nigra, minor use of resinous buds for hemorrhoids, bark for colds.
Li: Resin, hutonglei, salty, bitter, very cold, nontoxic. Reduces heat. Good for toothache and throat pain. P. davidiana, baiyang, bark and twigs have minor uses. They too are cold and nontoxic. The bark is used, among other things, to stanch bleeding and reduce sores, for which it works in biomedical terms.
(Leaves contain salicylic acid; gum very soothing, still used.)
Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf (Wolfiporia cocos), Polyporaceae. Native.
Li: Fuling. Sweet, balanced, nontoxic. Many forms, preparations, and uses; a very important, versatile medicine.
Prunus amygdalus Batsch., Rosaceae. Badam (Persian). (Ku) BaDan
Var. amara, KuBaDan. ShanBaDanRen.
Dioscorides: I-176, amygdale, almond. Root or nut of bitter var. mashed, applied to face, for sunburn. Applied (nuts?) also for menstruation, headaches, etc., with vinegar and rose; with wine, for ulcers etc.; with honey for dog bites. General for soothing: chest, kidneys, etc. Diuretic; for stone; etc. Keeps off drunkenness, eaten before drinking. Nut kills foxes. Gum for binding and heating; drunk for many of above conditions. The sweet almond is much less medicinal than the bitter. Green almonds eaten to dry up stomach (they are extremely high in tannin).
Galen: Cleaning, thinning.
Avicenna: Sweet is moist (neutral) but bitter is hot and dry. Almond, mostly bitter, used for liver, spleen, internal organs. Sprains and uclers treated with the oil. “Bitter almond dissolves kidney stones.” (p. 26.) Many uses of both, and oil, for poultices, etc. Levey and Al-Khaledy: Lauz. Oil for stomach and intestines.
Lev and Amar: Gaining weight; oil—cold and moist—for heart, stress, fevers, cancer, erysipelas, inflammations. Bitter almond for stones in bladder, stomachic, liver, spleen, ears, etc., and aborting dead fetus; in prescriptions for headaches, pain, and indeed almost everything, up to and including dog bites. This accords with modern uses in the Near East and China as an all-purpose emollient, soothing agent, lubricant, etc. (I can confirm this from experience).
Kamal: no uses noted, but peach (P. persica, khokh, durraq) used for laxative.
Bellakhdar et al: P. amygdalus var. amara, luz harr, hypoglycemiant, tonic.
Nadkarni: Demulcent, stimulant, tonic, emollient. Bitter almonds add laxative quality.
Li: Badanxing (lit. “the badan type of apricot kernel”—badan being the Persian name of the almond). Account follows the account of the true apricot. Li knew the almond came from the Middle East, but noted it is now grown in China. Sweet, warm, balanced, nontoxic. For coughs and digestive problems.
Prunus armeniaca L., Rosaceae. Native.
Dioscorides: I-165, armeniaca, apricot. For stomach.
Avicenna: Cold, moist. Drink; made into soothing syrup, with honey, etc. Seed oil on piles. Water in which fruit (this with others) is boiled was used for fever.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Used by Al-Samarqandī for syrups, etc., largely as a vehicle for giving other medicines.
Lev and Amar: barqūq (the source of the English word, via Spanish albaricoque), mishmish. Leaves for mouth sores, tonsils, throat. Fruit for itching stinging, thirst, burns, stomach, skin, ains, swellings, worms. Maimonides thought it was a bad food.
Kamal: mishmish. Oil noted but not for medicinal use.
Bellakhdar et al: ‘elk meshmash. Aphrodisiac.
Nadkarni: Fruit minor use as tonic, locally.
Sun: Apricot kernel (xingheren杏核仁): sweet, bitter, warm, cool, good laxative, diuretic (li利), poisonous [from hydrocyanates]. It is important for treating rising breath caused by coughing, thundering in intestines (changzhong leiming腸中雷鳴), the swollen throat (houbi喉痹), intestinal gas (xiaqi下氣), ulcer caused by giving birth or cutting (chanrujinchuang產乳金瘡), the illness of a cold heart running like a pig (presumably a heart beating with a fast, erratic rhythm like a running pig; hanxin bentun寒心奔豚), fright illness (jingxian驚癇), anxiety and heat under the heart (xinxia fanre心下煩熱), the illness of the wind qi coming and going (fengqi qulai風氣去來), and chronic headache (shixing toutong時行頭痛). It also relieves hunger (jieji解肌)[9] and anxiety under the heart (xiao xinxia ji消心下急). It rids toxins from dog bites (shagoudu殺狗毒). It should be picked in the fifth month [when apricots are ripe]. If there are two kernels in one pit, they hurt people and should be discarded. When the apricot is still unripe, it is very sour. The kernel in it is not hard. Collect it and expose it in the sun till it is dry. Eat the dry kernel and it is very effective for ceasing thirst and ridding poisons of cool or hot nature. Bianque 扁鵲said, “Apricot kernels cannot be taken over a long time. Otherwise, it will make the person blind, cause his eyebrows or hair fall, and arouse all kinds of chronic illnesses. ” [This would be due to the hydrocyanic acid liberated by chewing them; chewing releases an enzyme that acts on hydrocyanic glycogens in the seed. The seeds are still an extremely common medicine in China, used for throat and respiratory conditions among other things. They are usually powdered and cooked to eliminate the poison.]
Li: Xing. Usually the seeds (xingren or xingheren “apricot seed kernels”) used, though minor uses for fruit. Kernels, ground, are the sovereign remedy for coughs. Many other uses, even for epilepsy. Many other Prunus species are discussed at length in Li.
(Today the kernels, powdered, are used in milk, with sugar, especially for children, to treat cough, sore throat, and the like; ENA shamelessly used this milk drink all the time in east Asia, in spite of its identification with child culture, because it works so well for the purposes.)
Prunus domestica L., P. salicina Lindl., Rosaceae. Resin. Native. SanE. Probably includes P. institia.
Dioscorides: kokkymfelia, P. domestica, damson. Laxative, but a Syrian plum has the reverse effect. [Presumably a local high-tannin fruit of some kind.] Leaves or fruit gargled for mouth sores. Gum breakes stone if drunk with wine. Anointed with vinegar for skin eruptions of children.
Levey: Ijjās.. P. domestica or possibly apricot and pear. Infusions.
Al-Bīrūnī: Plums in general; laxative. Enormous detail about local varieties.
Avicenna: P. domestica, ijjāṣ. Cold and moist. Gum mixed with vinegar for sores and ringworm. Minor uses; expels yellow bile. Wild plums very constricting.
Lev and Amar: P. domestica. ‘ijjāṣ. Constricting fruits. Mild. Cold and moist. Cathartic. Resi for various binding and resolving and skin conditions. Plum fruit relieves headache, throat pains, nausea, vomiting, blockages, etc. Leaves eliminate worms (they have enough cyanide, tannin and fibre that this might work).
Kamal: P. domestica, laxative.
Madanapala: Āruka. Digestion, urinary problems, plies.
Eisenman: P. sogdiana, a Central Asian plum close to P. cerasifera, above-ground parts used; laxative, stimulant to appetite and digestion. Gum for coughs. Roots and bark for diaphoretic, anti-pyretic, and anti-inflammatory use. Not tested biomedically.
Sun: Plum kernel (liheren李核仁): bitter, balanced, nonpoisonous. It mainly treats the symptom of falling down dead (jiangpuji僵僕躋), gores, and bone ache. Its fruit (plum) is bitter, sour, a little bit warm, astringent, nonpoisonous. It rids obstinate heat (gure固熱), harmonizes the Middle Jiao, and is good for the heart. It cannot be eaten too much. Otherwise, it will make the person weak. The Yellow Emperor said, “Plums cannot be taken with white honey (baimi白蜜). That will erode the five internal organs (wunei五內).”
Li: P. salicina. Li. (Yes, our herbalist is named Plum! It is, in fact, one of the commonest surnames in east Asia.) First of fruits, coming just before the apricot. Many, but minor, uses for all parts of the plant and fruit.
(Laxative effects of prunes are well known worldwide, and the tannins in the leaves and bark are very effective on minor skin conditions.)
Prunus mahaleb L., Rosaceae. Mahaleb cherry. Malab. MaHaLaBi
Avicenna: Miḥlab. Hot and dry. Cleansing, dissolvent. Sour cherry with honey water for brief loss of consciousness (this app. refers to P. cerasus).
Lev and Amar. Maḥlab. Hot and dry. Minor uses.
Nadkarni: Tonic, stomachic, diuretic.
Eisenman: P. padus, Eurasian bird cherry, fruits astringent, for diarrhea etc. Bark, leaves, flowers also used. All contain glycosides.
(The kernel of this wild cherry is an important medicinal food in the Near East; tonic, stomachic, soothing, as for Nadkarni; oddly missing from our Arabic sources.)
Psoralea bituminosa L., Fabaceae. Itrifal (Recently reclassified as Bituminaria bituminosa C. H. Stirton, but familiar name used herein for convenience)
Dioscorides: III-123, triphyllon, P. bituminosa. Seed diuretic, emmenagogue; used also for pleurisy, epilepsy, dropsy, etc. Helps with venomous bites. Used for malaria.
Avicenna: ṭarīfūlīūn, from Greek trifoliium. Somewhat hot. Used for urine and poisons.
Ghazanfar: P. corylifolia L. Seeds cooling. Many topical and internal uses related to this; mostly topically, as paste on body for fevers, on chest for breathing, etc.
Nadkarni: P. corylifolia, seeds diuretic, diaphoretic, antihelminthic; wide uses.
Li: P. corylifolia, buguzhi. Bitter, pungent, very warm, nontoxic. Range of uses, with no obvious pattern.
Pterocarpus indicus Willd. and/or P. marsupium Roxb., Fabaceae.
Nadkarni: Gum (kino) astringent; for digestion, toothache, etc. Bark powdered for same. Leaves externally used as paste on boils, sores, skin diseases. Wood of P. santolinum astringent, cooling, tonic.
Punica granatum L. Punicaceae. Introd. Shi-liu. Hu 540.
Dioscorides: I-151, rhoa, pomegranate. Good for stomach. Seed of sharpest (which are the most medicinal) ground and sprinkled on food for stomach looseness. In rain water for blood-spitting, or as bath for dysentery and childbirth problems. Juice for sores of many kinds.
I-152, kytinoi, pomegranate flowers. Similar uses. Binding and drying. Put on teeth and gums for problems. “Somme relate” (i.e., do not believe what follows) that taking three flowers prevents eye griefs for a year (Gunther 1934:81).
Levey: Jullinār (this is the familiar “Golnar” or “Gulnar” so common in Iranian writings, often as a girl’s name). Flower. Liver, stomach, pains in spleen, and variously for limbs, throat, abscesses, teeth, gums.
Avicenna: rummān. Julnār is wild pomegranate. Persian, anār. Cold and dry, but wild is hot and moist. Syrup for yellow bile. Seeds with honey on malignant ulcers. Flowers on wounds. Wild form in poiultices for sprains, fractures, etc. Pomegranate with honey for toothaches, earaches, nose. Powdered seeds with honey on oral inflammations, ulcers. Many minor uses for eyes, chest, throatt, stomach, etc.
Lev and Amar: rummān. Flowers jullanār. Syrup used for various soothinguses. Oil of flower in water for eyes. Flowers in gargling and rinsing solution. Juice for diarrhea (tea of the skin works better). Juice also for fevers, cancer, erysipelas, sweelings, elephantiasis, etc. Peels and seeds used but no specifics survive. More generally, juice or fruit for thirst, stomach aches, liver. Maimonides notes the peel for wounds, stopping diarrhea; cold and dry, though sweet is hot and dry.
Kamal: rumman. Rind for diarrhea, leucorrhea, hemorrhage, pharynx. Root starch powdered, cooked in milk, for tonic for weak or syphilitic patients.
Bellakhdar et al: qshur romman. Antiulcer, vaginal antiseptic, hypoglycemiant (presumably modern use). For gastro-intestinal disorders.
Ghazanfar. Fruit, especially rind, antihelminthic, and for diarrhea, jaundice; topically for skin rashes and vision.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Rumman. Usual uses for stomach and topically on burns and skin problems; also taken for diabetes, heart, sinus. Value as antioxidant and astringent, and possibly for cancer, noted from recent medical literature.
Madanapala: Dādimī. Alleviates dosa problems.
Nadkarni: Astringent, antihelminthic.
Dash: All stomach diseases; digestion; cold conditions. Cardiac.
Sun: Pomegranate (anshiliu安石榴): sweet, sour, astringent, and nonpoisonous. It ends hotness and thirst in the pharynx. It cannot be eaten too much. Otherwise it hurts the lung.
Li: Anshiliu. Sweet and/or sour, warm, astringent, nontoxic. Used, especially the rind of sour fruits, as a cure for diarrhea and dysentery. Powdered rind or flower stanches wounds and otherwise useful. Various minor indications, including flower decoction to turn graying hair black. (This would work if some iron got in the mix; the tannins in the plant would make a black dye with iron.)
(The universal old-time use against diarrhea is still standard, and biomedically verified; the tannins stop diarrhea and seem to kill dysentery germs. The fruit is very high in antioxidants and is now recommended for all sorts of conditions; evidence is slim but suggestive. Modern Near Eastern and Chinese uses of flower, rind, and root bark, as in HHYF, for vermifuge, etc. Here as in HHYF it is used for almost anything where a strongly astringent herbal would help.)
Quercus infectoria Oliv. Fagaceae. Galls made by Cynips gallae-tinctoriae. MaZu. Iran Mazu.
Dioscorides: I-146, kekides, oak galls. Binding, and used for any condition needing that. Put on swellings, gum diseases, ulcers, toothaches, wounds, etc. Dye hair black when macerated in vinegar or water. Sitz bath for women for vulvar discharges. Good for dysentery, etc.
Also oak uses: I-142, drys, Q. aegilops, dyer’s oak. All parts astringent; inner bark best. Acorn cup lining is good. For dysentery, blood-spitting, etc., and as pessary for leucorrhea and/or similar condition.
I-143, balanoi, acorns. Same uses. Also eaten for venomous bites. On wounds and sores.
I-144, phegos, Q. aesculus; prinos, Q. coccifera, kermes oak. Root bark dyes hair black. Leaves help swellings.
Lev and Amar: Various minor purposes for powder; gargling, etc. Hemorrhoids, skin, teeth, sores, wounds, drying in general. Maimonides notes sexual medicine uses for constricting vagin (the tannin would do this), hardening penis, increasing sperm.
Bellakhdar et al: Q. suber, Q. ilex, hair-care (the tannin adds much to a hair wash), bowel and colon infections.
Nadkarni: Galls for obvious astringent uses.
Li: Galls of this and other oaks, wushizi, bitter, warm, nontoxic, powdered for use for dysentery, external conditions, and black dye; the tannins make it effective for all these.
Several other oak species are used similarly, the acorns in particular being employed.
(Very concentrated tannins in the galls make them extremely effective for the above uses involving drying, constricting, washing.)
Raphanus sativus L. Brassicaceae. Native. Lai-fu for introd type. Hu 659 seeds, roots
Dioscorides: II-137, raphanis, radish. Root for vomiting, etc. Cataplasm for spleen. Various external applications. Seed for several minor conditions, used externally or internally.
I-45, oil of seed for skin conditions.
Galen: With fish sauce as purgative. Root usually eaten; leaves sometimes.
Avicenna: Fujl. Wild radish is afyūs. Roots hot, seeds hotter. Oil hot and dry. Usual minor external and internal uses, but bad as a food because it causes belching and is laxative.
Lev and Amar: fujl. Mouth, throat, skin, deafness and earache, headache, fever, skin conditions, poison. Maimonides notes use of seeds for sexual health—strengthens, heats, increases activity. Hot and dry.
Kamal: fugl, figl. Stomachic. Diuretic, galactagogue. Oil from seeds used in ear. Juice for dissolving gallstones. Eaten for scurvy.
Bellakhdar et al: Calefacient.
Ghazanfar: Leaves with salt and honey for ears. Ground seeds on skin for spots, pains, baldness. Eating seeds for lactation and for kidneys. Root reduces phlegm; eaten before breakfast.
Madanapala: Mūlaka. Hot. Appetite, voice, dyspnoea, throat, eyes, rhinitis.
Nadkarni: Seeds and leaves diuretic, laxative; seeds emmenagogue. Seeds used for gonorrhea.
Dash: Constipative. Pungent, hot, can cure poison.
Li: Laibei, luobo. Many uses, including some fascinating folklore with songs and stories. Usually described as warm, though in modern China it is one of the coldest foods, used against heats of all kinds.
Rhamnus infectorius. Rhamnaceae. Ḥazaz
Avicenna: Snuff for facial paralysis. Treats eyelid swellings.
Nadkarni: several species (not this one) for purgation and astringent uses.
Eisenman: R. cathartica, usual laxative uses Infusion of fruits in vodka to treat rehumatism. Decoction of branches for ulcers, and extern ally on woiunds. Tea for catarrh.
(Rhamnus spp. are standard purgatives everywhere, holding their own even today. The Near Eastern species was no doubt used for that purpose, but is barely mentioned in HHYF.)
Rheum palmatum L. & other spp. Polygonaceae. Native
Dioscorides: III-2, ra, rha, R. rhaponticum, rhubarb. [Note the scientific name is “rha ponticum,” the “rha” plant from the Pontic area.] Root drunk for bloating, stomach conditions, pains, convulsions, and essentially any and all illnesses. Binding and heating.
Avicenna: Rheum ribes, R. officinale. Ribās, rīwand. Cold and dry. Used externally for bubonic plague. Massages and poultices for various external uses, including treatment of beatings. Internally for disease of liver stomach, etc. Also for cholera.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Long tradition of rhubarb as very important in Near Eastern medicine.
Lev and Amar: Rheum spp. probably including R. officinale. Rībās, rāwand (these often treated as two separate things, presumably different spp. of Rheum). Cathartic. For liver including jaundice. Strengthens stomach, helps with vomiting and regulating heartbeat and appetite. For hemorrhoids, smallpox, pains, internal ailments, internal organs, plague, eyes, etc.
Nadkarni: R. emodi, R. officinale, other spp. Stomachic, tonic, cathartic, purgative. Standard cure for constipation and bowel complaints.
Eisenman: Rheum maximowiczii, decoction for diarrhea. Juice used for malaria. Young petioles and stemps for tonic, antipyretic, etc., and to prevent anemia and detoxify. Inreases appetite, treats gastritis and liver and gallbladder, tuberculosis, hemorrhoids, constipation (as well as diarrhea!), etc. Biomedically, well-known astringent; said to be diuretic, improve liver function, etc.
Li: Dahuang. This and other species. Bitter, cold, nontoxic. This major drug has a vast range of uses for basic regulation of the system. Its fame spread throughout Eurasia in premodern times, to the point that 18th-century Chinese strategists assumed it was necessary to Europeans and thus usable to get a purchase on them (by manipulating availability). Purgative and digestive, in particular.
Meserve: R. undulatum, “cathartic” (Meserve 2004:80).
(I have observed Rheum nanum gathered for medical use in Mongolia; it is a widely used herb there.)
Rhus coriaria, R. chinensis Mill. & other spp., Anacardiaceae. Includes galls from Melaphis chinensis (Bell) & spp. GaZeZum A GaGeu Ta [Note that the word “sumac” is a straight Arabic loan into English.]
Dioscorides: I-147, rous, Rhus coriaria, tanning sumac. Leaves binding, and dye hair black. Clyster for dysentery; also drunk or as sitz bath. Various external applications (where tannin would do good). Applied for leucorrhea and hemorrhoids.
Avicenna: Sumāq. Cold and dry. Minor uses; causes constipation; stops excessive menstrual flow, or any excessive bleeding.
Levey, Levey and Khaledy: Summāq. R. coriaria. Gum and moth, anti-miscarriage, sore throat, sprue, collyrium.
Lev and Amar: R. coriaria, summāq. Diarrhea, toothache, gum pains, swellings, stomch, liver, measles, smallpox. Hemorrhoids, eyes.
Kamal: Rhus spp., sumaq. Tonic, stimulant. For incontinence of urine, and hematuria.
Nadkarni: R. coriaria fruit astringent, tonic, diuretic, styptic. For dysentery, etc. In paste on ulcers and piles.
Li: Yanfuzi. Various minor uses for fruit and bark.
(Strongly astringent and sour. Very common spice in the Middle East then and now.)
Ricinus communis L., Euphorbiaceae. Bi-ma-zi, Hu 659
Manniche: already very well known in ancient Egypt as a purgative, laxative, emollient, disinfectant, etc.
Dioscorides: IV-164, kroton e kiki. Poisonous. Oil laxative. Vomitory also, but dangerous. Oil put on sunburn. Leaves with flour in paste for eyes, milk-swollen breasts, rash, etc.
Avicenna: qanqabīn, the plant; the oil is khrū‘. Leaves with barley flour for swellings. Oil on ulcers, swellings, headaches, earaches. Laxative. Masage good for “uterine orifice and hot anal swellings” (207). Expels worms.
Levey: hair oil; epilepsy, clyster.
Lev and Amar: On skin for all the usual uses; internally for convulsion, tetany, fever, colic, purging. Also spleen, liver, kidneys, teeth, malaria, dysenery, lungs, thigh sinew, cough, heart, paralysis, hardened skin, joint pains, etc.. Enema.
Kamal: Oil laxative and emetic. Seed powdered for skin diseases. Oil on ulcers. Pulverized seeds drunk to purge phlegm and abdominal worms. This from Avicenna. Presumably the seeds were used in very small quantities, since they are deadly poison. Seed mashed for external conditions; antiseptic on them.
Bellakhdar et al: Laxative, tonic.
Ghazanfar: ‘Arash, kharwa, khirwa. Smoke for bad breath. Topically for blisters, ulcers, toothache, eyes. Purgative.
Lebling and Pepperdine: For hair loss, indigestion, abdomen and liver.
Nadkarni: Usual purgative use of oil; used in an incredible range of illnesses. External applications for sores, soreness, skin conditions, etc.
Dash: Strong purgative. Red variety also cures colic, gout, various other digestive and abdominal conditions.
Li: Bima. Sweet, pungent, balanced, slightly toxic. Usual purgative uses, plus uses where its toxins would be effective externally, etc.
(Castor oil remained the laxative of choice for very stubborn cases until well into the 20th century, but it is too drastic for use now that better things are available.)
Rosa spp., Rosaceae. Jull (=gul; [Arabized] Persian for “flower”), ward (standard Arabic name), lawarda (Persian; from Arabic? Or possibly vice versa?)
Dioscorides: I-130, rhodon, Rosa spp. Kynosbaton for dog rose (R. canina). Petals ground, in wine, externally applied for soothing all sorts of coinditions. Burned for eyelid makeup. Leaves can be used for the medicinal uses. The petal salve or extract is recommended in a very wide range of headings; it was used as a general carrier, emollient, or aid for herbal applications.
I-131, rhodides, pomanders (scent balls made up with myrrh and nard). For perfume, etc.
I-53, rhodinon, rosaceum oil. Various recipes for extracting rose petals in oil, with honey and/or other items. Resulting oil used internally for stomach, externally for boils, sores, toothache, etc. Clyster for rectal problems. Applied to vulva for irritations. [Rose attar is in fact both highly soothing and fairly strongly antibiotic. Note, however, that Dioscorides is talking about roses macerated in olive oil, not rose attar, i.e. the oil actually extracted from the petals.] This rose oil is noted as used with other herbs in a very large number of Dioscorides’ entries. [The cultural importance of the rose in Greco-Roman culture guaranteed it a major place in all areas, including medicine. Conversely, some of the cultural importance is due to the medicinal value.]
Levey: ward, Rosa spp. Rose oil for hemorrhoidsd, ulcers, boils, ointments, poultices for liver; flower in poultices for stomach, liver, spleen, sore throat, mouth; electuary for jaundice and for f=phlegm. Excellent for perfumery. Notes names including Akkadian murdinnu, Egyptian wrt, Hebrew wered, Aramaic wordā. Today astringent, etc. [The soothing and antiseptic values of rose are also well known, as they have been for millennia.]
Al-Bīrūnī: ward, Rosa spp. Gives the “Roman” (i.e. Rumi, Byzantine) as “anthūs,” i.e. Greek anthos “flower.” Flowers/buds used. Perfumes for women; desiccatory, refrigerant, astringent; good for liver and stomach. Iran is major source. An Iraqi variety was so big it could not be fully contained in two cupped hands. Rose oil distilled from many varieties.
Avicenna: Ward, Rosa damascena. Persian gūl-i-surkh. Cold. Drying; constricting and astringent. Laxative, cleansing. On ulcers, sores, skin. Inhaled for headaches, and to make one sneeze (the oil). Rose water for loss of consciousness. Various uses for stomach, often preserved in honey (rose jam in sugar or honey is still a very common Middle Eastern medicine). Nasrīn, R. canina. Hot and dry. Purifying. Kills ear worms and used for ringing eaer and for toothaches. Used on forehead for headaches. Useful—presumably as tea—for sore throat and tonsillitis. Four-dram dose (of petals, fruit…?)—stops vomiting and hiccups.
Nasrallah: Cooling, dry, astringent.
Lev and Amar: nasrīn, ward (the later is the usual Arabic word). Various uses for liver, eyes, headaches, purging, and even lice. Used in a vast range of recipes for every purpose from babies’ navels to black bile and phlegm. Seeds fom fruit for diarrhea. Rose syrup (presumably the modern type: rosewater cooked down with sugar) often used; sometimes rose oil, mostly topically for almost any and every purpose from ear problems to stings. Rose leaves for coughs and colds. Rose rubb mentioned (and may be the rose-petal jam now common in the Middle East). Rosewater mentioned in recipes for diarrhea, headache, salivation, colds, giddiness, stomach ache, eyes, etc. Also spleen, fevers, etc.
Graziani: ward, R. gallica. Ibn Jazlah used rose oil as stomachic, for headache and spleen, for eye and ear illnesses, for dressing wounds. Al-Kindī used it for ulcers, boils, hemorrhoids, stomach, liver, spleen, and in mixes for sore throat and mouth. Samarqandī used it in lozenges for fever, phlegm, jaundice, heart palpitation, cold liver, etc. Today, in Egypt for stomachic; in Iran and Iraq as astringent for colic and diarrhea. (Many of these uses are found in Latin America today, ultimately from Arab medicine.)
Kamal: R. canina, nisrin, gul-nisrin (from Farsi). Astringent. Root used to treat rabies, hence name of plant. R. gallica, ward (in Arabic), influsions astringent, for throat and rectum. Bellakhdar et al: l-werd, R. damascena, R. centifolia. Laxative, against headache, cosmetic. (These spp. universal for throat, cough, etc. in Hispanic countries now.)
Ghazanfar: Rosa sp. Flowers for skin, coughs, tonic.
Lebling and Pepperdine: R. damascena, ward. Tea with cinnamon for childbirth. In eyes for care. For stomach, heart, insomnia. On skin for general care (this worldwide use is oddly lacking in the other sources, but historical evidence shows it was extremely well known in the Mediterranean and Near East from time immemorial; so much for the completeness of the sources!)
Madanapala: R. moschata kubjakā, R. centifolia śatapatrī. Cardiac tonic, constipative, for semen, complexion, dosas, etc. Cold.
Nadkarni: Mildly astringent, aperient, carminative, refrigerant, tonic. Several spp. used.
Eisenman: Decoction of petals, leaves, branches, roots for rheumatism, stomach, heart. Tea of hips for scurvy, colds, diuretic. Decoction of roots for liver and gastrointestinal tract. Tea of hips also for astringent uses, including fevers, intestines, hemostat for uterine bleeding, and mouthwash. Seeds diuretic and for kidneys. Powdered leaves on wounds and skin ulcers. Biomedically, various local uses, but potential apparently not well explored. R. fedtschenkoana, similar uses; remedy for scurvy;hips with honey for coulds and coiughs. Oil of rose used to treat cracked and injured breasts of nursing women. Also bedsoresa nd other wounds and sores. Less successful uses of hips for tuberculosis, diphtheria, scarlet fever, flu. Biomedically, hips are a rich vitamin source.
Li: R. multiflora, yingshi, and R. chinensis, yuejihua. Range of minor uses, mostly for the former. Seeds and root. (Red rose is medicinal today for many internal purposes. The external uses are not traditional in eastern Asia.) Rosa laevigata Michx. Native. This is called “Cherokee rose” in the United States, because of its garden popularity and subsequent rapid spread in the south, but it is from China. Hip, jinyingzi (mistranslated “fruit” in Li 2003) sour, astringent, balanced, nontoxic. Male sexual tonic. Flower stops dysentery, makes a black hair dye, and kills worms (none of these seem biomedically very effective). More hopeful are several uses, external or digestive.
Meserve: R. acicularis, possibly various uses including diluent for infectious material in smallpox nasal inoculation.
(The rose was the Near East’s dream plant: both aesthetic and genuinely medicinal. The standard of beauty and sweet-scentedness, symbol of love and pleasure, and symbol of romance from earliest times, it was also known to be antiseptic, soothing both externally and internally, and effective against throat ailments—all of which it actually is, in biomedical terms. Rose oil is powerfully antiseptic. Rose-petal or roseleaf tea is extremely soothing to the throat. The preparations with sugar—syrup, rose jam—dilute the medical action too much to be more than symptomatically soothing, but they are so delightful that the Near Eastern belief that God made healing pleasant makes them inevitable parts of treatment. The high tannin content explains the widespread use of leaves and of tea of the plant for wounds, throat, skin, etc. By contrast, the more sober and pragmatic Chinese never used roses much in medicine, though the use of roseleaf tea for throat and stomach was well known and well established, giving us the English name “Chinese tea rose.” The place of the rose flower in romantic symbolism was taken by its relatives the peach and apricot. Nonsoothing items like ginseng and atractylis had the medical reputation. There is obviously an important and interesting cultural difference here. Rose hips are a source of vitamins, but there is a huge range in concentration; commercial roses have almost no vitamin value, whereas the rugosa rose of Japan is so rich in vitamin C that it is a regular commercial source thereof, and some other species, including R. fedtschenkoana as noted above, have high vitamin values.)
Rosmarinus officinalis L., Lamiaceae. Iklil. Mi-die-xiang. Hu 739.
Dioscorides: III-89, libanotis, rosemary. Minor external uses.
Lev and Amar: ‘iklīl al-jabal. Black and yellow bile, urine flow, menstrual flow (accelerates), clearing obstructions in liver and spleen, cleansing lungs, curing cough, etc.
Kamal: hasalban, iklil, iklil al-gabal. Flowers for convulsions. Cooked in honey as enema for hysteria and colic. Leaves burnt in houses to ward off epidemics. Volatile oil carminative and hair tonic; used externally.
Bellakhdar et al: azir. For all diseases (like several other good-tasting herbs; Morocco preserves Mediterranean herbal traditions and the Arab idea of good-tasting things as medicinal). Emmenagogue. Against chills, gastro-intestinal disorders, liver disorders.
Nadkarni: Carminative, stimulant. Oil used.
Li: Midiexiang. Li says it reached China in the Wei Dynasty. Pungent, warm, nontoxic. Root, flowers, foliage for fumigating and insect repelling.
(Oil stimulant, carminative, strongly antiseptic. There is enough in the leaves to make them, or teas from them, rather useful.)
Rubia cordifolia L. Rubiaceae. Root. native. FuWuWa. Morocco, Fuwa
Dioscorides: III-160, erythrodanon, Rubia tinctorum, madder. Root diuretic, abortifacient, emmenagogue, helps expel afterbirth. Helps wioth paralysis, venomous beast bites, etc. In short, a typical Dioscorides drug.
Avicenna: R. tinctoria. ‘Ushr. Hot and dry. Constricting. Used on pains, ringworm, and internally for inflammations of spleen, clearing liver, diuretic, etc.—usual minor uses of hot and dry drugs.
Lev and Amar: R. tinctoria. Fūwa. Pains, hemorrhoids, childbirth pangs, etc. Eases childbirth, whitens teeth, cleases spleen and liver, cures leprosy, induces urine, etc. Hot and dry.
Kamal: R. tinctoria, fowah, fowat al-sabbaghin. Roots for emmenagogue, diuretic, childbirth. Powder for rickets.
Bellakhdar et al: R. tinctoria, R. peregrina. Fuwa, tarubya. Aphrodisiac, antidiarrheal, antianemic, analeptic, for liver pain.
Ghazanfar: Fauwa. Root for irregular menstruation, with Salvadora persica and mulberries. Crushed root as tonic after childbirth.
Nadkarni: Emmenagogue, astringent, diuretic, etc.
Eisenman: R. tinctoria, rickets, constipation, jaundice, joints, rheumatism in back etc. For kidney stones, gallstones, gout, diuretic, laxative. Roots mixed with honey for jaundice, memory improvement, diuretic. Biomedical activity as antibiotic.
Li: Qiancao. Root used. Astonishing disagreement on its humoral qualities. Range of uses, from pain to bleeding to red dye.
Rumex spp. In China, mainly R. japonicus Houtt. Polygonaceae. HeZaNuSaoEr. Root used.
Dioscorides: II-140, lapathon, R. patientia, dock. Plant or seed boiled for stomach. Seed in water and wine for dysentery, scorpion stings, stomach and intestinal complaints. Leaves and/or roots externally for a wide range of conditions, from leprosy and impetigo to earache and toothache.
Galen: Also lapathon, R. patientia. Juice irritates stomach. Oxylapathon (“sour dock,” presumably R. acetosella), not good to eat.
Avicenna: ḥummāḍ, R. crispus. Cold and dry. Various poultices for tubecular glands, etc. Mouthwash. With wine for black jaundice. Seeds cause constipation but leaves may be laxative. Minor internal uses.
Lev and Amar, Rumex sp., ḥummād.. Minor uses including depressing sexual function.
Kamal: R. acetosa, hammad, hummayd. Diuretic (root). R. patientia, ‘rq. mushel, rawand barri. Root infusion sudorific, and on skin and scabies. Leaves astringent.
Bellakhdar et al: Rumex sp., zerri’at l-hummida, laxative, for liver disorders.
Ghazanfar: R. vesicarius, ḥamid., leaves and seeds eaten for scorpion stings.
Nadkarni: R. crispus, Astringent, sedative.
Dash: R. acetosella and R. vesicarius. Alleviate dosas. Appetiser.
Eisenman: R. caesius, various diseases from scabies to scurvy; astringent for diarrhea. Decoction of roots and leaves for skin conditions and wounds. Biomedically, astringent, purgative, and many intestinal conditions; vermifuge. R. tianschanicus, on abscesses.
Li: Yangti (can cover other species too). Range of uses, including root as vermifuge and antifungal. R. acetosa, suanmo, next in Li after this sp., sour, cold, nontoxic, for pain, scabies, tinea, dystentery, etc.
Ruta spp. (R. graveolens is the usual domestic species), Rutaceae. Rue, sādhab, is called for in the HHYF, but always glossed as “field mint,” and one can only assume the gloss is correct here, and that the rue actually used in the Near Eastern originals found a local substitute in field mint. Either the Chinese did not have rue (but they do, now, and use it medicinally) or the translators were confused. Thus, see Mentha. However, in the HHYF Table of Contents, rue frequently appears, unglossed.
Dioscorides: III:45: peganon to oreion (“mountain rue”). Pain in sides and breasts, asthma, coughs, lungs, joints, uterus, worms, ear trouble, itching, etc.
Levey: Various plants for pains in boys. Modern uses for diuretic, emmenagogue, abortive, etc.
Avicenna: Sadhāb, Ruta graveolens. Hot and dry. Pounded with salt for hot swellings. Used on tubercular lymph glands. Used for paralysis, pain, sciatica, arthritis; orally or poultice with honey. Usual minor uses of nose, eyes, chest. Used with fig as poultice for “wateryt swellings throughout the body” (948) For abdominal pain. Internally or externally for fevers and chills.
Lev and Amar: sadhāb (wild rue), fayjān (cultivated). Diarrhea, wind, warts, dysuria, dysmenorrhea, hard swellings, aphasia, spasms, tension, shaking, palsy, baldness, fever, bile, phlegm. Rue oil specifically for convulsion and tetany, fevers, colic; seeds for eyelids; etc. Used with othe medications for anything and everything from sexual therapy to sore armpits. Hot and dry.
Kamal (1975:433-436) translates Avicenna on rue; the account is very long and detailed. The plant is breaks up and resolves or soothes various conditions, clears vessels, etc. It is good on skin conditions for odor of garlic and onion, for tumors and pustules, for wounds and ulcers, for headaches and head conditions, for various eye, chest, and stomach conditions, and so on; it helps with fever and resists poisons. He gives formulations for all these purposes. Significantly, he says nothing about magical uses, though these were rampant in the west—at least later, and presumably in his time. The plant is, in modern biomedical terms, slightly antiseptic and quite soothing to the stomach, but not much else. Large quantities of it, made up as he recommends, would probably have action in most of the ways Avicenna mentions, though not necessarily very much action.
Meserve (2004:19) lists R. sahurica as a Mongol medicine for nerves and possibly other uses, though there are problems with identification.
(Significant here is the thoroughly scientific and empirical way Avicenna treats the plant and its uses. He brought together an incredible amount of material that was obviously based on close observation and recording. Interestingly, rue never made it to east Asia in early times. It is very commonly grown as a folk medicine today, however. Li does not mention any Ruta sp. Possibly the easy availability of the closely related and similarly effective Citrus spp. account for this. Rue is extremely effective as an antiseptic [especially the oil], soothing and digestive agent, etc., but dangerous in overdose.)
Saccharum officinarum L., S. sinensis Roxb., Poaceae. Sugarcane.
Dioscorides: II-104, sakcharon, sugar (from S. officinarum). Drunk for stomach, and pains of bladder and kidneys. Applied to eyes.
Levey: Sugar in various preparations, as a modifier. In clysters.
Avicenna: Hot and somewhat moist, but dry after aging. White sugar candy is moist. Laxative, cleansing, washing; the candy is especially laxative. Softens chest. Candy treats coughs. Cane for yellow bile. Various minor uses.
Lev and Amar: Cough, colds, heartbeat. Ash used for this and even malaria. Much more widespread was the use of sugar as the vehicle for carrying drugs; almost anything could be given in a syrup, rob (rubb), sugar pill, etc.
Ghazanfar: S. officinarum, juice for cough and diuretic, also in eyes for pain.
Madanapala: S. spontaneum, kāśa, cold; cures bronchitis, dysuria, stone, bleeding, consumption. Other spp. noted.
Nadkarni: S. officinarum preservative, demulcent, antiseptic, cooling, laxative, diuretic. Juice used. Sugar for antiseptic and demulcent uses.
Dash: Sweet, cold. Promotes coruulence and virility. Laxative. S. spontaneum similar; also for thirst, cough, bleeding.
Sun: Sugar cane (ganzhe甘蔗): sweet, balanced, astringent, nonpoisonous. It helps the qi move downwards and harmonizes the Middle Jiao (hezhong和中) and nourishes the qi of spleen. It is good for the large intestine. It stops thirst and rids anxiety. It also treats intoxication caused by alcohol.
Li: Ganzhe (=S. officinarum, S. spontaneum, also). Sweet, balanced to cold, astringent, nontoxic. Minor uses including soothing stomach.
Salix babylonica L., Salicaceae. Bid.
Dioscorides: I-74, itea, Salix sp., willow. Leaves ground, taken as contraceptive; drunk with pepper and wine for colic. Fruit (seed) or bark tea, drunk for spitting blood. Various external applications.
Avicenna: Bahrāmaj, khilāf, ṣafṣāf (various spp.?). Several external uses, including poultice for bone wounds. Fruits for gases in head. Smelling of leaves is good. Flowers and juice in ears for aches. Juice for liver and jaundice. Somewhat laxative. (Interestingly, the painkilling effects are not mentioned.)
Lev and Amar: Salix spp. S. aegyptica, khilāf, etc. Eyes, fever, colic, stomach-ache.
Kamal: S. alba, root for antirheumatic and antipyretic uses. S. nigra, sexual disturbances. S. babylonica not used medicinally.
Nadkarni: Antihelminthic, antiseptic, astringent, tonic. Several other spp. used similarly.
Dash: Cures aggravated heat in lungs and heart.
Li: Liu (“willow” in general; this sp. is the usual garden one in China). Bitter, cold, nontoxic. For fever, of course, but also a variety of other internal and external uses, the external ones related to tannin values.
- purpurea, shiuyang, twig and fruit for a number of internal and external uses related to strong tannin value.
(Willows are one of the most concentrated sources of salicylic acid, the natural “aspirin,” though the latter drug was actually discovered by the Bayer chemists in a spiraea, of which the word “aspirin” is an anagram. Cultures around the world have learned to use willow leaf or bark tea, or simply chew the leaves, for fevers, headaches and inflammations.)
Salsola kali L., Chenopodiaceae. Ushnan (Persian). WuShiNan
Avicenna: ṭarāghayūn, S. tragus (which is so similar to kali that they are routinely confused even now). Very minor uses for urinary tract conditions and menstruation.
Kamal: Qaly, sollag, ashnan, salsola, al-ghasul, harad. Burned for soda or potash.
Lev and Amar: same use. Many uses of potash. Juice of plant also used medicinally.
Mandaville gives several names for various species of the genus, but no uses.
(Very young shoots are a nutritious, stomach-soothing food.)
Santalum album L., Santalaceae. Tan-xiang. Hu 540.
Graziani: Ibn Jazlah used it for palpitation, headache, liver ailments; modern Iranian use for antiseptic action in genito-urinary tract. White sandalwood in Egypt against gonorrhea and other genito-urinary complaints.
Levey: ṣandal. Liver, spleen, erysipelas, etc.
Avicenna: ṣandal. Cold and dry. Dissolves hot swellings; used on inflammation. For headaches, fevers, weak stomach.
Lev and Amar: ṣandal. Black bile, phlegm, malaria, diarrhea, liver, ulcers, teeth, erysipelas, heart, etc.
Kamal: Sandal. Oil sudorific, heart tonic, cure for gonorrhea.
Al-Bīrūnī, the famous medieval Arab chronicler of India, noted in a vast, excellent, but unpublished herbal work that sandalwood was used in India for treating acute swellings, as well as for making useful objects (that would then be scented), etc. (Hamarneh 1973:87). Apparently he incorporated a vast amount of other new, often Indian, material in this herbal, but it is still obscure and virtually unknown except among specialists.
Bellakhkdar et al: sendal. “Magic,” whatever that may be.
Madanapala: Candana. Cold. Cardiac tonic. For complexion, poison, thirst, bleeding, burning syndrome.
Nadkarni: Wood bitter, cooling, sedative, astringent. Oil used as disinfectant for membranes.
Li: Tan, a name used also for Dalbergia hupeana. Root-bark balanced, pungent, nontoxic, good for external parasites. The gum, tanxiang (sandalwood fragrance/incense), warm, pungent, nontoxic, few minor uses including the same external ones and a stomachic use.
(This is, of course, also the most important Chinese incense, so important that it gave its name to Hong Kong [xiang gong, “incense port,” because sandalwood was once shipped from there; mistranslated “fragrant harbor” all too often] and the Hawaiian Islands (tanxiangshan, “sandalwood mountains,” in Chinese, because they once produced this root-parasitic tree). As a sacred incense, its smell defines sacred space in Chinese culture. Its major medicinal importance, then, lies in its magical or religious function. Its scent when burned pleases the gods and spirits and makes them help and heal the worshipers.)
Satureja thymbra L., Lamiaceae. Shaturyat.
Dioscorides: III-45, thymbra, Satureia thymbra, savory. Used like thyme.
Lev and Amar: za‘tar (sa‘tar) fārisī. Kidney pains and stones, urine flow, ears, eyes, intestines, growths on neck, emmenagogue, diuretic, stomach, etc.
Saussurea lappa C. B. Clarke, Asteraceae. Introd. Guang-mu-xiang. Hu 100.
Avicenna: Qusṭ (from the Greek kostos). Hot and dry. Various external uses; also for lethargy, chest pains, menstruation, worms, etc. Aphrodisiac but abortifacient. Treats bites; with wine and absinthe for snake bites. (Interesting that Avicenna is the only western source to go into much detail on this widely distributed and chemically active plant—a major Chinese medicine.)
Madanapala: Kustha. Pungent, sweet, bitter. Promotes semen. Cures gout, erysipelas, bleeding, cough.
Nadkarni: Carminative, antiseptic, disinfectant.
Dash: Bitter, pungent, hot, alleviates dosas, cures thirst, erysipelas, poison, fungus, skin conditions.
Li: Muxiang. Root pungent, warm, nontoxic. Dispels problems in general, even nightmares and weak will. General tonic and toner of system, with wide functions.
Scolopendrium vulgare Swartz, Polypodiaceae. Asqulufandiryun YiSiGuLuFanDiLiRong
Dioscorides: III-121, phyllitis. Leaves with wine for snakebite and the like, and dysentery and diarrhea.
Sedum sarmentosum. Apparently a mistaken identification in sources.
However, Lev and Amar report use of possible Sedum sp., ḥayy al-’ālam, for nerves, lungs, bleeding, pains. Not scored.
Semecarpus anacardium L., Anacardiaceae. Balādur. Anaqardīyā. Oriental cashew nut.
Presumably the AnJiaErDiYa (translit. of “anacardia”) in HHYF is this sp.
Mentioned several times in the Index, but not important in surviving parts of the HHYF.
Avicenna: Balādur. Hot and dry. On ulcers, inflammation, warts, vitiligo. Eliminates tattoo marks. Relieves baldness. Treats “coldness and laxity of nerves caused by paralysis and facial paralysis” (p. 707). May stir up melancholia. Snuffing it dries piles. Poisonous.
Madanapala: Astringent, sweet, hot. Promotes semen. Cures abdominal diseases, constipation, skin including leprosy, piles, fever, ulcers, parasites, etc., etc.
Nadkarni: Very important; many major uses. Antiseptic, stimulant, digestive, etc. Modern studies confirm effects; several active ingredients noted.
Powerful vesicant, rash producing, but oil highly antiseptic and cholagogue. “Ripe fruits are regarded as stimulant, digestive, nervine and escharotic…gastro-intestinal irritant. Kernel edible, digestive, carminatice. Cardiac and respiratory tonic (p. 1120). Several pages of uses; very important in India, especially for skin and digestion.
Dash: Hot; digestive.
Sempervivum sp. (?S. arboreum L.), Crassulaceae. Anbub-al-ra’ay
Avicenna: suqūṭūn, Sempervivum tectorum. Cold and dry. Diluting, adhesive, dissolvent. Used for nerves and muscles, dryness of throat, intestinal ulcers, abrasions, other minor uses.
Li: No mention under this name, but possibly one of the Sedum or other species. Modern Chinese use this or similar plant for general medicine, including against cancer, because the plant survives drying out and other stressors, thus proving tenacity of life, which can transfer to the user.
Sesamum indicum DC., Pedaliaceae. Oil. Introd. KeTangYou. Morocco, Zarrit katlan. Hei-zhi-ma. Hu (as S. orientale L) 100
Dioscorides: II-121, sesamon, sesame. Hurts stomach. Causes bad breath if the seeds stick in the teeth. Gets rid of thickness of nerves (whatever that is), helps with fractures, inflammations, burns (evidently externally applied), and (presumably internally) for colon, etc. Used with rose oil on head. Herb in wine for the same and for eyes. Use of oil mentioned, but apparently it is not medicinal.
Galen: Warm, oily, not a good food.
Levey: Simsim. Ear, leprosy; oil general carrier for all sorts of poultices, clysters, etc.
Avicenna: Simsim. Hot and moist. Laxative. Soothing. Seeds on burns. Poultice for nerves. With rose oil on head for headaches. For difficult breathing; seeds taken. Emmenagogue and abortifacient.
Lev and Amar: simsim. Oil is shīraj. Oil used in preparations for various topical purposes; part of a medicine for babies’ umbilical hernia and incessant crying that apparently included all the favorite curealls in the Genizah. Also for convulsion, tetany, fevers, colic, breast swellings, ears, headache, leprosy, lungs, abscesses, toothaches, cough, instanity, etc. Apparently always the oil.
Graziani: Simsim. Used by Ibn Jazlah for blood, hair, relaxation, snakebite. Fattening but makes thirst and slows digestion. Used today in Middle East to increase milk, for stomach and pulmonary diseases, emmenagogue, even abortifacient.
Kamal: semsem, simsim. Seeds for poultices.
Bellakhdar et al.: jenjlan. Hypnotic for children. Stimulant, including for lactation (a very widespread use in the Mediterranean and elsewhere).
Ghazanfar: Zait simsim (the oil). Seed oil for dysentery, colds, urinary problems. Seeds used as aphrodisiac.
Nadkarni: Seeds laxative, emollient, demulcent, diuretic, latagogue, emmenagogue. Leaves demulcent.
Sun: Sesame (huma胡麻): sweet, balanced, nonpoisonous. It especially treats hurt Middle Jiao (shangzhong傷中) and weakness (xulei虚羸). It is nutritious to the five internal organs. It enhances the qi and strength. It builds muscles. It fills the head with brains. It strengthens tendons and bones. It cures cutting wounds and relieves pain. It treats the striking cold (shanghan傷寒) and the illness in which at first the patient has fever and then feels cold (wennue溫瘧). It treats the feeling of weak, heat, and tiredness after excessive vomiting and diarrhea (datuxia hou xure kunfa大吐下後虛熱困乏). If one has taken it for a long time, his weight will be lessened and he will not get old [presumably “old” means “senile” here]. It is helpful to hearing and eyesight. It helps people resist cold and heat. It elongates one’s lifespan. Its oil is mildly cold. It particularly helps the large intestines (li dachang利大腸). It deals with the problem when a lying-in woman has difficulty pushing out the afterbirth (chanfu baoyi bu luo產婦胞衣不落). It will let hair grow on a bald head. One can use raw sesame to rub a wound or swelling (chuangzhong瘡腫). It eliminates wandering wind (youfeng遊風) on head and face. It has other names: jusheng巨勝, goushi狗虱, fangjing方莖, or hongzhi鴻芷. Its leaves are called qingxiang青蘘. It treats the striking heat (shure暑熱). Its flowers especially treat loss of hair. On the seventh day, pick those growing on the top (zuishang piaotou最上摽頭) and dry them in the shade for future use. [The nutritional uses stressed above are perfectly practical; the high content of protein, oil, vitamins and minerals in sesame seed has made it a valuable nutritional source for thousands of years.]
Li: hu ma (“Iranian hemp”—the seeds, not the fibre, being similar to hemp) or you ma or zhi ma (“oil hemp”; the last of these is the modern term). Li reports it was introduced to China by Zhang Qian in the Han Dynasty; he is credited with many introductions from the west). Stem, oil, leaves used, but mostly the seeds, with black seeds having a different nutritional and medical value than white/yellow ones. (Black seeds are now considered more nourishing and warming.)
(Sesame oil is an excellent skin oil, also nutritious, and a good vehicle for other drugs, but has no special biomedical value.)
Seseli tortuosa L., Apiaceae. Sisaliyus. XiSanLiYuXi (YuSi)
Dioscorides: Kagchru, possibly this sp. Warming, drying. For eyes. Dioscorides’ “seseli” is identified as Echinophora tenuifolia (seseli massaleotikon, III-60) and Bupleurum fruticosum (seseli aithiopikon, III-61). These were used—seed and root—for diuretic, emmenagogue, and abortifacient purposes and general internal complaints, from coughs and gripes to fevers.
Nadkarni: S. indicum, seeds stimulant, carminative, stomachic.
Solanum melongena , Solanaceae. Eggplant. Bādinjān, bādhinjān, batanjen. Jia.
Mentioned as a food in the Index.
Avicenna: Bādhinjān. Produces black bile. Hot and dry. Minor uses but most of the entry consists of warnings: harms clomplexion, causes headaches, causes liver problems unless cooked with vinegar, etc.
Lev and Amar: Strengthens stomach, dispels nausea. Hot and dry. Improves smells of body, increases urine, blackens the hair, removes white spots and tears from eyes, et. Thorns used for hemorrhoids and the like.
Ghazanfar: Regulates cholesterol.
Nadkarni: hypnotic, antiphlegmatic, alleviate wind, etc. Ash used. Leaves narcotic, seeds stimulant. Fruit fried for toothache. Fruit good for liver.
Li: Sweet, cold, nontoxic. Not a particularly good food. Useful for poultices; stem burned for ash for aphtha. A large number of specialized medical uses, some magical: hang up an eggplant, gaze at it day after day; as it withers the disease withers. Many small, intensely flavorful eggplant species exist in south China and neighboring southeast Asia. Li calls them “bitter eggplant,” kujia, probably lumping several species, and recommends them for a wash for carbuncle and swelling. Some are used in local and Tibetan medicine (e.g. Dash, S. indica).
(Major food in the Middle East, where any eggplant dish is likely to be called Būrūniyā from the extreme fondness that an early ‘Abbasid Princess Burun had for the fruit. This has given us “boronia,” “alboronia” and the like in various European languages. Conversos even carried it to Mexico. Sometimes the dishes are made with green beans or other substitutes instead of eggplant.)
Solanum nigrum L., Solanaceae. Fana
Theophrastus: II, p. 311, strykhnos, possibly not this species; makes one mad.
Dioscorides: IV-71, strychnos kepaios, garden nightshade. Leaves edible, cooling, applied for a very wide range of external conditions.
Galen: Medicine; extremely astringent, cold.
Levey: Rūzbāraj. In nasal ointment and for liver and stomach, hemorrhoids, etc. Also as ‘inab ath-tha’lab, for erysipelas.
Avicenna: ṭiqāqawāūn (enchanter’s nightshade). Many other names. Cold and dry. Usual uses in poultices; unusual is one with white lead and rose oil, for diffuse inflammation. Sedative. Used in eyes, for stomachand kidneys, cleansing. Primarily an anaesthetic or sedative.
Lev and Amar: eggplant, S. melongena, stoach, nausea, diuretic, etc. Hot and dry.
Kamal: ‘inab al-th’eb. Leaves for poultices and vaginal treatments. S. melongena leaves for fomentations for burns and leprosy; juice of fruit (eggplant) diuretic.
Bellakhdar et al: S. sodomaeum, limun n-nsara, quras l-jenn, antiepileptic.
Ghazanfar: Plant used as expectorant; for fevers, gonorrhea, kidney, bladder, stomach; on ulcers.
Madanapala: Kākamācī. Hot. Cardiac tonic, rejuvenating, promotes voice and semen. For odema, skin, leprosy, piles, fever, urinary diseases. Several other Solanum spp. discussed.
Nadkarni: Not this, but several other spp. used, some narcotic; most very different in nature and effect from S. nigrum, however.
Dash: Hot, laxative. Promotes voice and virility and alleviates dosas. Cures skin. Can be poisonous.
Li: Longkui. Bitter, slightly sweet, slippery and nontoxic (!). All parts used; a few minor uses including external uses on boils and the like.
Several other Solanum species used, including eggplants S. melongena and relatives for an astonishing variety of uses, including poultice on frostbite.
(Solanum nigrum sometimes contains dangerous alkaloids, giving it the name “deadly nightshade.”)
Spartium junceum L., Fabaceae. Badashqan. BaiDiSiGan.
Dioscorides: IV-158, spartion, broom. Seeds purgative. Drunk or clyster for lower parts.
(Arab/Persian name obscure; very likely applies to a different species of broom, as in the case of the hairy thorn-broom above. But it’s not in the Middle East sources under any name.)
Stellaria dichotoma L. var lanceolata Bge., Caryophyllaceae. Root. BaiTuLuBiDi.
Sun: Chickweed (Stellaria media, perhaps including the above sp.; fanlou蘩蔞): sour, balanced, nonpoisonous. It treats especially the deteriorative ulcer that exist for years, and hemorrhoids that cannot be cured. Pick it at noon, the fifth day of the fifth month. It is also called zicao滋草, or jichangcao雞腸草. Dry and burn it. Use the parched ashes for medication. Bian Que said, “If a man has a deteriorative ulcer, or his glans (yintou陰頭) and penis have ulcers and are festered, and the pain is intolerable and the ulcer cannot be healed up for a long time, take one part ashes to two parts mud recently excreted by an earthworm. Add water and fully blend them. Make a paste like the dough that is used to make a pancake before it is fried. Apply the paste on the ulcer and change it when it is dry. Do not consume alcohol, flour food, the five spices (wuxin五辛), or hot food (reshi熱食).” The Yellow Emperor said, “When fanlou is taken alongside with (?zha[鱼旦]鲊), it will arouse the illness of losing weight and being thirsty and make the person forgetful.” There is another species, growing in warm and wet location, for instance a place close to the aqueduct. It grows in the winter and its shape is like coriander (husui胡荽). It is also called jichangcao雞腸草. It can be used to cure hemorrhoids. It has another name, tianhusui天胡荽.
Li: Fanlü. Trivial uses.
Strychnos sp. (S. pierriana?), Loganiaceae. Jawz al-qayi.
Dash: S. nux-vomica L. bitter and astringent; cures parasites. Usable for rat-poison.
The fact that only Tibetan medicine seems to use this plant, among our sources, does not mean we have a Tibetan influence here. Note the Arabic name and the fact that S. nux-vomica is known all over the Old World, but mostly as a poison rather than a medicine.
Styrax benzoin Dryand., Styracaceae. Resin. MuHeiLi. An-xi-xiang. Hu 659.
Dioscorides: I-79, styrax, S. officinalis. Gum used. Warming, softening. Cures coughs and other respiratory conditions. Drunk or applied for vulva and as emmenagogue. Soot also used.
Al-Bīrūnī: Usshaq, usshaj. Deeobstruent, haemorrhagic, resolvent, purgative. With vinegar and tar for scrofula, sclerosis, enlargements, cleaning away bad flesh, etc. With honey and barley for arthritis and uralgic problems, and joint pain in general. Al-Bīrūnī records some controversy over exactly what plant is meant.
Avicenna: S. officinalis, aṣṭarak; lubni for liquid. Hot and dry. Usual minor uses for hot dry drugs.
Kamal: gawi. Inhalations for cheat disease and throat inflammations. Resin stimulant, expectorant, astringent; cough sedative, dries expectoration. Antiseptic dressing powder for wounds.
Bellakhdar et al: jawi. Ripening of abscesses.
Nadkarni: Antiseptic, disinfectant, stimulant, expectorant. Gum. Used as incense.
Li: Anxixiang. (Identified in Li 2003 as S. tonkinensis, but Li notes it may have come from Anxi in central Asia, and had a Sanskrit name, so S. benzoin is surely included.) Gum pungent, bitter, plain, and nontoxic. A number of uses, most of them, unusually, psychological; it dispels nightmares, unnatural sexual dreams, fright, visions of ghosts, evil, and devils, and the like. This is the only plant in this canon that the hard-headed Li uses primarily for such purposes.
Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. et Perry (Eugenia caryophyllata Thunb.), Myrtaceae. Imported. YaXiNi (which looks like the Arabic word for “cinnamon,” and has no resemblance to the Arabic or Persian words for clove). Ding-xiang (“nail aromatic,” cf. English “clove” from French clou “nail.” Influence, or just obvious similarity of the bud leading to similar naming?) Hu 973. Flower bud, dried, becomes clove.
Avicenna: Qaranful. Hot and dry. Strengthens stomach and liver. Treat vomiting and nausea. Can help eyes, also epilepsy.
Levey, Levey and Al-Khaledy: Qaranful. In electuaries, dentifrice, collyrium, and for breathing and stomachic.
Lev and Amar: Qaranful. Heat, dryess, black and red bile, coughs, colds. Freshens breath, treats gums and stomach. Hysteria, epilepsy, etc., and for sexual medicine (Maimonides). For nausea.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Qaranful, mismar. Coughs, colds, cuts, eyes, hair loss, headaches, menstruation, nauseal and vomiting, sore throat, toothache, and childbirth (cinnamon, cloves, honeyu, dates during labor). Antiseptic and antifungal activity noted here.
Nadkarni: Dried buds stomachic, carminative, stimulant, aromatic, antispasmodic. Oil antiseptic, local anaesthetic, rubefacient. (These uses are all well documented by modern biomedicine; the volatile oils are responsible.)
Dash: Cold. Cardiac, promotes eyesight and virility, cures poisons.
Li: Dingxiang. Pungent, warm, nontoxic. Topical for mouth and nose. Cures gum disease, bad breath, etc. Digestive. Some minor uses. Used since very ancient times.
(Clove is highly effective, still in some medical use, and perhaps the most effective in biomedical terms of anything mentioned in the HHYF. Its volatile oil is strongly antiseptic, antifungal, carminative, stomachic. It has been used since time immemorial for toothache, since it not only kills at least a few bacteria but also has some numbing or pain-relieving effect; treats gums, sweetens breath. Still almost universally used, worldwide, in folk medicine.)
Tamarindus indicus L., Fabaceaae. Tamarind. Tamar (al-) hindī (“date of India”; source of the English name). Mentioned in Index, probably only as a food with some medicinal effects.
Avicenna: Cold and dry. Laxative. Treats vomiting, thirst from fever, yellow bile, and effects of excessive vomiting.
Lev and Amar: Astringent. For menorrhagia, jaundice, laxative, purgative, cooling; in modern Egypt as mouthwash for thrush; seeds for plaster; for nausea, fever, etc.
Nadkarni: Pulp contains tartaric, citric, malic, ascorbic, and acetic acids, as well as oter useful items. Cooling, carminative, digestive, laxative. Antibilious. Leaves and seeds strongliy astringent. Two pages of fine print on local uses.
(Oddly not in Li. A very popular cooling drink throughout much of the Mediterranean world, and its extension into Hispanic America, is prepared from the pulp, and no one who has tried it can fail to be impressed by the cooling effect of the astringent but sweet pulp rich in vitamins and minerals.)
Taxus baccata L., Taxaceae. Zarnab. ZaErNaBu
Levey: Zarnab. Uncertain identification as yew. Good for spirits and happiness.
Avicenna: Hot and dry; minor uses typical of hot dry drugs.
Lev and Amar: zarnab. Disinfectant. For bad smells. Softens voice, dissolves phlegm, improves digestion, diuretic, etc.
Nadkarni: Leaves and fruits emmenagogue, sedative, antispasmodic.
Li: Torreya grandis, feishi, seed, sweet, balanced, astringent, nontoxic. Vermifuge, mouth sores, sore throat (still standard in the 21st century for this; the nuts are roasted and eaten.)
(Berries of Taxus are highly toxic.)
Terminalia bellerica (Gaertn.) Roxb., Combretaceae. Balilat, abalilaj; BaLiLa
Avicenna: balīlaj. Cold and dry. Cleansing. Oxidizing, assimilative. Maturing for stpomach. Laxative. (Note this is another of the many Indian medicines not mentioned by Islamic authorities other than Avicenna.)
Madanapala: Bibhītaka. Astringent, purgative, for eyes, cough, etc.
Nadkarni: Astringent, tonic, expectorant, laxative; yunani use as cold and dry tonic for stomach etc., used also for headache, hemorrhoids, diarrhea.
Dash: Cures all diseases caused by either heat or cold! Pungent, hot, corrosive. Cures abdominal diseases.
It would seem highly likely that this drug got into HHYF practice via Tibet.
Terminalia chebula Retz., Combretaceae. KeBuLiHeZi, JiErDiMaNu, SaTuiLa, YiQiLiLi, HaBuLiAXi. Ke-zi; Hu ds659
Levey: Halīlaj. Loose uvula; ears; throat; mouth; preventing miscarriage. Levey notes its wide use in Asia, giving even a Tokharian word for it (arirāk).
Avicenna: halīlaj. Cold and dry. Internal pains. Digestive. Evacuates black bile and phlegm. Laxative. Good for memory, sense organs, intellect.
Lev and Amar. Terminalia spp. ‘amlaj, halīlaj, etc. Various kinds used but hard to sort out in the Genizah material—which has a very great deal about them. As in India, they tend to have been curealls. Eyes, stomach, cough, cold, pains, and most other minor ailments.
Bellakhdar et al: astringent; also for liver, stomach and bowel disorders
Ghazanfar: Leaves on skin rashes. Enema from crushed fruit with other substances. For childbirth.
Madanapala: Harītakī. “It cures all diseases” (4). Notable for purgation, ulcers, eyes. Digestive stimulant, laxative, aphrodisiac.
Nadkarni: Astringent, purgative, etc. Myrobalans—this, T. bellerica, and Emblica—are standard Indian medicines, universally used.
Dash: Root cures bone diseases, trunk for muscles, branches for vessels and tendons, bark for skin, leaves for hollow viscera, flowers for sense organs, fruits for solid viscera—a wonderful bit of correspondence theory, obviously influenced by the Chinese (note the classification of viscera). Stimulant, appetiser, laxative.
Li: Helile, hezi, the former explained by Li as Sanskrit for “coming of the heavenly god”! (Note that it is actually a transcription of the Arabic name.) Very wide range of uses, but most cluster around respiratory and digestive. Myrobalans, from India, have a long history in China.
Teucrium chamaedrys L. Lamiaceae. Kamadharyus (Gr), KeMaDeErYuSi, SaJiBieNuZhi, BiErZanDi, FuKeHeiYiJiHeiEr.
Kamal: Kamadrios, ballat al-ard. Used for tuberculosis; antipyretic, anti-gout. T. maritimum, kamadrios al-bihhar; tonic, astringent, dissolvient. For nasal polypi.
Nadkarni: Tonic, diuretic, sudorific.
Teucrium leucocladum Boiss. and Teucrium polium L., Lamiaceae. Ju’dah, ju’dat, ja’dah.
The former is a local Middle Eastern plant. All sources probably trace back to Dioscorides’ comments on T. polium, possibly including T. chamaedrys, a European plant still widely used medicinally.
Dioscorides: III-124, polion, T. polium; Goodyer Englishes it as hulwort. Bites, dropsy, jaundice, spleen. Purgative, emmenagogue. Bad for stomach.
Avicenna: A range of germander species are treated. All are hot and dry. Most are opening and diluting. They have the usual range of uses for hot and dry herbs.
Lev and Amar: T. capitatum, ja‘da, kamādriyūs. Wounds abscesses, spleen swellings, fevers, stings, diuretic, purgative, emmenagogue. Hot and dry. Dropsy, jaundice, spleen, etc.
Bellakhdar et al: j’idiya. Against chill, oedema, liver pain [a folk category]. Blood-cleansing.
Ghazanfar: Ja’ada and other names. Leaves boiled and drunk for pain, jaundice, fever; topically on bites and abscesses; for childbirth. T. mascatense for colic, diabetes, stomach pain, fever.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Diabetes, rheumatism, swellings, purgation, stomach. Leaf influsion used. Effective, but toxic, so inadvisable.
Mandaville: Mention (ja’dah) but no medicinal use reported.
Nadkarni: Arab knowledge noted. No Indian use.
- scordium L., Lamiaceae. Suqurdiyun, shuqurdiyun. SuGuDiErRong
Dioscorides: III-125, skordion, T. scordioides [or possibly scordium?], water germander. Herb warming. Diuretic. Snakebites, poisons, dystentery, old coughs, convulsions. Applied in vinegar or water to gout. Aplied for emmenagogue and for wounds. Various external uses.
Al-Bīrūnī: Shaqardiyūn. Astringent, bitter, sharp. Purifies organs. Diuretic and emmenagogue. For pains from obstruction and coldness. Granulates gaping wounds. Antitoxin. With wine for stomach, intestines, strangury. Cleansing. Dry for coughs and cramps. With medicine with oil and wax, reduces iflammation and pain. Pessary, emmenagogue. Detergent for wounds; generates new skin, removes hard dried flesh. Extract for pains. Most of this from Galen.
Kamal: T. scordioides, water chamaedrys; al-thom al-barri, magl al-safsaf. For preservative.
Nadkarni: Antiputrefactive. Antiseptic, diaphoretic, stimulant.
Thapsia sp. (e.g. T. garganica L.), Apiaceae. Not. Tafsiya (Persian). TaFuXiYa.
Dioscorides: IV-157, thapsia, T. garganica. Root or sap for purging. This helps not only with stomach pains but for asthma, etc. Applied to sunburns, eruptions, etc. Noted that “it behoves him that takes ye liquor not to stand against ye wind, but rather to doe it in still weather. For it puffs up ye face mightily, & ye naked parts are blistered by the sharpness…” (Gunther 1934:551). In other words, it, like some relatives, contains furanocoumarins that sensitize the skin to ultraviolet radiation, causing massive sunburn.
Al-Bīrūnī: Tāfsiyā. Vesicant, very heating.
Bellakhdar et al: Analeptic, antirheumatic, revulsive
Thuja orientalis L. and other Cupressaceae. Some native. Unclear what species is or are mentioned in the HHYF.
Al-Bīrūnī: Juniperus, one name being ‘ar‘ar (see below), cited to Rāzī as emenagogue and treatment of “foetal disorders.”
Avicenna: rīs for tree; abhal for the berry; ‘ar‘ar for the tree and berry; sandrūs for gum. Hot and dry. Fruit roasted in sesame oil for ear drops. Fumes help respiratory ailments. Fruits for chest pain and cough. Gum—sandarac—for palpitations, asthma, etc. Berry cleansing, laxative; sandarac taken for inflamed spleen. Berry diuretic Berry and oil a famous abortifacient. Gum used for diarrhea; fumes of it on piles.
Nasrallah: hot, dry, purging, diuretic. Antihelminthic. Emmenagogue, abortifacient.
Lev and Amar: ‘ar‘ar. Hot and dry. “Regulates” menstruation, treats fractures, skin, heart, eyes.
Kamal: T. articulata, leaves diuretic and anticatarrhal, sedative for reumatic pains. Wood sudorific; for syphilis.
Bellakhdar et al: Juniperus phoenicia for urinary antiseptic, emmenagogue, stomach pains; Tetraclinis articulata, ‘ar‘ar, a native Moroccan juniper-like plant similar to Thuja, as antidiarrheal, antipyretic, antivertigo, anti-headache, astringent.
(The fame of juniper oil as abortifacient is widespread; it is dangerous, not infrequently fatal, but very effective.)
Thymus capitatus (L.) Hoffm. et Link, Lamiaceae. Hasha.
Thymus creticus Brot. HaSha
Thymus glaber Miller. Nammam
Dioscorides III-44, thymos, Cretan thyme. Loosens and drives out phlegm, helps with asthma, expels worms. Not surprisingly by now, it is diuretic, emmenagogue, abortifacient, clears out afterbirths. The usual variety of minor external uses. Eaten with food, helps the sight.
Graziani: “Wild thyme,” nammām, used by Ibn Jazlah, unspecified use. Ordinary thyme and marjoram, sa’tār, use (unspecified) by Ibn Jazlah who gives other names. Note that the general term sa’tar or za’tar covers both thyme and marjoram, and sometimes other wild herbs too.
Thymus serpyllum L. Lamiaceae. Native?
Levey: Ḥāshā’, T. vulgaris (which is almost the same as T. serpyllum). Liver, stomach, spleen. ṣa’tar, various thymes and thyme relatives; erysipelas, stomach, neck pustules. Notes the asses’ thyme, ṣa’tar al-ḥamīr, possibly T. capitatus. See below.
Avicenna: T. praecox, nammām, thūmūn (evidently from Greek). Hot and dry. Kills lice and dissolves warts. Externally on cold swellings, hard inflammations, etc. “Boiled down in vinegar and used with rose oil on the head, it is useful in treating amnesia, mental confusionk, sluggishness, irritation and swelling…of the brain and headache” (753; a very useful plant, if it worked). Internally for weakness of nerves, eyesight, chest, digestion, worms. Expels dead foetus, menstrual discharge, etc. Diuretic and emmenagogue.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: hashā (totally different transcription from that in Levey 1966!). T. vulgaris. Al-Samarqandī uses this and zatar (wild thyme) for, presumably, the usual purposes.
Nasrallah: Thyme in general, hot, stomachic, good for liver, relieves nausea and toothache, cures gum diseases, etc.
Kamal: T. vulgaris, hashā, za’tar al-hamir, i.e. asses’ thyme. Stimulant, diuretic, emmenagogue. Cooked in honey to ease breathing and asthma. Anihelminthic. [Thyme oil is such a powerful, effective antibiotic that it is still used, e.g. in hospitals when nothing else will kill the multidrug-resistant hospital bacteria.]
Bellakhdar et al.: Thymus spp. z’itra, za’ter, tazukenni. For all diseases. Gastro-intestinal antiseptic.
Ghazanfar: T. vulgaris, za’ater. Taken for colic, kidneys, bronchitis, cough. Leaves boiled and tea massaged on breasts to bring down milk. Mixed with salt and water to wash vaginal area after childbirth.
Lebling and Pepperdine: T. vulgaris, za’tar etc., for colds, coughs, diarrhea, fatigue, stomach, liver, memory.
Nadkarni: Antiseptic. Very minor in India.
Eisenman: T. marschallianus, tea for stomatitis and toothaches, also fevers, headaches. Decoction in milk for acute respiratory infections, amenorrhea. Biomedically, expectorant and antibiotic.
Li: Dijiao. Includes also T. mongolicus. Relieves pain and swelling. Insecticide.
(Thyme is a well-recognized stimulant and antiseptic. Thyme oil is still the antiseptic of choice when all else fails, used e.g. for sterilizing areas contaminated by multiple-drug-resistant staphylococcus and streptococcus.)
Tragopogon pratensis L., Asteraceae. Badi (Yemenite)
Probable misidentification.
Nadkarni: bare mention.
Tribulus terrestris L. Zygophyllaceae. Ḥasak (Arabic). Native.
Dioscorides: IV-15, tribolos. Binding, cooling. Various external applications, including mouth sores, mouth ulcers, gums, tonsillitis. Applied to eyes. Seed brewed for stone. Made into tea for snakebite.
Avicenna: Hot and dry, but only slightly. Swellings, ulcers, etc.
Ghazanfar: Diuretic and for kidney stones. T. longipetalus diuretic, aphrodisiac.
Madanapala: Gokshura. Urinary diseases, asthma, cough, blood, heart.
Nadkarni: Plant and fruit cooling, demulcent, diuretic, tonic, aphrodisiac; powdered.
Dash: As in Madanapala, also arthritis, kidneys.
Eisenman: Many uses including malaria and energizing. Biomedically, used for scerotic conditions, worms, fungus and yeast infections; possible anti-cancer activity.
Li: Jili. Bitter, warm, nontoxic. Disperses Cold and Heat, etc.
(An infamous worldwide pest, widely used but apparently ineffective as medicine.)
Trigonella foenum-graecum L., Fabaceae.
Manniche: Helps in childbirth. Ointment (oil cooked out of ground seeds) to make the old look and feel younger [the description of the process makes one think the old would have had to work so hard they would have gotten healthful exercise, at least]. “It is a million times efficient” (Manniche 1989:152, translating from Edwin Smith papyrus of ca. 1500 BC; the hypertrophe is typical—no false modesty in the Smith papyrus).
Dioscorides: II-124, telis, fenugreek. Seed meals applied for inflammations. Sitz bath for women’s conditions (vulvar inflammations, etc.), and applied with goose-grease to soften and dilate the womb. Grens in vinegar for ulcers, etc. Tea for dysentery. In oil with myrtle for cleansing genitalia and treating scarring there.
I-57, telinon, seed oil. For all external conditions.
Galen: Warming. With fish sauce for laxative, cleaning out intestines.
Levey: Ḥulba. Swellings, phlegm, kidneys, ulcers.
Al-Bīrūnī: Hulbah. Bran with natron for spleen. Sitz bath for women prepared from the plant. Used on wounds. With duck fat to cure scirrhus of the uterus. Note this is straight out of Dioscorides.
Avicenna: Ḥulbah. Hot, dry, but only to first degree. Discharges pus; laxative. Cleansing and drying. Used externally (oil) for hair, scars, skin disease, eye conditions, ruptures, freckles, ulcers, etc. Poultice on swellings. With rose oil on burns. Internally for voice, lungs, chest, throat, cough and asthma. Especially good for these when boiled down with honey, dates, figs. (This would indeed work well.) Mix with dates and honey, heated over coals, taken before meals, is particularly good. Used with sodium nitrate for spleen; with vinegar for stomach, gastric ulcers, etc. and to make one vomit. For uterus, taken or as hip bath, boiled down. Vaerious uses for diarrhea, anal swellings, intestines, many other related conditions.
Graziani: Hubbah; food.
Lev and Amar: ḥulba. Heats, cures cough and ailments of lung and womb. For bites and stings. Swellings, headaches, stomach ulcers, and kidneys. Infections, intestinal problems skin, hair, women’s diseases, etc.
Kamal: hulbah, fariqah. Hot fomentations, sedative. Seeds stomachic, antihelminthic, sedative for cough and asthma, used for emphysema, and said to be aphrodisiac. (Because of the stomachic qualities, which are very real in biomedical terms, it is added in large quantities to many Arabic dishes, especially in Yemen where it is a major food ingredient.)
Bellakhdar et al: l-helba, reconstituant, hair-care, hypoglycemiant, blood-cleansing, and for aortic palpitations.
Ghazanfar: H.elba, h.ilba. Powdered for colic, fruits for bronchitis, cough. Topically (seeds ground) on sprains. Seeds boiled, mixed with egg, given to new mother for 7 days after birth. Enema for new mother to strengthen her back. (The cultural importance of fenugreek in Ghazanfar’s native south Arabia is enormous; it is used in vast quantities in Yemeni cooking as well as medicine.)
Lebling and Pepperdine: Externally for bleeding, headache, breast abscesses and mastitis; liver, eaten for diabetes, bones, menstrual cramps, stomachaches. Very many uses in childbirth; eaten during and after delivery, especially as one of the spice foods used for recovery from childbirth. Also used for babies—presumably in tea, but also put on fontanel (presumably to prevent it falling).
Nadkarni: Seeds mucilagionous, demulcent, diuretic, tonic, carminative, emmenagogue, astringent, emollient, aphrodisiac.
Li: Huluba (from the Arabic—one of very few common Chinese words that is a straight Arabic transliteration). Bitter, very warm, nontoxic. Important heating drug, against various results of Cold.
Triticum spp. “T. spelta” L., Poaceae. Khundurus (Greek orig) HanDaLuXi (“T. romanum L.” ) (There is no such sp. as “T. romanum,” and T. spelta is not a valid species, being merely a variety of T. x aestivum, itself a complex hybrid of T. dicoccoides and Aegilops squarrosa.)
Manniche: T. dicoccum water (grains boiled in water, which is then strained and drunk) for “heart,” i.e. internal complaints, and constipation. Also eaten in cake for cough, etc.
Dioscorides: II-107, pyroi, T. vulgare [of which spelta is actually just a variety]. Wheat. Eaten raw (soft new kernel, evidently), causes roundworms. Chewed, applied to mad dog bites. Bread from it is nourishing. Meal with Hyoscyamus juice applied to fluxes of the nerves, puffing of bowels, etc. Bran also used as carrier in cataplasms. Made up with rue for breasts, bites, gripes, etc. In general the meal is obviously just a carrier vehicle for the medicinal herbs. Leaven warming and extracting; reduces calluses; ripens boils and the like. Taken for blood-spitting, and with mint and butter for coughs and blod. Various other external applications. Old dry bread constipating.
Galen: Under wheats, long discussions given of types of bread, the whiter being the more digestible and better for health. Only peasants can digest the very coarse (wholemeal) breads, and even they only because they sleep so well (digestion going on during rest). Better-baked breads are better for digestion. Notes gruel is good but simple boiled wheat almost indigestible.
Avicenna: ḥinṭah (bran), sawīq (roasted, or flour), harīsat (wheat preparation), etc. Hot and somewhat moist but slightly drying also. Mostly a food, but flour for face, bran for swellings, other minor mostly external uses.
Lev and Amar: Triticum sp. (probably mostly T. aestivum), h.int.a, burr, h.abba, qamh. (flour). Skin, wounds, minor pains.
Kamal: T. vulgare, infused in vinegar for pains.
Nadkarni: various uses, mostly flour pastes for external conditions.
Sun: Wheat (T. vulgare, xiaomai小麥): sweet, mildly cold, nonpoisonous. It nourishes the qi of the liver. It rids fever caused by invading qi (kere客熱). It terminates anxiety and thirst. It treats dry throat. It helps discharge urine. It stops loss of blood (louxue漏血) or blood in slaver (tuoxue唾血). It helps women become pregnant. It can easily be made into leaven, which, if made in the sixth month, is warm and nonpoisonous. It treats especially children’s epilepsy (xiao’erxian小兒癇) and helps digest food. It rids the Five Hemorrhoids (wuzhichong五痔蟲)[10]. It pacifies qi in the stomach. It helps digest grains and stops diarrhea. Its powder is warm and nonpoisonous. It cannot eliminate fever or anxiety. It cannot be frequently taken. Otherwise, it will aggravate chronic diseases, and enhance “stranger qi” (keqi客氣), which is difficult to cure.
Li: T. aestivum, mai, grains, flour, bran, leaves, shoots, straw ash, ferments, and other preparations, for a vast range of ills; often for the nutrition value or value as carrier for other drugs, but often in its own right.
Leaven (from wheat among other things), qu, also important.
Urtica? A mention of “nettle seed” in the Index is hard to specify as anything identifiable. Assuming it is Urtica:
Avicenna: U. dioica, qurayḍ; seed, falanjah. Hot and dry. Used inpoultices, for nerves, for nose when can’t smell, and usual minor uses. Seeds aphrodisiac.
Nadkarni: U. dioica L. used for laxative and diuretic vegetable and as antiscorbutic (works for all these). Also for catarrh, leucorrhea, hemorrages, etc. Syrup used for these and said very successful against uterine hemorrhage. Tincture on burns. Dried leaves powdered and inhaled to relieve asthma and bronchial troubles.
Li: U. cannabina L. and U. angustifolia Fisch. ex Hornem., xunma, pungent, bitter, cold, very toxic; causes vomiting and diarrhea. Pounded for snakebite; juice applied to rash in rubella.
(Nobody in our sources, or to my knowledge anyone else, uses the tiny seeds, making it almost certain that the HHYF reference is not to Urtica. Possibly the HHYF intends some sort of hemp plant—very likely marijuana.)
Usnea? See Alectoria usneoides Ach.
Valeriana dioscorides Sibth. (=V. officinalis L.), V. celtica, Caprifoliaceae (Valerianaceae). Asmanqin
Dioscorides: I-7, nardos keltike, V. celtica, valerian. Little stalks and roots ground, made into balls. Diuretic. For stomach, inflammations, jaundice, bloating, spleen, bladder, kidneys. For venomous bites. For ointments.
I-8, nardos oreine, Valeriana tuberosa, mountain nard. Same uses.
Levey: V. celtica, nārdīn. Bladder, kidneys.
Al-Bīrūnī: V. celtica, Celtic nard, nārdīn. Similar to spikenard. Roots used.
Avicenna: Fū. Hot and dry. Warming, laxative, pain-relieving. Treats opaque cornea, inflamed chest, etc. Boiled for emmenagogue.
Kamal: Waleriana. Stem and root oil relaxing and antipyretic.
Nadkarni: V. officinalis antispasmodic, stimulant. V. wallichii, similar uses, nervine, calming, etc.
Eisenman: V. officinalis sedative, carminative, vermifuge, and for psychological conditions from hypochondria and hysteria to epilepsy and insomnia. Used for pains, heart, anxiety. Biomedically, well-known sedative, calming to nervous system and heart; treats insomnia, overactive cardiovascular system, spasms.
(Strongly active on nervous system and thus not a safe remedy, but very widely used.)
Veratrum album L., Melanthiaceae (Liliaceae). Hellebore. Kharbaq. See Helleborus niger for black hellebore. (Veratrum is often called “false hellebore,” but it is not “false”—it has always been called hellebore. Apparently the similar activity, including toxic effect, is what mattered to the ancients who named them.)
Dioscorides: IV-150, ‘elleboros, Veratrum album, white hellebore. Roots for purging by vomiting. In eyes with collyrium for sight. Emmenagogue and abortifacient, to the point where planting it near grapevines makes the wine abortifacient (V-77, p. 621). For choking. Poison; kills mice.
Levey: Purgative, vermifuge, etc. Toxic.
Avicenna: kharbaq abyaḍ. Hot and dry. Poisonous; used to kill rats, dogs, wild pigs; Avicenna even warns that chickens have died from pecking the excrement of humans who use it. Externally on wounds, joints, ears, etes; internally to produce vomiting, but this is very dangerous, and a range of antidotes and diluents must be kept on hand and instantly used if suffocation (i.e., breathing cessation or incipient heart stoppage) appears. Expels black and yellow bile and phlegm.
Lev and Amar: Possible confusion with Helleborus albus, q.v.
Eisenman: V. lobelianum, on eczema, rheumatism, neuralgia; internally for mental illness. Biomedically, an insecticide and miticide. Analgesic and hypotensive. Highly toxic.
(Powerful heart stimulant and dangerous drug. Native Americans of the west coast of North America use V. viride for heart conditions, notably dropsy, and for other conditions in which stimulation is appropriate; but with extreme caution. It is sometimes called “mountain onion” in Chinese, and some at least of the HHYF recipes call for “mountain onion” to treat what looks like stroke or heart attack; in these cases Veratrum might be appropriate, or at least would be seen to have a strong effect.)
Vicia ervilia Willd., Fabaceae. Kashna (Persian)
Dioscorides: II-131, orobos, vetch. Meal used [presumably cooked] for belly. Diuretic. Causes pain and bleeding if overeaten. External for almost everything imaginable from dog and human bites to griping. Presumably the soothing quality is all that matters; there is no medicinal value.
II-127, kyamos hellenikos, Vicia faba, fava bean. Ground for a vast range of external uses, mostly the same as above; a unique one is to delay growth of pubic hair in children.
Galen: Cleans thick fluids from chest and lungs. Drying and laxative.
Avicenna: Broad bean cold, cleansing (weakly), produces gas, etc. Poultices for external conditions. Poultice with honey for eyes. Good for chest, coughs, etc.; poultice on throat for laryngitis, tonsillitis. Treats diarrhea.
Levey: Karsanah. Salve for skin and cankers. Widely used for various minor functions; cleansing, etc.
Lev and Amar: V. ervilia for cough, heart, skin, leprosy, blood in urine, spitting blood; skin diseases, cancer. Seed flour hot and dry to Maimonides, who used it for burns distinfecting, cleansing. Diuretic (plant, not seeds), cleans urinary tract. Overeating causes headaches. Seed powder on wounds, bites, (including human), stings, etc. V. faba (Arabic fūl) for soothing inflammations and skin irritation, mixed with egg white, oil, etc. Purgative, digestive, anti-constipation, etc.; for ears, muscles, swellings, various external uses. (It provides bulk in the diet, and the powder mixed with other things would indeed be soothing, but otherwise this would be largely a “mother’s chicken soup” sort of remedy.) A version of the Egyptian national dish fūl medames (cooked broad beans, now eaten with garlic, olive oil and lemon juice) is noted in one Genizah fragment!
Lentil, ‘adas, for toothache, head, reducing urine, stanching blood.
Eisenman: V. cracca, demulcent, hemostatic, healing on wounds. Tincture to treat diarrhea, and as diuretic. Poultice for rectal prolapse and hemorrhoids. Used on abscesses. Antibacterial.
Li: V. hirsuta, qiaoyao; V. sativa, wei. Minor uses.
Vigna spp. incl. V. radiata (L.) and Vigna mungo, Fabaceae. Native.
There is also a reference in the index to “eye-browed bean,” probably V. unguiculata.
Manniche: Vigna sinensis (which is now V. unguiculata): meal for constipation, in enema. Used in various unguents, etc.
Levey: V. sinensis, lūbiyāh, possibly the one used for freckles (cf. Dolichos lablab); “Phaseolus mungo” (=V. radiata), māsh, again for skin discolorations, also for lips, hemorrhoids, scrofula. It would seem to be a soothing vehicle for medicines.
Avicenna: Lūbiya. Treats chest and lung, often in poiultice or paste with more obviously medicinal items. Produce thick humor (indigestion), remedied by mustard or wine. Emmenagogue with nard oil.
Graziani: V. mungo, mash, maj; Ibn Jazlah used with sumac for cough, and with myrtle for pain. Weakens teeth. Ibn Sīnā cosidered it aphrodisiac Rāzī gave it as a refresher.
Kamal: Lobia (lubiya), fasolia, dagar. Nutritious.
Bellakhdar et al: V. sinensis, hair-care, pulmonary infections.
Li: Lüdou (V. mungo). Cold. Minor cooling and detoxifying uses. (Green bean soup is a standard modern cooling medication.) V. cylindrica, baidou, minor uses. V. sinensis, jiangdou, sweet, salty, balanced, nontoxic. General regulating and detoxifying value.
Viola sp., Violaceae. Violet. One obscure mention under its proper name, but I strongly suspect that the “purple flower” widely called for in the HHYF is V. yedoensis Makino, important in Chinese medicine as V. odorata L. is in the west.
Avicenna: Banafsaj, V. odorata. Hot and dry. Usual minor uses; also for kidney pain, and diuretic.
Lev and Amar: V. odorata, banafsaj. Like many other soothing and medicinally active flowers, it is recommended for essentially everything, from mumps and toothache to splitting hair and backache. Oil often used. (The plant does not produce significant quantities of oil, so one assumes the flowers were steeped, though possibly an incredible number was gathered and soaked in hot water which was then skimmed, as with roses.)
Nadkarni: “Flowers are astringent, demulcent, diaphroetic, diuretic and aperient” (1275). For “bilious affections” lungs, uterus, cough, liver, etc., etc. Syrup usual. Mixed with almond oil (possibly a hint to how Lev and Amar’s oil was made). The Hindi name banafsha is an obvious borrowing from Arabic.
Eisenman: V. suavis. Syrup diuretic, anti-inflammatory, expectorant, diaphoretic, choleretic. Decoction for coughs, colds, eyes, throat, stomach. Roots for emetic and laxative use. Decoction of flowers with sugar to treat heart illnessses.
Li: V. yedoensis (V. philippica) Makino, zihuadiding. Bitter, pungent, cold and nontoxic. Carbuncles, boils, scrofula, skin infections, sore gums, sores, etc., mostly as extermal application but sometimes internal. Plant with root usually used.
Reported anti-HIV action (Wang et al. 2008).
Vitex sp., possibly intended for Vitex agnus-castus L. or V. negundo L. Verbenaceae.
Avicenna: Dissolving, diluting, relieving. Hot and dry, somewhat. Relieves suffocation feelings, and melancholia. Increases bresatmilk but decreases semen. Opens obstructions to liver and spleen. For swellings, piles, etc.
Nadkarni: V. agnus-castus: Berries stimulant, diuretic, alterative. For liver, spleen, dropsy. Also hiccups. Several other spp. of Vitex widely used, esp. V. negundo, used for inflammations incluiding rheumatism and arthritis, sprains, bites, etc., often as poultice or pillow or smoke. Juice of leaves for external uses including sores, etc. Oil also.
Li: V. negundo, Mujing. As medicine, bitter, warm and nontoxic. Disperses cold and heat in joints (clearly derived from the Indian usage!), facilitates stomach qi flow, stops coughing, etc. Many prescriptions given. V. rotundifolia and V. trifolia, both manjing, similar uses; dispels heat and cold, helps teeth and orifices, kills tapeworm, makes happiness, treats eyes, etc.
(Used for female complaints throughout European history; Lewis and Elvin-Lewis 2003:523. Legendary use as anti-aphrodisiac explains the names “chaste-tree” in English and agnus-castus, chaste lamb, in Latin.)
Vitis vinifera L., Vitaceae. Grape; wine.
Vitis? GouPuTao (“thorny grape”). YiNaShiSaLaBi.
Manniche: in laxatives and other remedies. Wine to stimulate appetite. Wine was used as a vehicle for various drugs, as it has been throughout time.
Dioscorides: V-1, ampelos oinophoros, Vitis vinifera, grapevine. Applied for headaches, inflammations, stomach, etc. Juice for dysentery, blood-spotting, stomach, and “women that lust” (Gunther 1934:601). Various other external applications.
V-2, ampelos agria, V. sylvestris, wild vine. Similar uses.
V-3, staphyle, grape. Green grapes disturb the stomach and bloat it. Ripe or dry they are good for the stomach, improve appetite, etc. Usual variety of external applications, especially for women, as clyster, sitzbath, fomentation. Seeds used for binding stomach, etc.
V-4, staphis, raisins. Various external applications [one of those external curealls].
V-5, oinanthe, fruit of wild vine. Dried. B inding. Tea for stomach; diuretic but stops diarrhea and blood-spoitting. Usual vast range of ezxternal applications.
V-6, omphacion, juice of unripe grapes. Tonsils, uvula, mouth sores, gums, ears, fistulas, ulcers, etc. Clyster for dysentery and women’s problems.
V-7-83, various kinds of wine, each with long list of virtues; irrelevant to the present work. Most involve brewing grapes with herbs; rose wine (V-35), for instance, involves added rose petals to the fermenting grapes. There is even an abortion wine (V-77), but it is made by planting abortifacient plants by the grapevines; the vines supposedly [but not really] take up the chemicals.
IV-183, ampelos agria, ?wild Vitis vinifera, or possibly another Vitacea or even a Cucurbitacea. Root for purging, dropsy. New shoots eaten.
Wine is used in a vast number of preparations with other herbs.
Galen: Acid or sour ones bad for health. Wine good for many conditions.
Levey: ‘inab, grapes, for jelly for stiff neck. Naturally, the Muslim authors do not recommend wine.
Avicenna: cold, dry peels, but flesh hot and moist. Unripe grapse sour, acrid. Help with gas, etc. Pulp on wounds; juice for skin conditions. Ash for pinched nerves. Poultice for eye, with barley flour. Extract of leaves for coughing up blood; fruit can help with this. Leaves and tendrils in barley-flour poultice for abdominal pain. Fruit for nausea and stomach ache. Wine and water, boiled down, expectorant. Resin for internal pains and problems. Fruit slightly laxative. Leves for dysentery, etc. Ash with vinegar for piles. Wine used for wounds, to clean them; white wine diuretic; Honey wine useful for birth pains. Old wine an antidote against insect bites. Many recommendations to drink sparingly.
Lev and Amar: The usual list of eyes, headaches, aphrodisiac (raisins), topical, muscle pains and swellings (vinegar), etc. Wine was used for sexual therapy and aphrodisiac function, as well as bites and stings, variouis diseases, etc. Vinegar was used for diarrhea, stomach in general, teeth, headache, head cold, fevers, and so on. The vinegar-and-honey mix so well known from ancient Greece up to toda was used by Maimonides and others for many reasons. Grapes and raisins had further minor uses, including liver. Leaves for poultices, roots for swellings. Grape juice concentrate (dibs, also used for date and carob syrups; considered at the time a subtype of ‘asal, honeys and syrups; further concentrated, this became rubb, very thick syrup, English “rob”), hot and moist, for obesity, blood, jaundice, heart disease, depression, epilepsy. Grape juice for neck pains. Vine resin for skin diseases.
Wine was, of course, forbidden to Muslims, but—quite apart from the fact that this prohibition was often taken quite lightly in medieval Islam—health and survival made for exceptions.
Kamal: karm, ‘enab (ripe grape), zabib (raisin), hosrom (unripe fruit), kashalmish, keshmesh. Fruit laxative; for liver. Raisin for bronchitis. Naturally, the Arabs do not use wine medicinally, especially in modern times when Islamic rules have grown stricter.
Ghazanfar: ‘anab, ‘eneb. Raisins boiled for drink for coughs. Grape juice with honey in ears for earache.
Madanapala: Drāksā. Cold. For thirst, fever, dyspnoea, vomiting, gout, jaundice, dysuria, bleeding, burning, consumption, etc. Fruit for alcoholism [hair of the dog?].
Nadkarni: Grapes demulcent, laxative, refrigerant, stomachic, diuretic, cooling. Raisins similar; attentuant, suppurative, blood-purifying. Juice astringent.
Dash: Cures fever and diseases of lungs. Other uses as above.
Sun: Grape (putao蒲桃): sweet, spicy, balanced (ping平), and nonpoisonous. Its major effects are to cure the illness caused by wetness (shibi濕痹) in tendons and bones. It is good for qi (yiqi益氣), enhances one’s strength as much as severalfold (beili倍力), and strengthens one’s memory (qiangzhi強志). It will make people strong and healthy, capable of enduring hunger, wind and cold. If one keeps taking it, his body will be lightened and he will not get old [presumably meaning something like “senile” here]. It elongates life. It also helps with the water in intestines (changjianshui腸間水), nourish the Middle Jiao (tiaozhong調中)[11]. It can be used to make wine, which is good for health if one keeps having it. It would drain water (zhushui逐水) and is diuretic (li xiaobian利小便). [The west Asian grape was still something of an exotic plant in China in Sun’s time, which may explain the preposterous claims made for it here.]
Li: V. vinifera, putao. Sweet, balanced or warm, astringent, nontoxic. Many minor uses.
Vladimiria souliei. Mu-xiang. Probably “mu-xiang” means Saussurea (q.v.) in the HHYF.
Zingiber officinale Rosc., Zingiberaceae. Native.
Dioscorides: II-190, zingiberi, ginger. Warming, softening, good for stomach and eyes.
Levey: Zanjabīl ṣīnī. In collyrium for sight; in drugs for sore throat, earache, arthritis, stomachic.
Avicenna: Zanjabīl. Hot and dry. Warming. Laxative and digestive; relieves gas, and coldness of stomach and liver. Oil used on skin for mites, etc. Enriches memory.
Lev and Amar: zanjabīl. Extensively used for the usual range of things: stomach, aphrodisiac, kidneys, black bile, phlegm, eyes, etc. Stimulates sexual desire.
Graziani: Zanjabil. Ibn Jazlah used it for headache, sight, liver, stomach, and reducing swellings. Antidote.
Kamal: Stimulant, cardiac tonic, aphrodisiac. Added to other medications to improve taste.
Bellakhdar et al: skenjbir, skenjabil. Calefacient, antirheumatismal, antitussive, stomachic.
Ghazanfar: zingībīl. Rhizome for bronchitis, carminative, for coughs, stomach. Juice in eyes for cataracts.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Rubbed on woman giving birth. Eaten after delivery. Used for colds, coughs, diarrhea, eyes, headaches, mentrual pain, sore throat, stomach. Effectiveness for stomach, vomiting, etc. noted.
Madanapala: Śunthī (dry ginger). Pungent, hot, sweet; treats rheumatism, constipation, vomiting, dyspnoea, cough, colic, heart, edema, piles, other abdominal conditions. Green ginger (ārdraka) is purgative, aphrodisiac, and cures most of the same conditions as dry.
Nadkarni: Aromatic, carminative, stimulant, stomachic. Externally, stimulant and rubefacient. Unani uses as hot and dry drug for above plus aphrodisiac, sedative, memory-strengthening, and other uses.
Dash: Sweet, hot. Appetiser, digestive, tonic.
Sun: Dry ginger (ganjiang幹薑): spicy, hot, and nonpoisonous. It is especially valuable for treating fullness in the chest and vomiting caused by coughing, and rising qi. It also warms up the Middle Jiao and terminates continuous bleeding (louxue漏血). It heals sweating. It heals paralysis caused by the feng and wetness. It treats the liquid remaining in the intestines and diarrhea (changpi xiali腸澼下利). It cures coldness and stomachache. It treats the illness of being attacked by the noxious qi. It cures cholera. It treats fullness in the stomach (zhangman脹滿). It treats noxious winds and every kind of poison. It treats the blockage of the qi (jieqi結氣) in the skins. It treats the illness of spitting blood (tuoxue唾血). When it is raw, it is better.
Ginger (fresh; shengjiang生薑): spicy, mildly warm, nonpoisonous. The spiciness will go to the five internal organs. It mainly treats spells of cold (febrile conditions; shanghan傷寒) and headache. It also eliminates phlegm and helps the qi move downward. It helps sweat break out (tonghan通汗). It breaks through blockage in the nose. It treats vomiting caused by coughing, and rising qi. It stops vomiting. It dispels the bad qi above the midriff (xiongge胸膈). It lets the spirit free (tong shenming通神明). The Yellow Emperor said, “In the eighth and ninth month, do not eat ginger. It will hurt the spirit and shorten the lifespan.” Hermit Hu (hujushi胡居士) said, “Ginger kills the long worms in the abdomen. If one has taken it frequently, it will lessen his memory and wisdom and make his temper worse.”
Li: Jiang (fresh ginger, shengjiang). Pungent, warm, nontoxic. Noted as accompanying every meal. General dispersing function.
(In modern China, one of the commonest strongly heating drugs, used in large quantities for Cold conditions generally. It is well known in modern practice as a stimulant, rubefacient, digestive, and carminative. As a tonic, stimulant, stomachic, etc., it is used today throughout the world. The aphrodisiac reputation survives in colloquial English: “gingery,” “the ginger man,” etc.)
Zingiber zerumbet (L.) Rosc., Zingiberaceae.
See Curcuma zerumbet.
Zizyphus spp., Rhamnaceae. Jujubes. Several mentions, but this word probably (and certainly in some cases) refers in most of them to dates (Phoenix dactylifera L, Arecaceae), which are routinely confused with jujubes in China (dates being called “foreign jujubes,” just as jujubes are called “Chinese dates” in colloquial English). However, nothing as important to Chinese medicine as jujubes can be completely ignored here.
Avicenna: ‘unnāb, other names—“different people call it by different names depending on their language” (p. 603). Moist and cold but with dry propertiews also. Fruit used; sometimes its flour, or vapor from cooking it. For hot blood. Constricting. Avicenna does not think it is blood-purifying. Various minor uses, but Avicenna does not seem to think much of it.
Eisenman: Z. jujuba, fruit for catarrh, fever, intestinal infections. Root bark stimulant. Decoction of fruit for “anemia, chest pains, asthma, coughs, smallpox, diarrhea, and as an analgesic for diseases of the liver, kidneys, and intestines…hypotensive” (271). Biomedically, the fruit and leaf infusion seems to work as a huypotensive and diuretic tea.
Li: Z. jujuba. Zao. “It is sweet, pungent, hot and nontoxic. Overeating of it causes chills and fever. An emaciated and wek person should not have it.” (P. 2703.) Usual wide mix of minor uses. (Used more recently to strengthen body and blood; black ones best for body, red for blood, sympathetic magic being obvious, but also the fruit contains some iron and vitamin C, enough to make a difference if nothing else is available. This has been, in modern times at least, one of the very favorite “nutraceuticals” in the Chinese repertoire, being used for weaning babies, restoring strength to new mothers after childbirth, treating invalids, etc. It is used in soup or congee, as opposed to the more ordinary method of simply eating the fresh or dried fruit, which is excellent.)
(The fruit has a high vitamin value, especially for vitamin C, and has some iron; it has probably saved many a Chinese child from malnutrition.)
Zollikofera angustifolia Coss. et Dur., Saliyy.
Obsolete name for Launaea angustifolia, q.v.
Animals
A few other animals are mentioned in the Table of Contents, but data on them is lost.
Accipiter sp.?, Accipitridae. Hawk mentioned in one recipe in HHYF; too unspecific to identify.
Anser spp. and probably other geese. Anatidae. Rakham (wild?), ‘iwazz (domestic). Mentioned in Index; presumably medicinal food.
Li: E (tame goose Anser domestica and domesticated strains of A. cygnoides), yan (wild goose A. albifrons, A. fabalis, wild A. cygnoides; when birds are recognizable in classical Chinese paintings, tame geese are A. cygnoides, wild usually A. fabalis).
Sweet and plain, but arguments over toxin. He says: “I have witnessed cases of toxins being activated by the eating of goose meat.” (Recall that “toxic” said of animal meat means that it brings out toxins in the system, not that it is itself poisonous.) Some say white geese are safe but gray are toxic, others that young are toxic but old are not. Goos efat is soothing—a good skin tonic. Goose, and goose blood, can help with certain worms, according to at leas one tradition. Gall used medinally, also eggs, feathers, and even saliva. Wild geese: fat used; soothing on hair and skin, including for boils and sores; medicinal when eaten, for deafness among other things. Bones, feathers, and even dung used (the last on sores).
Apis cerana Fabricius, Apidae. Native. Used in China in place of Apis mellifera, which is the species referred to in the western herbals.
Honey and “yellow wax,” obviously beeswax from the indications (and explicitly called so on p. 42 of juan 34), is used very widely in the HHYF; honey is the universal vehicle for medicines and beeswax is used in many, if not most, poultices etc. Honey is in fact the second most often mentioned item in what we have of the HHYF.
Dioscorides: II-101, meli, honey. II-102, 103, different kinds. Various external applications, mostly as a soothing agent, often as a carrier for herbal medicines.
- mellifera important in medieval Near East, honey being used for skin, throat, eye and stomach conditions, and wax for hemorrhoids, burns and wounds, sore throat, etc. (Lev 2002). A. cerana is the east Asian equivalent. Doubtless A. mellifera is actually meant in the recipes that served as originals for the HHYF.
Levey; Levey and Al-Khaledy: ‘asal. Honey. In many recipes as carrier and sweetener.
Avicenna: Hot and dry. Cleansing. Dissolvent. In addition to the universal carrier and demulcent values, it is used externally to prevent lice and kill their eggs; with ginger for freckles; with salt for bruises (odd but effective); for cleaning deep ulcers. Boiled down for wounds; fosters healing. With dill for ringworm. Beeswax used for softening scabs, but pollutes ulcers (it would be very difficult to maintain it sterile). Relaxes nerves, cleansees ear, cures dim vision. Rubbed on palate for suffocation and pains. Ointment on chest. Cane sugar “honey” laxative (this would be the unrefined juice); refined sugar or boiled-down honey do not do this. Honey is taken with rose oil for insect bites; also for opiuma ddiction. Various anti-toxic uses. Honey wine (ūnūmālī, from Greek oinomeli) hot and moist; used for ulcerative itches and rheumatism, and internally for purging bile, etc.
Lev and Amar: ‘asal, ‘asal nah.l. They note that ‘asal also covers fruit syrup concentrates. Bee honey used for eyes, headache, brain, diarrhea, wind, wars, urine, dysmenorrhea, hard sweelings, crying of infants, fever, black bile, phlegm, sciatica, varicose veins and venesection, paralysis, trembling, wind, facial lotion, and so on—any imaginable soothing purpose. Often the base or carrier of other medicines, but its sweetness and healthiness made it valued for itself too. Oxymel—the classic vinegar-honey drink of folk medicine—used for stings, etc. Wax for ulcers with fever, and other skin applications. Also legs, nails, sciatica, varicose veins, convulsion, tetany, fever, colic. Oxymel (honey and vinegar mix) for colds, coughs, spleen, liver, bowels, malaria, black bile, hematuria, bites, cold sweat, baldness, etc.
Lebling and Pepperdine: Honey used on burns, cuts, wounds, etc.; taken for fatigue and general health, and more specifically for heart, indigestion, insomnia, sore throat, stomach; taken after childbirth, by itself or as vehicle for the spice foods used at that time.
Sun: Honey (shimi石蜜) is sweet, balanced, mildly cold, and nonpoisonous. It treats especially the evil qi in the heart and abdomen. It cures fits caused by fright and characterized by twitching (jingxianjing驚癇痙). It pacifies the five internal organs. It cures every kind of incompleteness (buzu不足). It enhances the qi and compensates the Middle Burner. It kills stomachache. It detoxicates every kind of toxin in medicines. It dispels various kinds of diseases. It can be used to make dozens of medicines. It nourishes spleen qi. It extinguishes the feeling of being vexed (xinfan心煩). It treats the problem of being unable to eat or drink (shiyin buxia食飲不下). It stops the illness characterized by the liquid remaining in the intestines (changpi腸澼). It expels the pain in muscles. It cures ulcers in the mouth (kouchuang口瘡). It enhances the hearing and eyesight. If one has taken it for a long time, it will solidify his memory, lessen his weight, help him resist hunger and aging, elongate his lifespan, and help him become an immortal. It is also referred to as shiyi石飴. [Honey] that is as white as fat is good, which is found in the mountain and cliff. Black-red honey (qingchimi青赤蜜) is sour. If one swallows it, it will make him feel vexed. The bee is black, like a horsefly (meng虻; this is probably one of the local Apis species of east Asia, different from the domestic A. mellifera). The Yellow Emperor said, “In the seventh month, do not eat raw honey. It will cause serous diarrhea (baoxia暴下). It will cause cholera.” Beeswax (mila蜜蠟) is sweet, mildly warm, and nonpoisonous. It mainly treats diarrhea and pyaemia (nongxue膿血). It compensates the middle burner. It heals wounds involving severed body parts, and cut-wounds (jinchuang金瘡). It enhances qi and strength. It helps resist hunger and aging. White wax (baila白蠟) mainly treats the patient that has long suffered diarrhea and just recovers from it, and then is found bleeding (jiu xiepi chaihou chongjian xue久泄澼瘥後重見血). It compensates [for damage done by] wounds involving severed body parts. It is beneficial to children. If one has taken it for a long time, it will lessen his weight and help him resist hunger. It grows in the honeycomb or on a rock or lumber. It [the bee, presumably] dislikes lilac daphne and lily (wuyuanhua baihe惡芫花百合). This is what we use nowadays.
Li: Mifeng (“honeysharp”). Minor uses, especially larvae. (Very widely used today in Chinese medicine for soothing, tonic, antiseptic, adjuvant, and other reasons.)
(Honey is mildly antiseptic, and certainly soothing, but does not have the many virtues given to it by folk medicine—in the United States as in the old Near East and China.)
Bat. One mention, in a magical-type recipe, of an unidentified bat.
Avicenna: Milk cleansing and used on benign growths in eye; oil has quasi-magical uses that Avicenna denies categorically; brain for cataract.
Bedbug. Fasāfis. Mentioned in contents as being in lost food section.
Avicenna: Expel leeches from pharynx. Vapor for hysteria. Treats painful urination (powder in appropriate openings). Swallowed for inset bites. “Swallowing seven bed bugs with broad beans” treats quartan fever (108).
Bombyx mori. Silkworm. Dūd-i qirmiz. Mentioned in contents as being in lost food section.
Also called for, powdered, in a recipe with 2 variants.
Avicenna: Chrysalis exhilarant. Some say silk clothing is less apt to carry lice.
Li: several recipes using its binding and blood-stopping/absorbing qualities, either really or by what appears to be sympathetic magic.
Bos taurus, Bovidae. Ox/cow. Niu. Mentioned in HHYF Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed. Wild ox is also mentioned, and could be some other species. See also Butter, Milk.
Li: many pages on medicinal values of all parts and products, from penis and marrow to urine and the material in the umbilicus of a newborn calf. Far too much to summarize. Meat warm, nontoxic, sweet.
Butter (butter oil, i.e. ghee, being usually called for): the Chinese aversion to dairy products seems to have influenced the HHYF. One would expect more butter; it abounded in Near Eastern and Indian medicine. It is barely mentioned in the HHYF.
Avicenna: Hot and moist. Discharges pus, dissolves, relatxes. Fumes drying and constricting. For swellings and wounds including in mouth. For cold dry coughs, “especially when given with almonds and sugar” (170; I can second that recommendation). Treats yellow bile, etc. Laxative, even purgative (evidently in huge amounts).
Lev and Amar: Soothing on skin etc.; strengthens penile erection (with milk).
Li: Niu you (or you, oil, of other milk-giving animals). Several references from older literature, back to Tao Hongjing, summarized. Various soothing and moistening functions; detoxifying.
Callorhinus ursinus, Phocidae. Seal genitalia. imported. HeiZeMeiYang.
Li: Wennashou. Male genitalia for sexual health.
(Useless, of course, but the reasoning was that the male seal can service a vast harem. This is clearly a Chinese intrusion into the HHYF; the Chinese belief in sympathetic magic, the penis of an animal noted for its ability to service many females being a tonic for humans in that regard, was not present in the Near East.)
Camelus sp., Camelidae. Brain used in one magical recipe.
Madanapala: Ustra. Meat sweet and light; for eyes, dyspnoea, piles.
Dash: Similar.
The recipes presumably refer to dromedaries, but the Chinese would have known primarily Bactrian camels, which were then common in both wild and domestic forms. (A few dromedaries were used in the Silk Road trade from fairly early times, but did not thrive in the cold winters. They later came to dominate, perhaps evolving to deal with local conditions; I have seen a camel caravan on a bitterly cold mountain pass well above timberline in the Hindu Kush. See Harris 2010:81.) Wild Bactrian camels survive in Northwest China and Mongolia, but fewer than 1000 are left. They are somewhat different genetically from domestic ones (Walker 2009).
Li: Tuo. Sweet, warm, nontoxic. Various minor uses. Dromedary known but only by one report. All medicinal references evidently to Bactrian camel.
Canis lupus, Canidae. Wolf. Dhi’b. Lang. Used in HHYF magical recipes and some others; would have no effect. Does not seem to be a traditional Near Eastern drug. “Old wolf” is mentioned in the Index.
Canis sp., jackal, zi’b, mentioned in probably magical recipe context.
Li: Invigorates the Five Viscera and otherwise strengthens. Good-tasting; formerly much eaten. Several magical uses, some of which are too much for the long-suffering Li, who doubts or frankly contradicts claims.
Canis lupus familiaris, dog. Kelb. Gou. mentioned as medicinal food.
Naturally absent from the Middle Eastern sources, the dog being unclean and avoided in the Near Eastern religions. Similarly, like most animal products other than dairy, it is absent from the Hindu and Buddhist sources.
Avicenna: Kalb. Rabid dog’s blood used for its own bite (compare the English “hair of the dog that bit you”).
Li: Many pages on various dog products. Every part has its own medical use. Dog meat is salty, sour, warm and nontoxic. Yellow dog meat usually preferred to black (the opposite of modern preference; Guinness named itself “black dog” in Chinese to sell its product).
Cantharides. Mentioned in contents as being in lost food section.
Avicenna: usual uses.
Capra spp. Capridae. Goat. Mention of tame and wild goats as food, probably with medicinal value. Horn used.
Li: Does not domesticate between domestic goat (C. hircus) and sheep. Meat is bitter, sweet, very hot and nontoxic. Countless medical uses and prescriptions. Blood detoxifies several chemical and heavy-metal poisons, with the interest side effect that it thus ruins attempts at manipulating one’s lifespan and health by Chinese “alchemy.” One should immediately drink about a pint. Milk is also ecommended for many purposes, from spider bite to aptha. Other body parts from horns to uvula all have their uses. The wool, for instance, treats twisted tendons: stew with vinegar, then wrap around the limb.
Castor fiber, beaver, Castoridae.
Avicenna: castoreum, “the testes of a water animal” (208), diluting; “more potent than all substances that are hot and dry” (ibid). Relieves gas. Absorbent. Warming. Used on ulcers and swellings. Helps with headache. Vapor inhaled for inflammation of lung, etc. Several other minor uses.
Levey: Jundubādastur, castoreum. Nasal; head enlargement, swelling; clyster for urine; insantiy; electuary.
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Important remedy. Al-Samarqandī thinks it needs opium to balance it. Today a resolvent, antispasmodic, stimulant, antihysteric.
Lev and Amar: castoreum, qast.ūriyūn, for eyes, brain, fever, palpitation, sexual weakness; aphrodisiac. For nose, head, insanity, bites and stings, etc.—the usuals.
Cervus nippon Temminck, Cervidae. Possibly other deer spp. implied.
Li: Lu. Horns for a large range of conditions, including nutrient tonic and male sexual health.
(As with seals, the heroic abilities of the adult male Cervus are recognized here.)
Chamaeleon. Ḥirbā’. One dubious mention in list of foods in Index. Identification and species uncertain.
Avicenna: blood used to prevent hair in eye; eggs poisonous.
Columba spp. (focally C. livia, domestic pigeon, a descendent of the wild Rock Pigeon). Columbidae. Pigeons. Ḥamāma. Mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Li: Ge. Salty, plain, nontoxic. Detoxifying. Blood, feces also used. Li transmits some fascinating folklore: “Zhang Jiuling thought the pigeon could carry letters, os it is called Feinu (…flying servant)…. All birds mate in such a way that the male is on top of the female. But for pigeons, the female is on top of the male. This shows that the pigeon is a very risqué fowl” (p. 3791). Interesting to note that carrier pigeons were barely known and not normally used. The “risqué” (a delightful translation for yin “lewd, debauched” behavior is pure travellers’ tale; pigeons mate normally, as anyone can observe in any park on any spring day. Obviously birdwatching was not a major pastime of doctors.
Coral (?Corallium japonicum Kish.)
Dioscorides: Some kind of coral for diarrhea, spleen, coooling, cleansing, hemorrhage.
Avicenna: Bussad. Cold and dry. Constricts. Drying; stops profuse bleeding (presumably powdered and put on the wound) and otherwise externally used for purposes of this sort. Stops coughing up blood; expectorant (presumably taken, powdered). Black coral is tonic for heart, especially when burnt and washed.
Lev and Amar: Eyes, teeth, breath. For wounds, bleeding, spleen, urinary tract, deafness, etc. Strengthens heart. Maimonides used it for this and considered it cooling and drying. Many modern uses, mostly related to the above.
Madanapala: Pravāla. For nourishment, complexion, strength, semen.
Dash: Cold, laxative, cures poison and eye disorders.
Li: Shanhu. Minor functions include eyesight improvement.
Crane. Mentioned in contents as being in lost food section.
Li: a wide range of cranes, each with its name and uses.
Crocodile. Crocodylus spp. Tamsaḥ, timsaḥ (Arabic). One dubious mention in list of foods in Index.
Avicenna: Excrement for eyes and to strengthen sexual desire (!). Its fat is used to relieve its bite (presumably because when it bit a person and was then killed, its fat was there at hand). Avicenna has a very long, detailed, interesting discussion of fish in general, discussing several kinds including the crocodile.
Cygnus spp., Anatidae. Swan. Hu (mute swan, Cygnus cygnus; wild swans are “golden-necked wildgeese” in Chinese). Unidentified species mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Li: Sweet, plain, nontoxic. Fat used on sores.
Cynips gallae-tinctoriae Oliv. (on Quercus infectoria Oliv.), Cynipidae.
Li: Wushizi, galls. As noted above under Quercus, a number of uses of galls turn on their high gallotannic content.
Cypraea moneta? Cypraeidae
A rather indeterminate reference to cowrie or perhaps simply snail shells.
Madanapala, Dash: A number of shell drugs for all manner of reasons.
Earthworm (Allobophora, Lumbricus or similar spp.)
Avicenna: Lumbricus and/or relatives, dūd, kharāṭīn. Cooling but drying. Used for various magical and quasi-magicl uses.
Li: various minor medical, magical and alchemical uses. Long section.
Elephas sp. Ivory
Equus asinus. Equidae. Donkey. Minor products mentioned.
Avicenna: ḥimār. Ashes of flesh and liver for ruptures caused by cold, also tuberculous lymph swellings. Tetany treated with broth (external). Roasted liver for epilepsy. Burnt hoof similarlly used. Urine for kindney pain. Wild ass (a different sp., E. hemionus) for bladder stones.
Lev and Amar: ḥimār. Milk meat etc. strengthening. Modern uses include dung and urine, as in China.
Li: Lü. Mule is luo. Minor uses of minor products. Meat sweet, cool, nontoxic. Several medical uses for various parts, including penis (nourishes sexual energy, of course). Meat of mule pungent, bitter, warm, slightly toxic. Gives names of some hybrids, including hybrids of donkey or horse with cattle! Again, observation was not a strong suit of some writers.
Equus caballus. Equidae. Horse. Ma. Mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Avicenna: Rennet from horse for treating chronic diarrhea, intestinal ulcers, intestines.
Li: Pungent, bitter, cool and toxic to very toxic, though some disagree with this. White stallion best. Many uses, and more uses for parts of horse. Mare’s milk wine (i.e. kumys) mentioned. The keratin spot on the “knee” (foot joint) of the horse was considered a “night eye” allowing the horse to see at night; it was used for hiccups and toothaches and other purposes. Teeth, skullbone, hide, tail hair, etc. all used. The soil from the hoofprits of an eastbound horse, which, according to the normally more reasonable Tao Hongjing, was used to detect whether a wife is having an affair, and, according to the Huainanzi, to prepare a method for keeping a person lying down and unable to get up.
The old belief that horse liver is deadly poisonous is mentioned, but a more recent prescription indicates this belief may have faded. (I believe the old story was based on fact; liver accumulates toxins, and horses can eat some plants poisonous to humans. It is interesting, however, that even the skeptical and realistic Li relates such a bizarre farrago of absurd folklore. For no other entry in the entire Bencao Gangmu is the ratio of folklore to serious medicine so high. Clearly there is something special about the horse.)
Erinaceus sp. Hedgehog. Mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Eriocheir sinensis. Chinese mitten crab. Mentioned in the Index.
Avicenna: minor uses for unidentified crabs.
Felis catus L., Felidae. Cat. Kit.t.a (female).
One mention in magical-type context.
Li: Mao. Many uses. Meet sweet, sour, warm and nontoxic. As with other domestic animals, a vast range of uses for each part of body, many magical.
Fly. Mentioned in contents as being in lost food section.
Francolinus sp. Phasianidae. Francolin. Durrāj.
One mention as a food, in the Index.
Frog. Unidentified; food.
Avicenna: Ash for bleeding organs; boiled down for leprosy, mothwash, etc. Oral intake of blood causes swellings. Very minor item.
Li: Hamo (rice frog, Rana limnocharis), xigou (unidentified frog), some others. Meat of rice frog pungent, cold, toxic (some say nontoxic). Removes pathogenic factors. Magical uses.
Gallus gallus/domesticus Brisson, Phasianidae.
The universal panacea, chicken soup, was not missed by the medieval Near East, and it was already “Jewish penicillin.” The Jewish doctor Ya’qūb ibn Ishāq wrote around 1202: “if the strength is weak…there is nothing more appropriate for that than the right amount of chicken broth” (Pormann and Savage-Smith 2007:49). The Genizah physicians also knew and loved it (Lev and Amar 2008:142).
Dioscorides: eggs (species uncertain) for soothing and various related reasons; wounds, sunburn swellings. Obviously topical.
Avicenna: Chicken is dajāj; Persian murgh wa khurūs. Inevitable uses of chicken soup, including meat of yong hen to strengthen intellect. Various eggs of various spp. used, but Gallus best. Yolk hot, white cold. Both moist. Constipating, especially fried yolk. Adhesive. White of egg for sunburn, etc. Yolk, cooked, w honey, for spots on skin. Eggs in general for ulcers, swellings, inflammations, etc. Stop bleeding from membranes. Whites used in eye for inflammation; yolk with saffron and rose oil, or with barley flour, for throbbing eye. Large number of internal and external uses, largely of a soothing nature, e.g. for displaced uterus. “All eggs are highly aphrodisiac, particularly the eggs of sparrows” (119; the extreme sexual energy of sparrows was a watchword in Europe too).
Lev and Amar: Topical uses continued from Dioscorides. Nutrition. Sexual strengthener (eggs).
Madanapala: Kukkuta. Nourishing. Hot. Good for eyesight and semen.
Dash: Wild, for general nutrition. Domestic heavier for digestion.
Sun: (Very extensive entries on different colors, sexes, and growth stages—too much to quote or even summarize. The nutritional and tonic value stands out.)
Li: Ji. Many pages cover all sorts, colors, conditions, and parts (even to the membrane of the gizzzrd), all with different medical indications. Black roosters are famous tonic foods, and especially the black-boned chickens so common in northern Southeast Asia and southwest China.
Some birds described as “chickens” are not that; “wild chicken” or “mountain chicken” can mean “pheasant.” A “black chicken” mentioned on p. 77 of Juan 12 is a small songbird, not a chicken; it is described as being smaller than the “painted eyebrow bird”(huamei), a common thrush-sized songbird.
(The nutritious value of chickens, and especially their easy digestibility and high iron content in the dark meat, has made them perhaps the most important of Chinese medicinal foods over the millennia. They are usually warming, especially the dark meat. Roosters are now often held to be toxic—not poisonous of themselves, but bringing out poisons in the eater—and are thus avoided by cancer patients and others.
Chicken soup has survived biomedical tests; it really is the best medicinal food for clearing the nose, providing easily digestible protein, etc.)
Gecko. Sāmm ābras. Several recipes in HHYF use wazaghah, sösmar or oirdhawn, identified as gecko or lizard.
Avicenna: lizards, including probably geckos, minor uses.
Li: several species of lizards, including some geckos, for all sorts of uses, often magical.
Homo sapiens. Human dung, etc., in the more magical recipes.
Avicenna: semen for skin conditions including skin fungus. Iurine for fever including deep-red inflammation in skin or mucous membranes. Ashes of hair for pimples. Semen and human milk with opium, wax and olive oil for gout. Urmne with honey in a copper vessel for conreal opacity. Hair with lead oxide for scabies. Hman milk for TB and for the bite of a sea rabbit (what this meant to Avicenna, living hundreds of miles from the sea, can only be conjectured). Milk diuretic and may be good for stomach. Menstrual blood used for uterus and to prevent contraception, but Avicenna is very skeptical of this. Various other uses, including human excrement on human bites—a use found in the HHYF (juan 34, p. 83). Avicenna is aware that human bites are notably prone to infection.
Li: Similar dreckmedezin is found abundantly in Li. Humans may be second only to horses in the ratio of folk magic to Chinese medical tradition in Li’s book.
Laccifer lacca Kerr. Purple keng. Imported
Lev and Amar: Weight loss, liver, etc. Opens obstructions and fortifies organs. Cough, asthma, swellings, etc. Helps lose weight.
Lapwing. Charadriidae. Species uncertain. Mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Li: many shorebirds described.
Leech. Mentioned in contents as being in lost food section.
Avicenna: usual use for bleeding.
Leptoptila sp. Ciconiidae. Adjutant stork rather improbably mentioned in the food section of the index. Possible magical use. Neither Middle Eastern, nor Indian, nor Chinese medicine normally use this huge uncommon bird.
Lepus sp. Leporidae. Hare. Ārnab barri (steppe hare).
Mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Avicenna: Lepus trerrisi, brain for nervous complaints (sympathetic magic) and other rather magical uses. Rabbit also used.
Li: Not distinguished from rabbit.
Lizard. Several terms mentioned in Index. Not really identifiable and not discussed in surviving text. Avicenna has notes on some lizards, including monitor, waral (Varanus sp.) Some minor, slightly magical uses.
Milk, yogurt, cheese: Extremely important in Near Eastern medicine, these are little mentioned in the HHYF—in fact yogurt is not certainly mentioned at all, and cheese barely. Milk including human milk does turn up. Greek, gala (milk).
Avicenna: Milk, shīr, consists of water, cheese (i.e. protein solids), and fat. Camel’s milk is thinner than cow’s (an interesting observation; not true today, but cows have been bred for more watery milk). Ass’ milk is dilute, goat’s milk moderate, sheep milk thick and rich, cow een better. Horse milk very dilute (not true). “Human milk is best, especially when it is fresh and sucked direfctly form the breast” (p. 728). Whey is hot but yogurt is cold and dry. Very long account of milk as food. Medically, its relaxes bowels but the protein fraction is constipating. Colostrum is thick and requires honey to make it good for humans. External uses on swellings, boils, fever-caused inflammations, skin diseases, scabies, ulcers, etc. Many soothing uses of skin and head and in eyes, often combined with actually medicinal items. Soothing salve of ilk, egg white and rose oil for bruises and the like. Various species’ milk recommended for every imaginable internal use. Used to treat poisoning of all sorts. In general, the soothing and nourishing value of milk, and its oil content that makes it good for skin and membranes, made it useful for virtually every purpose in medieval Islamic medicine.
Cheese is moist, but the cured salty cheese is hot and dry. Cleansing. Fresh cheeses nutritious, fattening. Eaen with honey. Stle cheese causes yellow bile; hot, purifying. Buttermilk is dissolvent. Cheeses used in poultices for all sorts of external conditions. Cheese is poor for the stomach. The whey expels yellow bile, however. Alkalinity noted, interestingly. Enema for diarrhea.
Levey: Leprosy, spleen, etc. Ass milk for collyrium for ophthalmia, scury, fistulas, etc. Good for eyes and teeth (Ibn Sīnā—right again).
Lev and Amar: Food values recognized. Poultices and similar uses of dairy products.
Li: Several minor uses for cream (tihu). Pain, apoplexy, fever, runny nose, etc. Yogurt (rufu) moistening, lubricant, benefits channels and stirs up qi, etc. Making of congealed yogurt, yogurt cooked down into a solid, etc. mentioned; the solid is cut up and mixed with flour for dysentery.
(The Yinshan Zhengyao also fails to say much about dairy products. Evidently, in spite of the Mongol dependence on these foods, they were not salient enough in the Yuan Chinese world to rate much attention.)
Moschus moschiferus L., Cervidae. Musk. native. NaErMoShiQi
Avicenna: Hot and dry. Tenuous, tonic. Sniffed for headaches. Strengthens eye and heart. Exhilarant. Used for palpitations and restlessness.
Lev: Medieval Near East: musk purgative, and for eyes, headaches, potency, cold ailments generally (Lev 2002).
Levey and Al-Khaledy: Widely used for many purposes in Al-Samarqandī and other texts of the age.
Lev and Amar: misk. Headaches, brain disease, paresis, weakness of sex, aphrodisiac. Against flatulence, warts, dysuria, dysmenorrhea, sweelings, etc. Aborts dead fetus. For aphasia, muscle spasms, tension, shaking, palsy. Headache, eyes, limbs, etc. Hot, dry, stimulant.
Li: She. Musk, shexiang, used. Pungent, warm and nontoxic. Bitter. Good for sores, bites, worms, etc., and various psychological diseases including fright and convulsions.
Oryctolagus cuniculus. Leporidae. Tu. Rabbit brain is used in a couple of recipes.
Li: Similar species, various, native to China. Applied to frostbite; for childbirth (magical uses; presumably because rabbits breed so successfully); applied on chapped skin and sores. Other parts of the rabbit are also used.
Ostrea incl. local O. rivularis, Ostraeidae.
Avicenna: uses for shells.
Li: This and other spp. muli. Shell powdered and used for a variety of conditions, including some psychological ones. (Did calcium deficiency cause nervous affections?)
Ovis aries, Capridae. Sheep. Mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed. Tail fat used.
Avicenna: gall bladder used.
Li: See under Goat. The fat-tailed sheep was recognized by Li but had no special medical values. Some mythical creatures, one deriving from the “vegetable lamb” myth of Europe (which in turn was a garbled and highly colored account of cotton), are noted. One evolves from a 1,000-year-old tree.
Pavo spp. Pavidae. Peacock. Mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Li: Meat salty, cool, slightly toxic or perhaps nontoxic. Detoxifying agent.
Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis (Blumenbach) native
Li: Luci. Meat sour, salty, cool, slightly toxic. For distended abdomen and similar conditions. Quotes (with a straight face) a source that says one can dislodge a fishbone from the throat by repeating this bird’s name over and over. (Cormorants disgorge fish for their young, and in China for fishermen too.) Li has some other good stories about birds in this chapter.
Phalacrocorax spp., Phalacrocoracidae. Cormorant gall bladder.
Physeter catodon, Physeteridae. Ambergris. AnBoErXiang, LaDan. Morocco, Anbarhorr. Long-yang. Hu 1228.
Avicenna: Hot and dry. Useful for elderly for mild warming. Scent cheeering. Musk used in womb fo displaced uterus, swelling, menstruation, and general health.
Medieval Near East: Sore throat, heart diseases, paralysis (Lev 2002). Heating (Nasrallah 2007:644).
Lev and Amar: ‘anbar. Aphasia, muscle spasms, tension, trembling, paralysis, brain, obstruction, wind, dirrhea, pleurisy, etc. Heart, joints, etc. Significantly, noted for hemi-paralysis of face, that condition so amply treated in what is left of the HHYF.
(Ambergris is a product of the intestines of the sperm whale. It is found washed up on beaches.)
Pteria margaritifera and pearls in general.
Lev and Amar: lu’lu’. Treat gums, tonsils, teeth, uvula, throat, eyes, liver, depression. Presumably powdered. Powder specifically for depression, palpitations, hot temperament, stomach, liver.
Li: Pearls, zhenzhu, from this and other bivalves. Salty, sweet, cold, nontoxic. In eye for cloudiness; on face to moisten and brighten the skin; helps with skin in general; etc. Pacifies mind and soul. Some other minor uses.
Quail. Sumāna, focally Coturnix coturnix. Unidentified species mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Li: several species.
Rattus spp., Muridae. Rat. Shu.
Meat and excrement used.
Li: Mouse and rat not distinguished. Many varieties described, most of them mythical; one has asbestos fur. Meat of real mice/rats is sweet, slightly warm, nontoxic. Only males used medicinallyi. Various poultice uses, also for convulsions, epilepsy, etc. Sympathetic magic in an ascription that since it is good at digging holes its meat is good for sores and fistulas. “This is based on the understanding that something having a certain function will work in the same way when it is used as medicine” (p. 44106-4107, citing Liu Wansu; as neat a definition of sympathetic magic as exists in the literature). Many other uses.
Scorpion. Mentioned in contents as being in lost food section.
Avicenna: Burnt for dissolving hard masses in urinary tract, also kidney stones.
Sepia esculenta
Medieval Near East: cuttlebone used for skin, tooth, urinary tract (Lev 2002).
Levey: Zubd al-baḥr. Salve for skin spots, and for teeth and gums.
Lev and Amar: dental uses. Skin diseases, gums, teeth. Hot and dry.
Li: Wuzeiyu. Flesh minor uses; cuttlebone very useful for huge range of conditions, prepared in various ways.
(It is basically a concentrated source of available calcium.)
Shellfish. Unidentified “shellfish,” as well as oyster (species uncertain), mentioned.
Avicenna: shells for various reasons.
Snake. Unidentified snakes mentioned for medicinal or magical uses.
Avicenna: Again, various spp. for various minor and mostly magical uses.
Li: many species. Of course snakes are common medicinally in China for warming, poisonous ones being most effective.
Sparrow. Unidentified species mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Li: the common Asian sparrow Passer montanus, Que, has many uses. Meat sweet, hot, nontoxic. Warming; sexually stimulating. Various prescriptions, and many parts and products used.
Spider. Mentioned in contents as being in lost food section.
Struthio camelus, Struthidae. Ostrich. Mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Swallow. Unidentified species mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Syrrhaptes paradoxus, Pteroclidae. Pallas’ sandgrouse. Mentioned in one HHYF recipe.
Li: Tujueque. Sweet, hot, nontoxic. Invigorates and warms.
Trimeresurus sp., Crotalidae. Viper.
Not in our sources. (Common today at least as a warming food in winter.)
Turtle. Unidentified species mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Avicenna: Testudo elegans, Arabic sulḥafāt, two or three uses reported with obvious skepticism; magical.
Li: Many medicinal uses of many species of turtles.
Vulpes spp., Canidae. Fox. Unidentified species mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Li: Red fox, V. vulpes, Hu. Sweet, warm, nontoxic. Many uses for various parts. The countless folklorice beliefs about foxes are summarized ably. Most of the recipes have a magical tinge, in line with the demonic and shapeshifting nature of foxes in East Asian lore.
Vulture. Karkas. Unidentified species mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Avicenna: Rakhmah, Pseudogyps spp. Gall in ear, collyrium, etc.; basically magical uses.
Weasel. Unidentified species mentioned in Index in the section on food; presumably its value as a medicinal food was discussed.
Li: Siberian weasel, Mustela sibirica, youshu, sweet, warm, slightly toxic, a few trivial uses.
Note: Al-Bīrūnī covers many animals.
A 14th-century zoologist, al-Damiri, described hundreds of animals, many medicinal (Lev 2002).
Minerals
Agate
Lev and Amar: ‘aqīq. Dispels fear, stops bleeding—mainly of women. For teeth, gums.
Alkaline (what?) BiKa
Possibly borax, bauraq.
Avicenna: Hot and dry. Cleansing. Disintegrates thick humors. For hair, complexion, skin (itchy eruptions), dog bites, beetle bites, dandruff, ears. Expels worms but is bad for stomach.
Levey: Dental medicine, swellings, itch, baldness. Lev and Amar give many uses.
Alum
Dioscorides: V-123, stypteria. Warming, binding, purging. All the expected external uses as styptic (after all, it is the source of the English word). Among other things, strengthens “wagging teeth” (Gunther 1934:643). Also kills nits and lice. Deodorant. Alum from Melos was used as a contraceptive or abortifacient; applied to uterus before intercourse.
Avicenna: Constricting. Hot and dry. External, for ulcers, lice, body odor. Rubbed on teeth, including toothache. Styptic.
Levey: shabb. Tooth care.
Al-Bīrūnī: astringent. Hot. Clears eye, cures pustules on breasts etc. With honey to strengthen loose teeth and cure pustules of mouth. Also for ears. With grape leaves or honey on mange, wounds, itch, whitlow, nails, chapping of skin. With oak galls and vinegar lees for corrosion of flesh. Granulates chronic wounds with salt and water. With asphalt water (liquid asphalt?) for pustules. With water to kill lice and ticks. Antiphlogistic if applied externally. Uterine pessary to stop menstruation etc., and can be abortifacient. Cures body odor, gum swelling, inflammation of throat, mouth, cheeks; helps with pain in ears, uterus, testicles. Note close similarity to Dioscorides. Galen also cited. Rāzī adds that it clarifies impure water etc.
Lev and Amar: Minor uses including teeth. Mimonides notes it for stimulating sexual desire in men. Modern uses for eyes, gums and teeth, wounds and bleeding, lice, etc. (as in many areas).
Lebling and Pepperdine: Stops bleeding. Shrinks tissues after childbirth.
Li: Fanshi. Sour and nontoxic; various forms have different values. Huge range of uses.
Amber
Li: Hupo. Sweet, plain and nontoxic. Correct origin known. Various uses.
Aluminum oxide Probably an error; has no medical activity or reputation
Armenian bole (“Armenian mud”)
Avicenna: “Armenian stone” purgative of black bile, but unsuitable for stomach. Notable for melancholic diseases; replaced black hellebore in Avicenna’s medicine. Armenian bole, cold and dry, constricting; minor uses; “wonderful healing effects on wounds” (921). Good for respiratory tract incluidng coughing up blood. Internally for intestinal ulcers, diarrhea, uterine bleeding. Good for fevers; live-saving.
Lev and Amar: Many kinds of clay are mentioned in the Genizah documents. This one, identified as oxidized iron in lime chalk, was used externally for skin diseases, burns, and pain; also eyes, breast swellings. Chalk itself is useful as soothing agent for eyes and swellings, usually with more active items.
(It would have a soothing action and might clear up some minor skin diseases.)
Coal
Li: Shitan. Fuel; few medical uses.
Copper & copper powder
Dioscorides: V-87, khalkos kekymenos, burnt copper. Brass (not copper) burnt till it can be powdered. Binding, drying, repressing, cleansing. Antibiotic for sores, “proud flesh,” eye problems, etc. Causes vomiting.
V-88, khalkou anthos, flower of copper. Scum on molten brass being refined. Similar uses; “mightily biting” (Gunther 1934:628).
V-89, lepis, scales of copper. Brass flakes. Corroded in water. Similar uses, especially for eyes.
V-90, lepis stomomatos, smithy scales. Similar.
V-91, ios xystos, verdigris. Preparation explained in detail, but little medical use indicated; evidently as the previous.
V-92, ios skolex, corroded brass. Again various preparations explained. Binding, warming, wearing off or removing; for eyes, inflammations, ulcers, etc. Purgative.
V-114, khalkanthon, copperas-water. Binds, warms, kills tapeworms, causes vomiting and thus good for mushroom poisoning, etc.
V-115, khalkitis, copper ore. Various external uses.
V-117, misy, copperas. Minor external use.
Levey: Burnt copper in collyrium for eyes. Also for itch.
Avicenna: nuḥās. Hot and dry. Copper oxide is more diluting than the metal. Constricting. Used to blacken hair, for malignant and creeping ulcers, for wounds, eyes, etc. With honey to massage hard and burning ulcers. With honey wine, taken to purge. Avicenna warns that one should not keep meat, oil, or salty, bitter, sour, sweet, or fatty items in copper containers, no rhould one drink from copper utensils. Red copper oxide, zahrah al-nuḥās, constricting; dries up ulcers. Evacuates thick humors, etc. Dries up piles. Verdigris, zanjār, copper acetate, hot and dry (very), cleansing, piungent, corrosive. External uses to clean out ulcers and skin disesaes, including ascabies. Cleanses eyes; in colliyrium. For piles. No internal uses. Vitriols: various uses for the several forms.
Lev and Amar: Copper: nukhās, etc. Eyes, skn. Tūbāl (they translate “scoria” but explain it is a copper product). Mouth and teeth, eyes. Cuprite, rāsakht, rāsukht, for unknown uses (only a few mentions in the Genizah documents).
Madanapala: Tāmra. Cold. Laxative, for anemia, skin, piles, edema, dyspnoea, cough.
Dash: As above. Apparently a cureall in Tibet.
Li: Tongkuangshi, ore; tongqing, verdigris. Minor, mostly topical uses.
(Most users recognize the danger of these highly toxic metallic chemicals.)
Dung
Sheep, goat, fox, wild ox, horse, donkey, pigeon, and other dungs are mentioned. Magical uses for these exist in Chinese medicine but this sort of dreckmedezin is not common in the Near East. However, burned dung of herbivores is suggested in one list of things that can go into a poultice, and this would be perfectly reasonable; the burning would sterilize them and the high-fibre ash would be a good absorbent.
Li mentions various dungs. Dungs of all common animals were used.
Ferric oxide
Dioscorides: V-93, ios siderou, iron rust. Binding. In water, contraceptive. In vinegar for many external uses. Hot iron, quenched in water or wine: liquid drunk for dysentery and other digestive problems.
V-94, skoria siderou, iron slag. Similar uses; less force.
Li: tie, iron; teixiu, tieyi, ferric oxide; many other iron preparations. Vast range of uses.
Ferric oxide mostly external use, on sores etc.
Glauber’s salt, residue of
Gold
Avicenna: For blood diseases, eyesight, heartburn, talking to oneself pathologically.
Lev and Amar: Dhahab. Treated with vinegar, produces a preparation used for bad breath. Gold in eyes for sight. Heart and other problems.
Madanapala: Suvarna. Astringent, bitter, sweet, cold. Aphrodisiac, for strength, rejuvenating, for dosas, posions, insanity, fever, phthisis.
Li: Jin. Pungent, balanced, toxic or nontoxic (one source says crude is toxic, refined nontoxic; in fact gold is as poisonous as any other heavy metal, but normally so chemically resistant to digestive fluids that eating it is perfectly safe, in spite of the frequent literary device of suicide by swallowing gold in Chinese fiction). Minor topical uses, including an unusual one of absorbing mercury spilled on a person, which would otherwise be deadly.
Iron ore
Dioscorides: V-144, aimatites lithos, hematite. Binding and warming. Takes off scars and problems of eyes. With woman’s milk, or as collyrium, for eye conditions. Drunk with wine as diuretic and against women’s fluxes, and with pomegranate juice for spitting blood.
V-145, schistos lithos, hematite; Spanish, less effective than above.
Levey: Hematite, shādhanah, in collyria, etc.
Lev and Amar: Eyes, preventing nosebleeds (doctrine of signatures—hematite being red). Maimonides held it cold and dry, and used it for hemorrhages, diarrhea, skin disease, swelling, wounds, worms, fractures.
Li: See above.
Jade
One astonishing HHYF recipe combines jade with gold, silver, mica, petroleum salt, aluminum oxide (?), lapis lazuli (two kinds?), ivory and a whole range of valuable herbal ingredients. Clearly some sort of magical effect involving all these extremely expensive items is intended.
Li: Yu. Superior drug. Many recipes, most alchemical or magical, plus a great deal of lore.
Lapis lazuli
Lev and Amar: lāzward, Eliminates warts, shapes lips, etc. Diuretic, cleansing. For kidneys, black bile, menstruation (stops excess), curls hair, treats leprosy and skin conditions, eyes, etc.; helps the mad and depressed. (Much, if not all, of this is purely magical.)
(Not used in Chinese medicine and almost unknown in China except as an ornamental stone.)
Lead oxide, lead peroxide
Dioscorides: V-95-98, molybdos (lead) in several preparations. Various mostly-external uses; cooling, binding.
V-103, psimythios, white lead, cerussite. Cooling, pore-closing, molifying, filling, lowers swellings, helps scars develop, etc.
Levey: Several modern uses, similar to above.
Avicenna: various names for various lead salts. In general, cold and moist. a“Red lead oxide is cold and dry” (p. 629). Black lead cold and moist. Zinc oxide cold and dry. Most of these salts stop bleeding, treat wounds and swellings, treat ulcers and tubercular lymph glands, etc. Red lead oxide on burns in ointment. Used in eyes. Used on bites and stings. Avicenna is aware that lead salts are poisonous and dangerous to use.
Lev and Amar: White lead for kohl (eye treatment), aphrodisiac, itch, children with umbilical hernia and incessant crying; various skin conditions, etc. Dressings to prevent orgasm. Stings, fleas, removes dead skin, etc. Red oxide of lead—minium—for abscesses, boils, lacerations.
Li: Qiandan. Pungent, slightly cold and nontoxic (!). Range of internal uses.
(This and other lead salts were amazingly common drugs in both the western world and old China, leading to many deaths. Some remained in use in modern biomedicine, for external purposes, within living memory.)
Limestone
Litharge (lead oxide)
Dioscorides: V-102, lithargyros. Binding, mollifying, fills hollowness, lowers swellings, helps with wounds and the like. Long and complex details on preparation.
Levey: Murtak, martak. External applications for scrofula, vitiligo alba, boils, abscesses, hemorrhoids, dirty wounds, eyes.
Avicenna: Murdāsanj. Dryish but fairly neutral. Constrictive and drying; cleansing. Diluting. Many external uses, especially on ulcers, wounds. Deadly poison, so not much used internally, but given to children for diarrhea and intestinal ulcers (this horribly dangerous usage persists in Mexico to this day, and poisoning from it occur in California’s Mexican-American communities occasionally). Avicenna notes similar preparations of silver and, improbably, gold.
Lev and Amar: martak. Sores and skin conditions including boils, abscesses, dirty wounds. Hemorrhoids. Eye diseases.
Li: Mituosengi. Like other lead salts, which it follows in the book, this was used for a range of purposes, including dysentery, hemorrhoids, other intestinal conditions.
Melanterite
Li: Lüfan. Sour, cool, nontoxic. For inflammations, stagnation, dispelling phlegm, etc. Several pages of preparations.
Mica MuBuXin
Naft (naphta or crude oil) Mentioned in Lev and Amar (p. 553) but not in their texts. Local use in Arabian medicine. No significant use in Chinese medicine.
Orpiment
Dioscorides: V-121, arsenikon. Binding. Strongly biting. Makes hair fall out.
Levey: Realgar, zarnīkh aḥmar, for ulcers; al-Kindī seems to confuse it with red lead.
Lev and Amar: Ulcers, teeth, gums, soap (presumably disinfectant), hair removal, poisoning lice and other vermin. The Arabic word is arsin (from the same Greek source as the English word, now used for the metal rather than this salt thereof). Modern uses include small does for most of the above purposes. Of course the poisonous effects of strong doses are and were known.
Madanapala: Haritāla (yellow arsenic). Hot. For poisoning (!), itch, skin, mouth, blood, hair, affliction by evil planets (!).
Dash: Pungent, astringent. For skin, mouith, ulcers, hair removal. Realgar adds repulsion of evil spirits.
Li: Cihuang. Pungent, balanced, toxic. Li cautiously recommends it largely for topical use, but does mention the internal uses for digestive conditions etc. Realgar, xionghuang, gets more uses and attention. Sources differ on its qualities, but agree it is toxic.
(These deadly drugs were much used in early medieval Chinese medicine, including immortality medicine; they caused brain poisoning and thus hallucinations, and then preserved the corpse, so the dying man seemed to see visions and the dead seemed not to have truly died. By Li’s time, such medicine was known to be pernicious.)
Salt
Dioscorides: V-126, ‘ales. Notes various types of sea and lake salt. Binding, cleansing, dissolving, repressing, etc. An even longer list than usual of external applications. Used in preparations with soothing ingredients for bites (including crocodile bites!), stings, boils, sores, etc.
Avicenna: milḥ. Persian namak. Hot and dry. Cleansing, dissolvling, constricting, drying; relieves gas. Burnt salt is more drying and dissolving. Anti-putrefaction. Used as rub for teeth and gums, in poultices of all sourts for various reasons, as corrosive for excssive flesh on wounds, on skin diseases, etrc. Rub with pulp of colocynth for head. Ingredient of various rubs for chest, etc. Helps elimination Many other uses, usually with other items.
Lev and Amar: In medications for most purposes, from eyes to bile. Dissolves phlegm, reduces weight, relieves poisons, treats diarrhea and hemorrhoids; topical uses on teeh, skin, stings, bites, etc.
Madanapala, Dash: several kinds of salt with various uses.
Li: Yan; shiyan (rock salt). Used in many preparations for varied reasons. .
Silver and silver residue
Avicenna: Silver, fiḍḍah. Cooling and drying. Minor external uses.
Lev and Amar: fiḍḍa. Ski, heart, hemorrhoids, breath; diuretic.
Madanapala: Rūpya. Cold, sweet, laxative, rejuvenating. For aging, etc.
Dash: Happiness, cures gray hair, complexion, etc. Cures poisoning and several ailments.
Li: Yin. Pungent, balanced, toxic. Flakes usually used. For psychological conditions (fright, convusions, willpower, depression, mania) as well as a range of physical ones.
Soil (including mud from an altar, soil from a crossroad, etc.)
Dioscorides V-170, ge. Cooling, stops pores. Various kinds; descriptions of many follow (171-181).
Avicenna: various minor uses.
Arabic sources, Li: Many kinds of dirt used in various, usually magical ways.
Sulphur
Dioscorides: V-124, theion. For coughs, asthma, spitting. External uses for infections and other conditions. Abortifacient. External use for jaundice (clearly sympathetic magic).
Avicenna: Kibrīt; Persian, gugard. Hot and dry (very; fourth degree). Diluting, cosmetic, effective for skin including scabies. External uses except vapor for colds.
Lev and Amar: kibrīt. Skin conditions, including bites and stings; paralysis, inflammation, leprosy (presumably on skin), even mental illness. Kills lice.
Madanapala: Gandhaka. Laxative; for skin, consumptioni, spleen.
Dash: Pungent, bitter, hot. Cures poisoning, itch, skin.
Li: Shiliuhuang. Sour, warm/hot, toxic. Many uses, mostly in formulations.
(Well-known skin medicine.)
Zinc oxide
Avicenna: sifīd āb; external uses for wounds, swellings.
Lev and Amar: tūtiyā. Eyes.
One recipe mentions what seem to be burnt vitriol, “red potash alum” (a mix powder?), and a totally mysterious andarūn (possibly for andarini, a form of salt) among things to put on blood vessel wounds (p. 32, juan 34).
Lev and Amar have many uses for vitriol and related compounds.
Obscure
See also Index list; only plants with transcriptions in Chinese are below.
Hong Jie Zi (red mustard) Hong XiPanDan
JieZi (mustard…?) XiPanDang. Egyp. Xardal
MiJian HuiHui MuMiNa
Qūqiya pill: one recipe early in Juan 12 mentions this; the dictionary gives “narwhal” which is more than improbable. Not identified.
XiYu Yunxiang (“Western coriander”) MaSiTaQi
The transcription of Arabic makes this appear to be just another name for mastic. That gum is sold in grains that vaguely resemble coriander fruits.
YuanJieZiGen (a mustard root) DaErShiShiAn
Zi Hua, “purple flower.” Frequent mentions, but there is no plant by this name in Chinese medicine. Probably the violet Viola yedoensis, Zihuadiding, q.v. above. Just possibly it might be purple seaweed (Zicai), or some other plant.
Some mixes
Cinnamon, Nardostachys, Allium, rue/fenugreek AyaLaZhiFaYiHaLa
Pill with Egyptian balsam HaBuLiBaLaShan (i.e., Kabuli balsam)
Some drugs strangely absent from what we have of the HHYF:
Camellia sinensis. Tea was a cureall for al-Bīrūnī (as for the good Dutch Doctor Bontekoe in the 17th century). Al-Bīrūnī knew that in China it was used to counteract alohol, help the stomach, purify the blood [i.e., help qi], etc. He even knew some of the Chinese folklore about the plant.
Li: Cha, ming. Bitter, sweet, cold, nontoxic. Cureall, but uses for diarrhea/dysentery, stimulant effect including clearing head, and hydration stand out.
Lawsonia inermis. Henna. This plant, so widely used in the Middle East especially for external uses of all kinds, is strangely absent from the HHYF.
Salvia spp. These plants, widespread as medicines in Europe and west Asia, never seem to have made it to east Asia as significant herbal remedies, though Li mentions S. miltiorrhiza, danshen, as a disperser of Cold, Heat, pathogenic factors, etc., and for many minor uses, including fright and evil. It tranquilizes the spirit, stabilizes the willpower, etc.
Sage spp. are used in the west for stomach, pain, throat, general nutrition and tonic. Antiseptic and antioxidant properties well documented and effective.
Operculum: Snail opercula were a major drug in the Near East and common in China too. They contain substances that are highly aromatic when used as incense. Various species were used.
Lev and Amar: az.fār t.īb. Used for skin, wounds, purgative, emetic, menstrual regulation, uterus, epilepsy, paralysis, etc.
Natron (Arabic bauraq, nat.rūn): widely used in the west; see Lev and Amar.
Appendices: Tables and Comparisons
Foods in Table of Contents; starred ones not mentioned in the main text that survives.
From Dr. Buell’s Translation.
Humans
Camel
*Horse
Domestic Ox
*Wild Ox
Domestic Donkey
*Wild Donkey
Sheep
Goat
Mountain Goat
Dog
Wolf
*Old Wolf [Unidentified]
*Fox
[Ar.] Zi’b [Jackal]
*[Pr.] Nakhjīr [? unidentified]
Rabbit
*[Ar.] Ārnab barri [Steppe Hare]
Rat
*Weasel
*Hedgehog
Male Chicken and Female Chicken
Duck
Pigeon
*Swallow
*[Ar.] Durrāj [Francolin]
*[Ar.] Rakham [kind of goose]
*[Ar.] Sumānā [Quail]
*Sparrow
*Sand Grouse
*[Ar.] Qi®®a Cat [female]
*Butterfly
Bat
Snake
*[Ar.] Uf’a al-Òayya Snake [Viper ?]
*[Ar.] tamsāŸ [Crocodile]
*[Ar.] Ḥirbā’ [Chameleon]
*[Ar.] Sāmm ābras [Gekko]
Fish
Turtle
*Eriocheir sinensis
[Pr.] Jandbādstar [beaver]
* [Ar.] Saqanqūr [scincus lizard]
*[Pr.] Sōsmār [lizard]
Frog
Oyster
Earthworm
*[Ar.] Òirdhawn [a lizard]
*Ma-tse [insect + hemp] 蚱 [Unidentified]
*Dung Beetle
*[Ar.] Dūd [Worm, maggot, etc]
*[Pr.] Dūd-e qirmiz [silk worm]
Cantharides
*House Fly
*Scorpion
*Spider
*Leech
*[Ar.] Fasāfis [Bedbug]
*Peacock
*Crane
*Swan
*Adjutant Stork [Leptoptilus javanicus]
*Xunhu [ to smoke + bird] 鹕 [Unidentified]
*[Ar.] Gha®ghā® [Lapwing, Hoplopterus spinosus]
*[Ar.] ÿalīm [Ostrich]
*[Ar.] Mūghāli, “shrew mouse”]
*[Ar.] Qa®āmī [sparrow hawk, kite, harrier, etc]
*[Pr.] Karkas [Vulture]
Division: Various Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables for Treating Illness
Category: Various Fruits
“Foreign 10,000-year Jujubes” [dates]
Sweet Grapes
Fig
Sweet Pomegranate
Sour Chinese Quince [Chaenomeles sinensis = C. speciosa]
Southern Pears
Mulberry
Sour Apple
Plum
[Pr.] Badam [Almonds]
Seedless White Dried Grapes
*Hazel Nuts
Nutmeg
Wild Indian Eggplant [Deadly Nightshade Fruits]
Pine Nuts
Hemp Seeds
Sesame
Opium Poppy Seeds
Category: Various Vegetables
Garlic chives
Coriander
[Ar.] Sadāb [Rue]
Basil [or mint]
*[Pr.] Mavīzak [Pedicularis ?resupinata]
[Ar.] Bādrūj [Melissa officinalis, mountain balm]
[Ar.] Tarkhūn [Tarragon]
Lettuce
Seashore Vitex
Radish
Carrot
[Ar.] Lāfah [garlic mustard?]
[Pr.] Chugundur [Sugar Beet]
Garlic
*Ampelopsis cantoniensis
Green Onions
*K’o-lan 可藍 [Unidentified]
Spinach
Eggplant
*Cimi 刺 [tree + without] [or mieh; unidentified]
*Lizijiao 李子膠 [Unidentified]
[Pr.] Chokrī [dock, Rumex acetosa]
*[Pr.] Zumārōg [a mushroom]
Category: Various Flowers
Violet
[Ar.] Shahsibargham [sweet basil]
*Chinese Sacred Lily
*White ma-lan 馬藺 Flower [Unidentified]
[[Pr.] Mūrd [Myrtle]
*[Pr.] Āzargōn [autumn peony ?]
Lotus
*Red lo-san 羅傘 Flower [Unidentified]
[Ar.] za’farān [saffron]
[Pr.] marzanjūsh [Marjoram]
Rose
Willow
Some remedies from Al-Kindī:
Contents of the nosh-dārū electuary, labeled as Indian by Al-Kindī, which is intended to make one happy and to make sadness disappear (Levey 1966:32-34):
Red rose, sweet rush, clove, mastic, nard, wild nard, cinnamon [presumably cassia], Ceylon cinnamon, yew, saffron, sebesten, large cardamom, ordinary cardamom, walnut.
Contents of the longest formula in the book, a “black remedy” (presumably a nonstandard or somewhat magical one) for insanity (Levey 1966:198-200):
Nard, mastic, wild ginger, leopard’s-bane, opium, euphorbium, henbane, white pepper, soapwort, black Indian salt, red Indian salt, mandrake root, rhubarb root, pyrethrum, myrrh, aloe, sesame oil, frankincense, sweet flag, sagapenum, gum ammoniac, long birthwort, round mustard, blue bdellium, chicory root, castoreum, colocynth root, yellow sulfur, seed of rocket, chaste-tree, mountain raisin, opopanax, wild harmel seed, fennel flower, galbanum, saffron.
Stomachic and treatment for sexual overindugence (Levey 1966:220):
Cardamom, clove, walnut, ginger, pepper, long pepper, saffron, Chinese cinnamon (presumably cassia), ‘ūdnī, sukk (these unidentified), ganga, rocket seed, carrot seed, secacul (a carrot-like root, not certainly identified), small desert lizard. (Note that most of these are indeed effective stimulants, carminatives, and stomach medicines.)
Maimonides on diet for the insane: oxtongue drink (borage?); counterindicated coriander seed, fruit, and purgatives.
Plant Families Represented in the HHYF
Numbers refer to separate taxa in the HHYF, not to species, since it is unclear how many species are included in the vaguer taxa. There are, for instance, clear references to several different species of rose, but only “Rosa” is scored here (as one taxon).
Acoraceae, 1
Agaricaceae, 1
Agavaceae, 1
Alliacea, 3
Altingiaceae, 1
Amaryllidaceae, 1
Apiceae, 27
Apocynaceae, 2
Araceae, 1
Araliaceae, 1
Arecaceae, 4
Aristolochiaceae, 2
Asparagaceae, 2
Asteraceae, 22
Avicenniaceae, 1
Berberidaceae, 1
Betulaceae, 1
Boraginaceae, 4
Brassicaceae, 7
Burseraceae, 5
Campanulaceae, 1
Cannabaceae, 1
Capparidaceae, 1
Caprifoliaceae, 2
Caryophyllaceae, 2
Chenopoodiaceae, 3
Cistaceae, 2
Clusiaceae, 1
Colchicaceae, 1
Combretaceae, 2
Convolvulaceae, 3
Cornaceae, 2
Crassulaceae, 1
Cucurbitaceae, 4
Cupressaceae, 1
Cyperaceae, 1
Dipterocarpaceae, 1
Dracaenaceae, 1
Ephedraceae, 1
Euphorbiaceae, 5
Fabaceae, 18
Fagaceae, 1
Gentianaceae, 1
Hypericaceae, 1
Iridaceae, 2
Juglandaceae, 1
Lamiaceae, 19
Lauraceae, 5
Linaceae, 1
Loganiaceae, 1
Loranthaceae, 1
Malvaceae, 4
Melanthiaceae, 1
Menispaermaceae, 1
Menyantheaceae, 1
Moraceae, 2
Moringaceae, 1
Myristicaceae, 1
Myrtaceae, 2
Oleaceae, 3
Onagraceae, 2
Orchidaceae, 1
Orobanchaceae, 1
Paeoniaceae, 1
Papaveraceae, 3
Parmeleaceae, 1
Pedaliaceae, 2
Pinaceae, 3
Piperaceae, 3
Plantaginaceae, 1
Poaceae, 8
Polypodiaceae, 3
Polyporacese, 2
Poygonaceae, 3
Primulaceae, 1
Primulaceae, 1
Punicaceae, 1
Ranunculaceae, 6
Rhamnaceae, 3
Rosaceae, 11
Rubiaceae, 1
Rutaceae, 6
Salicaceae, 2
Santalaceae, 1
Solanaceae, 5
Styracaceae, 1
Taxaceae, 1
Thymeleaceae, 2
Usneaceae, 1
Verbenaceae, 1
Violaceae, 1
Vitaceae, 2
Zingiberaceae, 8
Zygophyllaceae, 2
Lichen, 1
Moss, 1
It may be useful to compare this with total numbers of species in the major families in Central Asia. A. R. Mukhamejanov (2000:275-276) provides the following numbers:
Asteraceae, 1351 spp. in the Central Asian region
Fabaceae, 927
Lamiaceae, 455
Apiaceae, 419
Poaceae, 415
Liliaceae, 396
Brassicaceae, 390
Caryophyllaceae, 286
Rosaceae, 264
Chenopodiaceae, 242
Boraginaceae, 230
Polygonaceae, 157
This includes over 70% of the total species for the region. Endemicity is high, 65-70%.
Of course this is only somewhat similar to the basically Mediterranean flora of the HHYF.
Mukhamejanov notes the existence of montane forests that are largely walnut, almond, apricot, pistachio, etc., with no pines, larches, oaks or similar large trees. Such forests are surely the result of human selective cutting (personal research, Afghanistan, ENA; cf Harlan 1992). Timber is cut, fruit trees preserved.
Places of Origin of Major Medicinal Items
This involves some arbitrary scoring. In the first place, many of the HHYF taxa, such as rose, poplar, rhubarb, dock, and willow, include several species, distributed all over Eurasia, with local species being medicinally used in China and western Eurasia. These have been coded as “All” below. Secondly, some individual species, such as apricot, sweetflag, and hemp, occurred throughout the Eurasian heartlands from very early times, and were used medicinally throughout their ranges. Third, some species, such as citron, barely reach China and were probably not known medicinally there, and seem to be treated as “western” plants in the HHYF. It is important to note that in all these cases the names given are Near Eastern ones, and the indicated uses tend to follow the Dioscorides-Galen traditions. We are thus dealing with western uses of the plants, however Chinese or universal the plants may be. Honey presents a special problem, since the domesticated bee Apis mellifera was an introduction from the west, but the exceedingly similar east Asian A. cerana was always known and used. Honey is regarded here as in the “widespread” category
On the other hand, the HHYF does separate some groups, e.g. Artemisia and mints, into roughly species-level categories, and different species were used in east and west, so these can be scored more precisely.
In the second place, many medicinals were widespread in India, the Near East, and Europe long before the time of the HHYF. These have all been coded as “Western,” since this is a book of Near Eastern medicine. However, some are known to have come from India originally (most, however, were genuinely widespread). “India” thus becomes something of a residual category, for plants that clearly came from India and were not known, or at least not much used, in the western world much before the HHYF’s time. Even this presents maddening conundrums, like sugar, which we code as “India” though it was, in the 14th century, rather recently popularized in the west and China.
Similarly, some medicinals made it to China slightly before the HHYF’s time, but they have all been scored as “Western” here, because they were recent arrivals as of the 14th century and had not been well assimilated into Chinese culture. This, also, is obviously maddeningly ambiguous. We have scored grape as “Western,” for instance, though it was known in China since the 2nd century B.C.; it remained as of the 14th century an overwhelmingly western crop, though widely grown in western China (often or usually by Hui peoples). Walnut, probably native to China as to west Asia, scores western because it is “Iranian peach” in Chinese and the common large edible form is evidently an import (Laufer 1919).
The Southeast Asian eleven are, similarly, plants that would have been seen at that time as rather exotic Southeast Asian items, though long known in India and China. They are mostly spices and incenses. Cloves are the extreme case here; they were still strictly an import, but the importation had started by 300-400 BC.
Note the importance of India even after it has “lost” many of its drugs to scoring as generically “Western.”
Plants:
Found in all regions, 31
Western, 152
India, 26
China, 38
Southeast Asia, 11
Total 258 taxa
Number of these mentioned in Dioscorides: 136
Mentioned in Li: 148 (as well as most of the animals and animal products)
The vast majority of these overlap, and many of the rest are obscure. The rest of the exceptions are several plants in Dioscorides that cannot grow away from the Mediterranean, and several native to East and South Asia were not known to Dioscorides.
However, in most cases, the genera are the same but the species used by Li and slightly different from the one(s) used by Dioscorides. Rheum is one example.
This indicates a flow of knowledge from west to east. Since Dioscorides has priority by about 14 centuries, and since most of the overlap is in western-origin or Indian-origin plants, we can safely infer that the botanicals in question went in that direction. However, in the vast majority of cases—from Artemisia and Asparagus to Ricinus and Vicia—the genus, if not the species, is widely distributed and independent discovery is possible. When the plant has such obvious medical value that no one could miss it, as in Artemisia and Ricinus, independent discovery becomes probable.
The only clear and unmistakable western borrowings shared by the HHYF and Li are common foods and a few other products of early (often very ancient) presence in China (see Laufer 1919; Schafer 1963): ball onion (A. cepa), dill, celery, beet, frankincense, cabbage (B. oleracea, specifically said by Li to be western), safflower, myrrh, coriander, saffron, carrot, asafoetida, fig, fennel, barley, flax, basil, poppy, pistachio, almond, apricot, pomegranate, possibly sumac (but there are native sumacs in China), rosemary (Li says it came from the west in the Wei Dynasty), madder, sesame, styrax, fenugreek, wheat, and European grape (but there are also native Chinese grapes). This totals 30 species. Some, such as wheat and barley, go back to very ancient times in China. Others, such as grape and coriander, reached China in very early imperial times.
The only clear borrowings from India or southeast Asia are galingale, Aquilaria, Areca (its Chinese name is a loanword from Malay), turmeric, zedoary, Daemonorhops, Dryobalanops, nutmeg, Phyllanthus, the Piper species, sugarcane, clove, Terminalia chebula. Several other largely southeast Asian species probably ranged into China in ancient times. Possibly even turmeric and zedoary did.
Analysis and Comparison
Plants mentioned in the Yinshan Zhengyao, a nutrition and dietary guide from the same decade
Starred ones occur, or their close congenerics do, in the HHYF.
Acanthopanax sp. Wujiapi. Bark liquor.
*Aconitum chinese. Chinese aconite
*A. carmichaeilii. Sichuan aconite
*Acorus calamus. Sweet rush, sweet flag. Root
*Aframomum sp. (more likely, in context, Amomum villosum). Grains of Paradise
*Agaricus spp.
*Allium cepa (and probably also A. fistulosum). Onion
- chinense. Chinese leek.
*A. sativum. Garlic
- tuberosum. Chinese chives
*Alpinia officinarum. Lesser galingale
Amaranthus sp. (possibly also Chenopodium sp.) Greens
*Amomum spp. (notably A. tsaoko, probably also A. villosum, A. xanthioides). Large cardamoms
*Angelica sinensis. Danggui
*Aquilaria agallocha. Eaglewood, gharuwood
*Arctium lappa. Burdock
Asarum forbesii. Forbes’ wild ginger
*Asparagus cochin-chinensis, A. lucidus (possibly also Zizania caduciflora?). Chinese asparagus (“reed shoots’)
Atractylodes macrocephala. Baishu
Atractylodes spp. (A. lancea, A. chinensis, A. japonica). Zangshu
Auricularia auricula. Tree ear fungus
*Bambusa spp. etc. Bamboo shoots
Begonia sp.
Benincasa hispida. Winter melon
*Beta vulgaris. Beet, sugar beet, Swiss chard
Biota orientalis. Boshi
*Brassica campestris (including B. chinensis). Chinese cabbage, oil greens
*B. juncea (?). Mustard (possibly Sinapis sp.); mustard greens
*B. rapa (?). Rape-turnip
Camellia sinensis
*Canarium album
*Cannabis sativa. Hemp seeds
emHem
*Carduus crispus. Thistle root, feilian
*Carthamus tinctorius. Safflower
Castanea mollissima. Chestnut
*Chaenomeles sinensis. Chinese quince
*Chrysanthemum coronarium. Edible chrysanthemum
Cicer arietinum. Chickpea
*Cinnamomum camphora. Camphor
*C. cassia. Cassia, Chinese cinnamon
*C. zeylanicum (?). Cinnamon
Citrullus vulgaris. Watermelon
*Citrus reticulata and various hybrids and related spp. (taxonomy unclear)
*C. sinensis
Cnidium officinale
Coix lachrymae-jobi. Job’s tears
Colocasia esculenta. Taro
*Coptis chinensis. Goldenthread
*Coriandrum sativum. Coriander, cilantro
Corylus spp. (many present). Hazelnuts
*Croton tiglium (and possibly other spp.). Croton beans
*Crocus sativus. Saffron
*Cucumis melo. Melon. Var. conomon, Oriental picling melon.
- sativus. Cucumber
Cuminum cyminum. Cumin
*Curcuma longa (possibly also C. aromatica, etc.). Turmeric
Cynanchum sp.
*Daucus carota. Carrot
Dichroa febrifuga or Orixa japonica. Chinese quinine
Dimocarpus longan. Longan
*Dioscorea spp. Chinese yams
Diospyros kaki. Chinese persimmon
Elaeagnus angustifolia and possibly E. pungens. Russian olive fruits.
Eleocharis dulcis. Water chestnut
*Elettaria cardamomum. Small cardamom
Euryale ferox. Foxnut
Evodia sp.
Fagopyrum esculentum, F. tataricum. Buckwheat
*Ferula asafoetida. Asafoetida
*Foeniculum vulgare. Fennel
*Gardenia jasminoides
Ginkgo biloba
Gleditsia sinensis. Chinese honey-locust
Glycine max. Soybean
*Glycyrrhiza uralensis. Liquorice
Hordeum vulgare. Barley
Juglans regia. Walnut
*Lablab purpureus (formerly Dolichos lablab). Hyacinth bean
Lactuca sativa. Lettuce
*Lagenaria siceraria. Bottle gourd
*Ligusticum sinense. Chinese lovage
Lilium concolor and probably other spp.
Litchi chinensis (=Nephelium litchi). Lychee
*Lycium chinense. Chinese wolfthorn
Magnolia liliflora. Magnolia flower
*Malus spp. (=Pyrus subgenus Malus). Crabapples, Chinese apple
*Malva parvifolia complex. Mallow leaves
*Malva sp.? Musk mallow
*Mentha spp. Mints
Millettia lasiopetala. Baiyao
Morus alba. White mulberry
Myrica rubra
*Nardostachys chinensis. Chinese spikenard
Nelumbo nucifera. Lotus
?Ocimum spp. Basil (uncertain)
Oenanthe javanica. Water celery
Orchidaceae sp. (or epidendrum?) Orchid
Orobanche sp. Broomrape
Oryza sativa. Rice
Osmanthus fragrans. Sweet olive, kueihua
*Paeonia sp. (probably P. suffruticosa). Tree peony
Panax ginseng. Ginseng
- japonicus? Korean ginseng
Panicum miliaceum. Panic millet
*Papaver somniferum. Poppy seeds
Perilla frutescens. Perilla, beefsteak plant
Phragmites communis. Reed. Juice
*Phyllanthus emblica? Myrobalans (type unclear)
Phytolacca acinosa. Chinese poke
Pinellia ternata. Banxia
*Pinus spp. (probably focally P. koraiensis for the nuts). Pine nuts; pine pollen; pine liquor, pine root
*Piper cubeba. Cubeb
*P. longum. Long pepper
*P. nigrum. Black pepper
*Pistacia vera. Pistachio nuts
Pisum sativum. Peas
*Platycodon grandiflorum
Pleurotus ortreatus. Fungus
Polygala sibirica. Chinese senega
Polygonatum spp. Solomon’s seal.
*Polygonum aviculare. Smartweed
*P. multiflorum. Chinese cornbind
*Poria cocos. China root
Portulaca oleracea. Purslane
Prinsepia uniflora. Prinsepia
*Prunus amygdalus. Almond
*P. armeniaca. Apricot. Kernels, fruit
*P. mume. Oriental flowering apricot
*P. persica. Peach
Prunus (subgenus Cerasus) spp. Cherries.
Pteris sp. Bracken fern
Pueraria lobata. Kudzu
*Punica granatum. Pomegranate
Pyrus spp. Chinese pears
*Quercus spp. Acorns
*Raphanus sativus
Rehmannia glutinosa (possibly also Digitalis purpurea?). Chinese foxglove
*Rheum officinale and probably other spp. Rhubarb
Ribes rubrum. Red currant.
*Rosa spp. Flowers, attar, hips
*Saccharum officinale. Sugar
Sanguisorba sp? Burnet (?)
Santalum album. Sandalwood
Saussurea lappa (and possibly also Vladimiria souliei). Muxiang
Schisandra spp. Schisandra fruits
Schizonepeta tenuifolia. (A small herb of the mint family)
*Sesamum indicum. Sesame
Setaria italica. Foxtail millet
Solanum melongena. (Chinese) eggplant
Sonchus arvensis (and probably other spp.). Sow thistle. Greens.
Spinacia oleracea. Spinach
Spiraea media (or possibly Gentiana sp.). Tabilqa
Stachys sieboldii. Chinese “artichoke”
*Torreya grandis. Torreya nuts
Trapa bispinosa. Water caltrop
Tricholoma mongolicum. Mushroom
*Trigonella foenum-graecum. Fenugreek
*Triticum aestivum. Bread wheat
Tussilago farfara. Tussilago flower
Typha spp. Rhizomes, pollen, shoots
Ulmus macrocarpa. Stinking elm
- parvifolia, U. pumila (and/or relatives). Elm seeds
Urtica sp. Nettle
*Veratrum nigrum and/or V. maacki. False hellebore
*Vicia spp. (focally V. sativa). Vetch
*Vigna angustifolia. Adzuki beans
*V. mungo. Mung beans
Vitex trifolia. Seashore chaste-tree. Fruits.
*Vitis spp. Grapes; wine
Xanthium strumarium. Cocklebur
Zanthoxylum sp. Flower pepper
*Zingiber mioga. Chinese ginger, Japanese ginger
*Z. officinalis. Ginger
Zizyphus spp. Jujubes (various; mostly Z. jujuba)
Unidentified fungi
Total 173 taxa (not counting the unidentified fungi).
85 are also in the HHYF. Many of these are native Chinese equivalents of western plants (Allium, for example) or western plants long established in China even before the HHYF (almond, saffron). Others, such as lesser galingale, cassia, sugar and ginger, are East/Southeast Asian in origin and spread west by early medieval times. Only 27 plants are clearly western species borrowed into China. Most are in the HHYF, but some (e.g. spinach, peach) are strictly foods with no special medicinal value, and are thus not mentioned in the HHYF. All these 27 are probably much older in China than Yuan. Most of the rest are strictly Chinese remedies or foods.
Some Plants with Real or Pobable Medical Effect Besides Low-level Stimulant and Soothant VCalues
Acacia (DMT release when brewed with harmala and maybe other plants)
Aconite (strongly toxic, can produce hallucinations or delusions; like other Solanaceae below, contains psychotropic tropane alkaloids)
Acorus (mental effects not well studied scientifically, but widely alleged in folk medicine worldwide; confirming evidence for at least some strains [Motley 1994])
Artemisia (toxic effects can include mental influences; active ingredient in absinthe)
Boswellia (mental effects alleged in sources, probably with considerable foundation; research shaky but there is evidence for antidepressant effect from inhaling the incense)
Ref from Frederick Dannaway:
Mechoulam, R. 2008. Incensole acetate, an incense component, elicits psychoactivity by activating TRPV3 channels in the brain. The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Aug, 22(8):3024-34
Cannabis (mental effects well known and well described in all early sources, Near Eastern and Chinese)
Saffron (mental effects real but little studied and rather minor; see species account above; at least some of the reported effects check with contemporary experience)
Ephedra (strong stimulant effects; used in Near East with other drugs for mental effects)
Hellebore (white and black; well-known producer of visions and other mental effects)
Hyoscyamus (henbane; notorious in witches’ brews and such for its psychotropic effects, which are reported to include visions of devils)
Hypericum (St. John’s wort; famous antidepressant)
Lavender (mental effects little studied, but undeniable; “broom of the brain” in Indian medicine; recent research confirms rather striking antidepressant and soothing value, even from simply inhaling the scent)
Lemon balm (antidepressant effect; needs confirmation)
Mint (stimulant, harmonizing, antidepressant effect from mint oil taken or sniffed; needs research)
Peganum harmala (harmal; major, very widely used psychedelic in Near East)
Solanum nigrum (deadly nightshade; toxic effects include some mental ones)
Wine
Also, lead and arsenic compounds are called for.
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