Honey
has been a part of human history from ancient times. Honey was
available to the common folk throughout most of Europe. Not only
could the bees that made the honey be kept by commoners, it was often
less expensive than sugar. Honey has anti-inflammatory and soothing
qualities on its own and can be used to make medicines more palatable
as many of the herbs tend to be bitter.
Horehound (Marrubium vulgare) a perennial herbaceous plant, found all over Europe and indigenous to Britain.
Culpeper:
A decoction
of the dried herb, with the seed, or the juice of the green herb
taken with honey, is a remedy for those that are short-winded, have a
cough, or are fallen into consumption, either through long sickness,
or thin distillations of rheum upon the lungs.
Discorides:
The dried leaves (with the seed) boiled with water (or juiced while
green) are given with honey for tuberculosis of the lungs, asthma,
and coughs.
Stinging Nettles (Urtica urens): distributed throughout the temperate regions of Europe and Asia.
Culpeper:
The roots
and leaves boiled, or the juice of either of them, or both made
electuary with honey and sugar, is a safe and sure medicine to open
the pipes and passages of the lungs, which is the cause of wheezing
and shortness of breath, and helps to expectorate tough phlegm, as
also to raise the imposthumed pleurisy; and spend it there by
spitting; the same helps with the swelling of the almonds of the
throat, the mouth and throat being gargled therewith.
Discorides:
Licked in with
honey it helps asthma, pleurisy and pneumonia, and fetches up stuff
out of the chest.
Fenugreek (Foenum-graecum): Indigenous to the countries on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
Culpeper:
It is of a softening and dissolving nature, therefore the meal
thereof being boiled in mead or honey-water, does consume, soften
and dissolve, hard swellings of the imposthumes…applied with honey,
it cleanses the face and other parts of pimples, pushes, weals, and
other blemishes; it heals itch, and prevents the disagreeable smell
which oftentimes proceeds from perspiration.
Discorides:
Pounded into small pieces with boiled honey and water and applied as
a poultice, it
is
good for both inner and outer inflammation.
Terms
“Almonds
of the throat”: tonsils
Electuary:
a
pasty mass composed of a medicine, usually in powder form, mixed in a
palatable medium, as syrup,
honey, or other sweet substanceExpectorate:
to eject or expel matter.
Imposthume:
an abscess;
a
localized collection of pus in the tissues of the body, often
accompanied by swelling and inflammation and frequently caused by
bacteria.
Pleurisy:
inflammation
of the pleura (the
thin transparent serous membrane enveloping the lungs and lining the
walls of the thoracic cavity),
with or without a liquid effusion in the pleural cavity,
characterized by a dry cough and
pain in the affected side.
Rheum:
a thin discharge of the mucous membranes.
Weals:
raised mark on skin.
Sources
The Honey Prescription: The Amazing Power of Honey As Medicine
By
Nathaniel Altman
Herbal
Medicine Past and Present: A reference guide to medicinal plants
By
J. K. Crellin, Jane Philpott, A. L. Tommie Bass
De
Materia Medica By
Discorides the Greek
Culpeper’s
Complete Herbal
By Nicholas Culpeper
All
Things Medieval: An Encyclopedia of the Medieval World
By Ruth A. Johnston
A
short history of the honey bee: humans, flowers, and bees in the
eternal chase for honey
By Ilona, Ed Readicker-Henderson, Ilona McCarty
A
Modern Herbal
By Mrs. M
Grieve http://www.botanical.com
Making
Herbal Preparations By
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
http://gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/preparations.html
How
Sweet it Was: Cane Sugar from the Ancient World to the Elizabethian
Period http://maggierose.20megsfree.com/sugar.html
http://www.honey-health.com/honey-15.shtml
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