96 Rumex acetosa
As with nettles (Urtica) and burdock (Arctium), one of the functions of
sorrel has been to cleanse the blood of impurities and thereby clear up spots.
To that end the juice has been drunk in
the Isle of Man^128 and Berwick-
shire.^129 Rather similarly, the leaves
have been eaten as a cure for scurvy
in the Isle of Man,^130 Orkney^131 and
Shetland^132 —and the Faeroe Islands,^133 too, a
distribution thus seemingly Viking in origin. As a cooling
herb the plant served in the Highlands as a digestive^134
and an appetiser^135 ; its leaves were eaten by consump-
tives and infusions drunk by the fevered^136 ; it has also
enjoyed a reputation there for curing minor wounds and
bruises.^137 A more esoteric reason for eating the leaves
in Cumbria has been the belief that this relieved
epilepsy.^138 The Isle of Man seems to have been alone in
making use of the roots, to stimulate the kidneys.^139
Ireland has shared most of these applications. It
has been drunk to cleanse the system in Wicklow^140
and Carlow,^141 tohelp the kidneys and cool fevers in
Clare^142 and, mixed with thistle tops and plantain
heads, to cure consumption in Kildare^143 ; similarly, the
leaves have healed sores and bruises in Sligo^144 and Lim-
erick^145 and staunched bleeding in Wicklow^146 and
Cavan.^147 Other uses, though, emerge only from
the Irish records. The leaves, in some cases crum-
bled and boiled first, have served in six of the
south-eastern counties to poultice boils,
septic sores and the pustules of chicken-
pox. Much more locally, the plant has
been employed for jaundice and sore
throat in Cavan,^148 cancer in ‘Ulster’,^149
burns in Meath,^150 warts in Water-
ford,^151 heart trouble in Tipperary
(mixed with dandelions,Taraxacum)^152
and anaemia in some part of the coun-
try unidentified.^153
Rumex acetosa, common sorrel
(Fuchs 1543, fig. 262)