MEDICINAL PLANTS in Folk Tradition

(Darren Dugan) #1

Trifolium pratense Linnaeus
red clover
Europe, western and central Asia, North Africa; introduced into
North and South America, South Africa, Australasia
Asso frequently seems to be the case, the uses ofTr ifolium pratenseattributed
to‘country people’ by one of the early writers do not find reflection in the
more recent folk records. According to John Parkinson,‘in many places’ at the
time he wrote (1640) the juice was applied to adder bites and to clear the eyes
of any film beginning to grow over them or to soothe them when hot and
bloodshot.^15 Hemakes no mention of coughs and colds, for which the plant
has since been used in mixtures with other herbs in Norfolk^16 and Cumbria.^17
Inthe latter it has also been applied to rashes, in the form of a lotion produced
byinfusing the flowers and leaves.^18 Further, if this is what has been recorded
simply as ‘clover’, a tea made from it has been drunk in Caernarvonshire for the
nerves^19 and the leaves chewed in the Isle of Man to relieve toothache.^20
In Ireland the plant’s role as a cough remedy is more widely recorded than
in Britain—from Cavan,^21 Wicklow,^22 Clare^23 and Kerry^24 —but exclusive to
that country is the application of the leaves to bee stings in Offaly^25 and the
drinking of an infusion of the flowering tops for cancer in Wicklow^26 and
for stomach cancer specifically in Meath.^27


Cytisus scoparius (Linnaeus) Link
Sarothamnus scoparius (Linnaeus) Wimmer ex Koch
broom
western and central Europe, Macaronesia; introduced into North
America, Australasia
Cytisus scoparius is one of the few herbs employed in folk medicine with gen-
eral and emphatic confidence for one particular property: containing
sparteine, a very powerful diuretic which triples renal elimination, an infu-
sion or decoction of the young green ‘tops’ has been recorded from most
parts of the British Isles as in use for dropsy and kidney ailments of all kinds.
In modern herbalism the plant is used to slow and regulate the heart rate,
but no evidence of that has been found in the folk records, by contrast.
Instead, the only other uses in folk medicine which emerge at all widely are
for rheumatic complaints (Essex^28 and Cumbria,^29 though predominantly
Irish) and as a purgative, for liver troubles (Herefordshire,^30 Isle of Man^31 ),
jaundice (Norfolk^32 ) and piles (Devon^33 ). The Isle of Man has seemingly been
unique in employing the plant for swellings^34 and to procure an abortion^35 as
an alternative to gin.


162 Tr ifolium pratense

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