Ivy and Umbellifers 191Daucus carota Linnaeus
wild carrot
Eurasia, North Africa; introduced into most other temperate and
many tropical regions
Contrary to what one might expect, the folk records on the whole carefully
distinguish wild Daucus carota from the cultivated plants in this particular
instance. This may be because the wild plant has been found to be the more
efficacious for some ailments at least. The majority of uses reported show
that it has been valued pre-eminently as a diuretic, for treating dropsy, gravel
or kidney complaints (Dorset,^131 Somerset,^132 Berwickshire^133 ). As it was the
fruitlets that were usually employed to that end (though a decoction of its
rootstock was an alternative), that was presumably the unspecified function
they have performed ‘medicinally’ in the Isle of Man as well.^134 More localised
has been the making of a poultice from the mashed and boiled rootstocks
for applying to wounds and malignant, especially cancerous sores: in Britain
apparently confined to the Highlands,^135 where, mixed with oatmeal, it has
been a favourite remedy for ‘lung disease’, too.^136 In Dorset, on the other
hand, a traditional treatment for a burn has been to douche that in cold water
first to stop the pain and then apply scrapings from the rootstock to prevent
a blister forming and hasten the healing process.^137
Irish records for the diuretic uses come from Co. Dublin,^138 Cork^139 and
Kerr y,^140 while the carrot poultice just described has been applied to sores
and wounds in Antrim,^141 and in cases of earache in some part(s) of the
country left unspecified.^142
Notes
- Newman & Wilson
- Tongue
- Johnston 1853
- Hole, 207
- Johnston 1853
- Simpkins, 411
- McNeill
- Hatfield MS
- Lightfoot, 1094; Beith
- Lafont
- Vickery MSS
- Lafont
- Gibbs, 57
14.Notes and Queries,ser. 1, 7 (1853),
128 - Maloney
- IFC S 751: 118
- McClafferty
- IFC S 505: 148
- IFC S 932: 239; 960: 211, 283
- IFC S 1099: 224
- IFC S 226: 484
- IFC S 690: 41, 114
- IFC S 920: 79