Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died. Erma Bombeck
The word herb is derived from the old French erbe and, from its first appearance in English in the late 13th century, meant both a plant without a woody stem and a plant of particular medicinal or culinary value. The “h” first appeared in the 15th century but wasn’t voiced until the 19th century (which is why Americans still refer to “erbs”). Any plant with officinalis in its Latin name can be used as a medicine.
Using plants to heal, soothe, and flavour food probably stretches back into prehistory, but one of the earliest documented uses of plants in a medicinal capacity is the Ebers Papyrus, which dates from 1,500BC and was discovered in an Egyptian market in 1872 by a German called Georg Ebers.
The papers contain more than 700 magical spells and herbal remedies that were in use for thousands of years, including garlic for digestive problems, poppy seeds for headaches and sesame seeds for asthma. The papyrus also suggests a herbal mixture of acacia, dates, colocynth and honey to prevent pregnancy.
The first herbal, a book combining drawings of plants and descriptions of their healing properties, is another Egyptian papyrus. The Johnson Papyrus is a piece of a book, or scroll, from the fifth-century AD. The drawing is of a bluey-green plant which the Greek text below identifies as symphyton (comfrey). Unfortunately the illustration looks very unlike the real plant.
The first recorded Royal Herb Strewer was appointed in 1660. They walked through the royal residences, strewing a mixture of camomile, mint, sage, rue, lavender and roses to cover up the stench from the pipes and bring relief to the royal noses. By the time George IV came to the throne, improvements in hygiene had removed the need to fill the air with fragrance, so he appointed one Anne Fellowes to scatter flowers and herbs at his coronation. The job was passed down through the family: Anne’s descendants (the Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame) still claim the title today.
The absolute key medicinal herb of the ancient and medieval worlds was sage. Its Latin name salvia was cognate with the late Latin salvare, “to save”, from which we also get “salvage” and “safe”). A punning Latin proverb ran: cur moriatur homo cui salvia crescit in horto? (“Why should a man die while sage grows in his garden?”) which was matched by an English saying: “He that would live for aye, must eat Sage in May.”
The herbalist John Gerard (1545-1611) gives a sense of its use as cure-all: “Sage is singularly good for the head and brain, it quickeneth the senses and memory, strengtheneth the sinews, restoreth health to those that have the palsy, and taketh away shaky trembling of the members.” It is still used in herbal medicine and makes an excellent antiseptic mouthwash.
Another herb that was formerly used more for medicine than in the kitchen was rosemary. It was used to cure anxiety and bad dreams, insanity and impotence; washing with it was thought to be a good way to retain youthful looks. It was also used to dress the bodies of the dead. The French botanist Jacques-Christophe Valmont de Bomare (1731-1807) records that when coffins were opened, branches of rosemary that had been held in the corpse’s hand had grown to cover the whole body.
Many herbs that would be considered poisonous under normal circumstances are still used in medicine today. Ingest just one leaf of common foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), and you could suffer from vomiting, severe headache, or even death; but extracts are used to control heart rates. Deadly nightshade (Atropa bella-donna) gives us atropine, used in the treatment of cardiac arrest. Bella donna is Italian for “beautiful lady” and originates from its use as a beauty product: an extract was used to make women’s pupils dilate. Even the smallest dose of poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) can result in respiratory collapse, but it is used as a sedative and to stop spasms.
In 1571, when smoking was first introduced to Europe from the New World, the Spanish doctor Nicolás Monardes established tobacco’s reputation as a cure for more than 20 ailments, including cancer.
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