 Burnet |
BURNET SANGUISORBA MINOR A most precious herb, the continual use of it preserves the body in health and the spirit in vigour. A perennial plant, it is also called Meadow Pimpernel, Sanguisorbia and Solbegrelia, and today Salad Burnet. A short, almost hairless plant; the upper flowers bear red styles, and those below have yellow stamens. Where to find it: Dry pastures and well-drained calcareous soils. Flowering time: Midsummer to early autumn. Astrology: A herb the Sun challenges dominion over. If the Sun be the preserver of life under God, his herbs are the best in the world to do it. Medicinal virtues. It is a friend to the heart, liver and other principal parts of a man's body. Two or three of the stalks with leaves put into a cup of wine, especially claret, are known to quicken the spirits, refresh and clear the heart and drive away melancholy. It is a special help to defend the heart from noisome vapours and from infection of the pestilence, the juice being taken in some drink. It also has a drying and astringent quality and will staunch inward or outward bleedings, laxes, the bloody flux, and too abundant women's courses, the whites, choleric belchings and castings of the stomach. It is also a singular herb for all sorts of wounds both of the head and body, running cankers and most sores, using either the juice or decoction of the herb or the powder of the herb or root, or the water of the distilled herb, or the ointment by itself. Modern uses: The root and herb are used as a diuretic, a stomach tonic and a carminative. An infusion of the whole herb is astringent. A tincture, made from the root, is used to treat infections and inflammation of the throat and upper respiratory tract. The plant is collected for use in May and September. A teaspoonful of the dried powdered herb or root is infused in a cup of boiling water, allowed to cool, strained and swallowed down. One or two cups a day may be taken. |