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HERB TRUE-LOVE
PARIS QUADRIFOLIA The leaves or berries are good as antidotes against all kinds of poison, especially that of Aconites, and pestilential disorders. True-love, also called One-berry and Herb Paris, has a small creeping root which produces sterns with leaves, some bearing berries. At the top are four leaves set like a cross or ribband tied in a true-love's knot and a yellowish-green star-shaped flower, in the centre of which forms the blackish-purple berry, the size of a grape and full of juice. Where to find it: Woods and copses, borders of fields and waste ground. Flowering time: Spring to summer. Astrology: Venus owns it. Medicinal virtues: The roots in powder, taken in wine, ease the pains of the colic. The leaves are,very effectual for healing wounds and filthy old sores and ulcers, and for dispersing tumours and swellings in the privy parts, the groin and to allay all inflammations. The juice of the leaves applied to felons, or nails of the hands and feet, heals sores or imposthumes at the roots of them. Modern uses: Although said to he an antidote to poison, True-love is an emetic, narcotic and aphrodisiac. An ointment made from the seeds has been used as an application to tumours. In small doses, the plant is anti-spasmodic, whereas in overdosage delirium and convulsions are produced. The seeds and berries have been used as an aphrodisiac, the action being similar to Opium. A tincture made from the fresh plant is used in homoeopathic medicine for inflammation of the brain. |