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HOLLY ILEX AQUIFOLIUM The bark and leaves are excellent, being used in fomentations for broken bones,
and such members as are out of joint.
The well-known evergreen bush or tree with glossy green, prickly leaves and red or yellow
berries. Also called Holm or Huiver-bush.
Where to find it: Often planted as a hedge, but grows in woodland.
Flowering time: Late spring, early summer. The berries ripen in autumn and stay on
the tree through the winter.
Astrology: The tree is saturnine.
Medicinal virtues. The berries are profitable in the colic. If a dozen of them are
eaten in the morning when they are ripe and not dried, they purge the body of gross and
clammy phlegm; but if the berries are dried and beaten into a powder, they bind the body
and stop fluxes and the terms in women.
Modern uses: The leaves contain theobromine which has a weak diuretic effect on the
kidneys, dilates coronary and other arteries. An infusion of the leaves produces sweating
and is used in fevers and rheumatism. The berries are poisonous,
being violently emetic and purgative, but have been used to treat dropsy. The powdered
berries are anti-haemorrhagic. For catarrhal complaints, coughs, colds and flu an
infusion has been used. It is not a popular medicine with herbalists at the present time. |