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SAVINE JUNIPERUS SABINA It is a most powerful detersive, and has so violent an effect upon the uterine passages if used imprudently, that wicked women have employed it to very ill purposes. This is a small evergreen shrubby tree, with branches set close together and clothed with narrow prickly leaves resembling Cypress. It produces small mossy green flowers succeeded by small, flattish, blackish-blue berries. Where to find it: It is planted in gardens, but is indigenous to southern Europe and the northern states of the USA. Flowering time: Summer. Astrology: Under the dominion of Mars. Medicinal virtues: It is a powerful provoker of the catamenia, causing abortion and expelling the birth. It is good to destroy worms in children, the juice being mixed with milk and sweetened with sugar. Beaten into a cataplasm with hog's lard, it cures children's scabby heads. It is a fine opener of obstructions of any kind for jaundice, dropsy, scurvy Band rheumatism. It deserves the regard of surgeons, as it is a very potent scourer and cleanser of old sordid stinking ulcers, either used in lotions, lamentations, ointments or the powder mixed with honey. Modern uses: Savine is now considered to be unsafe for internal administration because its effects are unpredictable. It irritates the intestinal tract causing gastroenteritis. It is definitely contra-indicated in pregnancy. It can be used externally in ointments to stimulate discharge from blisters, and to destroy warts. |