Guest guest Posted August 6, 2001 Report Share Posted August 6, 2001 It has been mentioned that herbs are going to be prescribed in a historical re-enactment situation. That's intriguing -- what period of history is being re-enacted? There have been many variations in how herbs were used in different periods of history. For example, St. John's Wort was apparently not used much in America until the 20th century. It was only used in Europe, and only in a limited manner before that. Several other herbs were used extensively in Europe at one time, and are hardly used at all now. Most prominent on that list would be Aconite and Belladonna. Many American herbs such as Yarrow and Camas were not known at all in Europe. I'm pretty sure the two herbs mentioned are still not used on the Continent. Interestingly enough, one of the best herbal references for medieval European herbal medicine is the work of Shakespeare. Most of his plays contain some herbal remedies. In Colorado and Wyoming we have a number of people who regularly do re-enactments of the Mountain Man period, which lasted roughly from 1650 to 1830. Some of these folks are very well acquianted with herbal medicines of that time. Of course most of what Mountain Men knew was learned directly from Indians. -- Michael Riversong ** Professional Harpist, Educator, and Writer ** RivEdu ** Phone: (307)635-0900 FAX (413)691-0399 http://home.earthlink.net/~mriversong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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