DISCOVER Bannau Brycheiniog
What was in the medieval medicine cabinet – and what Wales’ leading medics claimed it could do for you.
Meadowsweet
The sweet fragrance of its fluffy flowers means this plant has long been used to perfume homes, including by Queen Elizabeth I (although when crushed the scent turns antiseptic). It was also a popular flavouring for mead – the name comes from mede-sweete – and the Physicians of Myddfai would ‘digest it in cold water’ to make a drink said to stop haemorrhage. Many medics used it for pain relief and the plant does contain salicylic acid, an ingredient of aspirin.
Nipplewort
There’s no record the Myddfai doctors ever used this wiry-stemmed, yellow-flowered plant, but it’s a prime example of the Doctrine of Signatures. The idea, popularised by herbalists in the 16th century, was this: if part of a plant resembles a part of the human body, it must help heal it. The leaves of liverwort, the flowers of eyebright, and the buds of nipplewort were all thought to show man how to utilise the plant, and were used to treat hepatic disorders, ocular maladies and sore breasts.
Foxglove
These tall towers of pink bells are a common sight across Britain, often abuzz with bees lured by its bright colours and the dark dots that floor each blossom. Nobody’s sure where its name comes from: some say foxes wore its flowers on their paws to hush their footfall when hunting; others that it comes from ‘folks’ gliew’ meaning fairy bells. The Welsh physicians recommended plasters of it for headaches and abscesses, said you could press its leaves on a small tumour to remove it, or boil it with honey, red nettles and stale urine to make an ointment to ease ‘sluggish’ blood. Wisely, they never suggested taking it internally, for every bit of the foxglove is poisonous. Yet in 1785 William Withering discovered this toxic plant helped treat dropsy (fluid retention) and the chemical digitalis is still used in medications for heart failure today, earning it a reputation as a plant that can ‘raise the dead and kill the living’.
Selfheal
This low-growing plant with its beehive clusters of violet flowers also goes by the name heal-all – a panacea said to help cure everything from sore throats to heart disease to conjunctivitis to cuts (the last based on the sickle-blade shape of its upper petals). The 17th-century herbalist Nicolas Culpeper described it as ‘a special herb for inward and outward wounds’ and at Myddfai, the medics specifically recommended it for toothache, and for pasting on carbuncles when mashed with rancid lard.
Sheep’s sorrel
Two closely related species of sorrel – comm
