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Herbal Wisdom:  Old remedies and their origins....  |
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KYgurlsrbest
True Blue Farmgirl
4853 Posts
Jonni
Elsmere
Kentucky
USA
4853 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 15 2007 : 7:29:56 PM
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These aren't herbs, but they're old medicinals I've run across in the last few months, talking to older folks...Any of these sound familiar to you gals? I visited my elderly Aunt(84) over the weekend in northern Ohio, and as usual, we got to talking about my Great Grandmother, and some of her "medicinals" she made them take while growing up. One of these, which strikes me as REAL peculiar, was essentially, a little linen bag of pill-bugs, tied tight and then around hung around their neck. Apparently, it was for a deep cough or chest cold, and then when the bugs disintegrated, the cough was miraculously gone??? She said all kinds of kids would be at school with these little bags around their necks. Weird, but more weird was that other mothers must have used it, too, because I spoke with my elderly african american friend (87), whose grandmother used the same remedy on her, only in North Carolina. She also mentioned a poultice of cooked onions rubbed on the chest, and my Aunt remembered that as well. She also mentioned some kind of homemade syrup that tasted so terrible, they always said "they felt just fine!".
I'm fascinated by the origins of these things....curious as to whether anyone else heard of these, or maybe your mom or gran used them on you? I just got the Vicks vapor rub, then wrapped up like an Eskimo with a hot compress on my chest. I guess a bag of pillbugs might be worse  .
"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." Margaret Atwood
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Mikki
True Blue Farmgirl
1510 Posts
Mikki
Austin
Indiana
USA
1510 Posts |
Posted - Mar 15 2007 : 8:19:28 PM
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Thanks for sharing this. I've heard of different things but not this one. Very neat, and peculiar like you said. My grandmother brought to my mom once a whiskey bottle with some kind of concoction of turpentine and lard and I can't remember what else. But she was to rub it on her chest and keep flannel over it. She was very sick with pneumonia, she did get better. Sounds kinda scary now, lol
~~Blessings, Mikki
http://burningmeadowsprings.blogspot.com/
http://strawberriesnapronstrings.blogspot.com/ |
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bramble
True Blue Farmgirl
2044 Posts
2044 Posts |
Posted - Mar 16 2007 : 4:49:28 PM
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Ever read the Foxfire books? They have alot of "unusual" cures! Got a headache? Strap some wilted beet greens to your forehead and you'll be better in no time! (Probably because you are too distracted by beet greens dangling off your head!) I never heard the pill bug remedy, but I know the southern grandparents mixed whiskey with all their remedies ( and they lived in a dry county ) Castor Oil was big with the New England grandparents and I remember my NE Gran coming to the house when I had pneumonia and bringing a "mustard plaster". What that was I never knew because my Mom headed her off and said "Mother, you just about killed us with that stuff, she feels bad enough without THAT!"
I don't know if it was Yellow mustard, mustard leaves,or whatever but afterward one of my uncles said "Be glad your Mother "saved" you!"
I have a friend whose family swears by this "cure" of weremut(sp)
that is a steeped herbal mixture containing wormwood which is poisonous! Boiled linseed oil was used alot too, no wonder they didn't live long in the old days!
I think alot of medicinal folklore is rooted in tried and true things that people discovered worked. Why does spearmint work for a headache? Because it contains salicylic acid. What's that? The active ingredient in aspirin!
Digitalis (foxglove) is powerful heart medicine and hemlock tea is poisonous! I think alot of folks think that if it is organic, it must be safe but herbal medicinals can be misused just like their chemical cousins. If you are interested in very old herbal wisdom
check out Culpepper's Herbal. There are many versions of it as it has been reprinted over maybe 300+years. (If you can't find it, let me know I might have a copy floating around.
with a happy heart |
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mommom
True Blue Farmgirl
854 Posts
Susan
Lancaster
Pennsylvania
USA
854 Posts |
Posted - Mar 16 2007 : 6:51:50 PM
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| My grandmom was born, raised, and had her own family in France. She would make hot water, peppermint and a teaspoon of sugar in a cup and have her children and us sip it when we had upset stomaches. We would invariably get sick one more time but that was it. I still use that concoction. Susan |
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Herbal Wisdom: Old remedies and their origins.... |
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Old remedies and their origins....
