Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
An Irish Materia Medica (Author: Tadhg Ó Cuinn)
subsection 10
10. Accride, bancia, pastinaca: i.e. the three names of the parsnip; this herb is said to be hot in the middle of the second degree and wet in the beginning of the second degree; Platearius says the herb is
p.457
more appropriate as food than as medicine; thick blood is generated from it; it greatly increases the libido and the sperm; the roots of this herb serve if taken raw by melancholic patients, it brings them into wetness and increases their sexuality; Macer says to boil this herb in wine against pain in the stomach, the liver, the spleen and the kidneys; he says also to boil the roots of this herb in milk and it will serve against asthma, dyspnoea and orthopnoea; he says also to apply the root of this herb to the throat of people who have swelling of the testicles and it will help with the swelling and the pain; he says also that whoever has it on his throat will not be harmed by poison. He says also to apply the roots of this herb to the teeth and it will help with the pain; and to give it to women with dead foetuses and it will expel them. Platearius says that this herb increases the digestion and nurtures the body greatly, and he says it serves well for people with stranguria and dysuria.