Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
An Irish Materia Medica (Author: Tadhg Ó Cuinn)
subsection 19
19. Alagsandrum, masedonica, petrusidinum: i.e. the three names of the alexanders; this herb is hot and dry at the end of the second degree; this herb is called the parsley of Alexander; it has the same complexion as the garden parsley, and it has a diuretic virtue. The seed of this herb serves well for medicine; it has a dissolving and consuming virtue, and also the virtue of attenuating the gross humours; the stomach is comforted by it, and the appetite is increased; it breaks up the urinary stone and provokes menstruation;
p.466
it greatly relieves people with dropsy; it serves well for oppilation of the liver and spleen when it comes from cold matter; it cleans the chest and the lungs of gross phlegmatic matter. Pound the herb itself and make a poultice of it on the head and it will help with a scabby head and morphew; pound it and insert it in the vulva and it will provoke menstruation, the afterbirth and the abortion. It serves well for those with intermittent quotidian fever; if the seed of this herb be taken regularly, it will attenuate the gross humours, open the pores of the body, and drive out the bad effects of the injurious humours, it will provoke the urine and sweating, and will expel the wind of the colic, as Isaac says.