Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
An Irish Materia Medica (Author: Tadhg Ó Cuinn)
subsection 235
235. Rubia maior, uarencia: i.e. madder; hot and dry in the first degree; it has the diuretic and comforting virtues. If roots of madder and mastix be boiled in wine, it will provoke menstruation and the urine, and it will be of considerable benefit against oppilation of the liver, the kidneys and the spleen. If the same herb be boiled
p.613
in pig lard or in butter and applied as a plaster over the liver, it will open the oppilation of the liver. If the same plaster be put on the navel, it will provoke the urine and menstruation. If the roots of madder be boiled in water and the hair be washed in it, this will give the hair a fine red colour. If a plaster be made of powdered mastix, powdered madder, and new wax, and it be applied to the upper part of the stomach, it will help with its pain. If the root of madder be boiled in wine and drunk by a woman, this will induce the after-birth. Item, to make a liquor that will clean and heal a wound, take the tops of red cabbage, avens, tansy and seed of hemp, and roots of madder to the quantity of all of those, boil them in wine or ale, strain them, and put honey that has been purified by skimming into it, according to the quantity of liquor, boil them up again, all together; when it has cooled, add some yeast to it, give it to drink, and it will heal any wound.