DITTANDER (Karse) LEPIDIUM SATIVUM
The women in Suffolk give the leaves boiled in ale to hasten the birth. The common Dittander has a small, white, slender, creeping root, which is difficult to remove from a garden once it is planted there. It grows about 13 inches (50 cm) high with small, white flowers. It is also known as Pepper-wort because of its hot, biting taste, and Garden Cress.
Where to find it: It is grown as a cress for salads, but it likes moist places and grows near rivers.Flowering time: Early to midsummer.
Astrology. A herb of Venus.
Medicinal virtues: The bruised leaves mixed with hog's lard and applied as a cataplasm to the hip, easeth sciatica. Chewed in the mouth they cause a great flux of rheum to run out of it and by that means are said to help scrofulous tumours in the throat.
Modern uses: The Cress, eaten in salads, does contain a natural antibiotic, but it has not found a place in medicine. The antibiotic is similar to one found in the Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus), which is used. An infusion of fresh Nasturtium leaves,* 1/2 oz (1 4g) to i pt (568 mi) of boiling water - is a useful remedy for bronchitis, catarrh and emphysema. The dose is 2 fl OZ (56 rni) two or three times a day. |