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 | Saxifrage Other Names:
Botanical Name: Pimpinella magna
Family: N.O. Umbelliferae |
Description: |
| The Greater Burnet Saxifrage is very like large specimens of Pimpinella saxifraga, but larger in all its parts and of a paler green in colour, the root-stock much thicker and the stems generally 2 to 4 feet high, stouter and more angular. The leaflets are larger and broader, generally less deeply cut. The umbels and flowers are similar, though the styles are longer and more slender. |
Medicinal Usage: |
This plant has much the same medicinal properties as the former species, and has been employed in a similar manner.
The root is very acrid, and is powerfully diuretic, having been prescribed with success, in strong infusion, in disorders arising from obstructions of the viscera. The seeds are carminative, and have been used in colic and for dispersing wind in the stomach, administered in powdered form.
The Aniseed of medicine and commerce is a foreign species of this same genus.
Culpepper says this plant:
'has the properties of the parsleys but eases pains and provokes urine more effectually. ... The distilled water, boiled with castoreum, is good for cramps and convulsions, and the seed used in comfits (like carraway seeds) will answer the same purpose. The juice of the herb dropped into bad wounds in the head, dries up their moisture and heals them.' |
Ancient Lore: |
SAXIFRAGE, (Great Burnet)
PIMPINELLA MAJOR
It has the properties of the Parsleys, but eases pains and provokes urine more effectually.
A perennial growing to about three feet (90 cm) with umbels of white flowers.
Where to find it: Edges of woods and hedgebanks.
Flowering time.. Early summer.
Astrology: It is under the Moon.
Medicinal virtues: The root is good for the colic and expels wind. It is diuretic and useful against the stone, gravel and the scurvy. The roots or the seed are used in powder or in decoction to help the mother, procure the courses, remove phlegm and cure venom.The juice of the herb dropped into bad wounds in the head, dries up their moisture and heals them.
Modern uses: The root is a powerful diuretic and useful to remove urinary tract stones. It is taken by decoction - i oz (28 g) of the root being boiled in
1.5 Pt (852 mi) of water until it measures 1 Pt (568 mi) and taken in doses of 2 fl OZ (56 ml).
The seeds are anti-flatulent and are powdered and given in water for colicky wind. Burnet Saxifrage, or Lesser Burnet, is more popular with herbalists. |
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