Agrimonia eupatoria L. Agrimony, Eupatorium, Maudlein. Perennial herb. The species name comes from king Mithridates Eupator VI of Pontus (132-63 BC) who took regular doses of poison to develop an immunity to them. A 'Mithridate' was a medicine against poisons. Distribution: N. and S. Africa, N. Asia, Europe. '…provokes urine and the terms [periods], dries the brain, opens stoppings, helps the green sickness [iron deficiency anaemia], and profits such as have a cold weak liver outwardly applied it takes away the hardness of the matrix [=uterus] and fills hollow ulcers with flesh' (Culpeper, 1650). Dioscorides (Beck, 2005) recommends mashed leaves in hog's grease for healing scarring ulcers, and the seed in wine for dysentery and serpent bites. Goodyear's 1655 translation of Dioscorides (Gunther 2000) has this as cannabis, which Parkinson (1640) says is in error and summarises the manifold uses from classical authors, from removing splinters to stopping menorrhagia. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

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Credit: Agrimonia eupatoria L. Agrimony, Eupatorium, Maudlein. Perennial herb. The species name comes from king Mithridates Eupator VI of Pontus (132-63 BC) who took regular doses of poison to develop an immunity to them. A 'Mithridate' was a medicine against poisons. Distribution: N. and S. Africa, N. Asia, Europe. '…provokes urine and the terms [periods], dries the brain, opens stoppings, helps the green sickness [iron deficiency anaemia], and profits such as have a cold weak liver outwardly applied it takes away the hardness of the matrix [=uterus] and fills hollow ulcers with flesh' (Culpeper, 1650). Dioscorides (Beck, 2005) recommends mashed leaves in hog's grease for healing scarring ulcers, and the seed in wine for dysentery and serpent bites. Goodyear's 1655 translation of Dioscorides (Gunther 2000) has this as cannabis, which Parkinson (1640) says is in error and summarises the manifold uses from classical authors, from removing splinters to stopping menorrhagia. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London. Dr Henry Oakeley. Source: Wellcome Collection.