Nicholas Culpeper was the son of an English clergyman, and he studied medicine at Cambridge University. When he began to practice, he gave plant medicines at minimal cost to his impoverished patients.
He always preferred English plants and insisted on using English, not Latin, names. The Herbal by John Gerard was published in 1597, and Culpeper published his version in 1649. During that time, astrology was the basis for deciding which plants would be used for specific diseases.
Although Culpeper died at 38, his ideas and methods persisted long after his death. For example, for shortness of breath, he advocated the use of catmint, fennel, rue, saffron, and thyme; for burns and scalds, he used lilies; and for convulsions he recommended lavender, hellebore, lily of the valley, and cowslip.
An example of one of his early remedies is digitalis from foxgloves, which is still in use today, by prescription only of course, for heart disease. Digitalis purpurea is a tall plant with reddish-purple flowers. Nowadays, pharmaceutical companies make synthetic versions for use by the medical profession. Its use was advocated to the medical profession by Dr. William Withering in 1775. However, an infusion made from the leaves of foxgloves boiled in water was described by Culpeper in his Herbal in 1649.
This is Moya Andrews and today we focused on Nicholas Culpeper.
