Medieval ..um...medicines!
I have just received a package of rare herbs and peppers taken from recipes and medical texts of the 14th century How many kinds of pepper can there be ? you might ask. Well my list runs to 17 peppers and 22 herbs - all of which were imported into england and hence were expensive.
The pepper most often mentioned in the texts I've gathered is "grains of paradise" - Cardamomum Aframomum. This has a unique taste - peppery but as you swallow you get a noticeable "feeling" through the chest and stomach. It warms from the inside. a bit like the effect of a strong liquer. It was used under the humor theory to restore warmth to cold.
One text recommends a poultice made from Grains of Paradise applied to sagging male bits to restore firmness, vigur,and pryde to the man. I havent tried this application yet, but if an ample bosomed re enactor female volunteered to assist me, I am prepared to be the guinea pig - all in the name of research !
Another "pepper" which is worth mentioning is Cubeb. The taste of one berry has the typical peppery hotness mixed with a "juniper" taste and then finally a distinctive clove taste which tingles in the mouth and leaves one breath fragrant for hours. I am impressed with how effective it is in doing this and wonder if it was used for this purpose (I have no references for it being used so).
I have also sent away for some genuine "Kermes" scarlet cloth produced by a couple of Israeli re enactors. These guys also happen to be chemists and their initial experiments in setting the dye into the cloth seem to indicate that the scarlets possibly did have curative antibacterial properties due to the fixing reagents.
I am still trying to find a text supporting the use of opium - either as a stupifying agent or a pain killer /tonic.
The pepper most often mentioned in the texts I've gathered is "grains of paradise" - Cardamomum Aframomum. This has a unique taste - peppery but as you swallow you get a noticeable "feeling" through the chest and stomach. It warms from the inside. a bit like the effect of a strong liquer. It was used under the humor theory to restore warmth to cold.
One text recommends a poultice made from Grains of Paradise applied to sagging male bits to restore firmness, vigur,and pryde to the man. I havent tried this application yet, but if an ample bosomed re enactor female volunteered to assist me, I am prepared to be the guinea pig - all in the name of research !
Another "pepper" which is worth mentioning is Cubeb. The taste of one berry has the typical peppery hotness mixed with a "juniper" taste and then finally a distinctive clove taste which tingles in the mouth and leaves one breath fragrant for hours. I am impressed with how effective it is in doing this and wonder if it was used for this purpose (I have no references for it being used so).
I have also sent away for some genuine "Kermes" scarlet cloth produced by a couple of Israeli re enactors. These guys also happen to be chemists and their initial experiments in setting the dye into the cloth seem to indicate that the scarlets possibly did have curative antibacterial properties due to the fixing reagents.
I am still trying to find a text supporting the use of opium - either as a stupifying agent or a pain killer /tonic.