Herbs

Like their relatives, the high mallow and althea plants are sweet and soft. Even their leaves are delicately covered with velvet-like hairs. Dioscorides already recommended this plant in the 1st …

The psychological effects of the opium poppy plant were already known by the Ancient Sumerians 5000 years ago. Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher, botanist, and physician who lived in the 3rd …

The yerba mate plant comprises the ingredients of a trendy drink in South America, especially in regions where the diet is meat-based. Its aroma, chemical composition, and effects resemble those …

Over the ages, the hemp plant has been grown to obtain textile fibers for ropes and fabrics. The drunkenness and mental disorders that the men working with hemp fibers suffered …

Poison hemlock is quite widespread, and it is worth knowing how to distinguish it from other plants belonging to the same botanical family, Umbelliferae, to which it is similar: European …

Prickly lettuce is unlike farmed lettuce, which is tender and milky, just as it is used in salads; however, it lacks practically any medicinal properties. Instead, it is a valuable …

The red eyebright plant has been used since the Middle Ages and onwards to heal conjunctivitis, blepharitis (inflammation of the eyelids), superficial keratitis (inflammation of the cornea), and eye tearing. …

The great 11th-century Arabic physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna) said the bee balm plant “has the admirable property of giving comfort and joyfulness.” From the early 17th century onwards, the Barefooted …

The wolfsbane plant has the highest concentration of poison of all plants growing in Europe. This concentration is only exceeded by another species of the same genus, the Aconitum Ferox …

The Ebers papyrus records that the henbane plant was already used in Babylon (15th century B.C.) to heal toothaches. Dioscorides (1st century A.D.), the father of phytotherapy, also mentions its …