History Visits
Medical Dictionary
L
Within these pages I will try to list out some of the ailments the Anglo-Saxons suffered from, the remedies that might have been associated with them, and the tools and ingredients used.
For translations of the plant names, I have used the most excellent website (Dictionary of Old English Plant Names) found here. (It is free to register). Where a plant has been definitively identified the name will be written in regular text; where there is some discussion or confusion of the name, it will be highlighted and further notes will be underneath the entry. There are many issues around plant identification because of scribal error, foreign plants, etc...
These pages are for entertainment purposes only. Please always seek the help of a trained medical professional.
laurel (bay) laur
see here:
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If the belly be of wind full (bloating)
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laurelled oil containing laurel's juice and blossoms gelauredne ele laures seaw blostman
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laurel's blade (leaf) laures blede
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For spleen sick people
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laurel's bark laures rinde
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For an eyesalve
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laurel-berries lawer-berían, lauwinberigean
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For over-vomiting
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laurel-berries lawer-berían, lauwinberigean
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Healing-laws which the thinning power have and reducing
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laurel's flowers laures croppan
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Studies have been done into the medicinal properties of Laurus nobilis and shown the essential oil to have "antimicrobial, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antitumoral, acetylcholine esterase inhibiting properties".
Effect of Laurus nobilis L. Essential Oil and its Main Components on α-glucosidase and Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging Activity, by Serap Sahin Basak* and Ferda Candan
Resources:
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Cockayne, Leechdoms 1864
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National Library of Medicine / National Centre for Biotechnology Information website here