Ingredient: Coffee

Coffee is a most powerful antiseptic, and therefore very useful as a disinfectant. It has been used as a specific against cholera with marvellous results, and is useful in all cases of intestinal derangement. But only the pale-roasted varieties should be taken, as the roasting develops the poisonous, irritating properties. There is always danger in the roasting of grains or berries on account of the new substances that may be developed.

I do not recommend coffee as a beverage, but as a medicine.

Source: Food Remedies: Facts About Foods And Their Medicinal Uses, Florence Daniel

Ingredient: Lavender

It is very much to be regretted that the nerve-soothing vegetable perfumes of our grandmothers have been superseded, for the most part, by the cheap mineral products of the laboratory. Scents really prepared from the flowers that give them their names are expensive to make, and consequently high-priced. The cheap scents are all mineral concoctions, and their use is more or less injurious. A penny-worth of dried lavender flowers in a muslin bag is even cheaper to buy, inoffensive to smell — which is more than can be said of cheap manufactured scents — and possesses medicinal properties.

Lavender flowers were formerly used for their curative virtues in all disorders of the head and nerves.

An oil, prepared by infusing the crushed lavender flowers in olive oil, is recommended for anointing palsied limbs, and at one time a spirit was prepared from lavender flowers which was known as “palsy drops.”

A tea made with hot water and lavender tops will relieve the headache that comes from fatigue.

Dr. Fernie advises 1 dessertspoonful per day of pure lavender water for eczema.

The scent of lavender will keep away flies, fleas, and moths.

Source: Food Remedies: Facts About Foods And Their Medicinal Uses, Florence Daniel

Mandrake

Given in chronic liver and bowel complaints. Its properties for exciting the liver to healthy action has few equals. It has been given successfully for incontinence of urine. A teaspoonful of powder in treacle once or twice a day.

Source: Fray’s Golden Recipes for the use of all ages, E. Fray

Broom

This is a plant common enough in England, growing in abundance on most of our commons and heaths. It has very powerful and diuretic properties, which render it useful in cases of dropsy, and other diseases of the kind. The tops and seeds are the parts used, but principally the former. They are usually taken in the form of a decoction, and prepared thus :—

Broom Tops, 2 ounces.

Water, 1 quart.

Boil down to a pint and a half, and strain.

Dose:— A wineglassful three or four times a day.

In liver complaints the above decoction, with an equal quantity of dandelion roots, is held to be very efficacious. The same decoction will draw away all phlegmatic and watery humours from the joints, thereby helping the gout, sciatica, and pains of the hips and limbs; it cleanses the kidneys and expels the gravel and stone, provokes urine abundantly, and taken occasionally, will prevent the water and stone forming again in the body.

Source: Baldwin’s Herbal Guide To Health, G. Baldwin

Rhubarb

The primary action of rhubarb is that of a mild purgative, but it has also tonic and astringent properties, so that its secondary effects are to confine the bowels; hence it is well fitted for use in diarrhoea, but not in constipation, or any affection in which a continuous aperient action is necessary. It is not fitted for inflammatory or febrile cases, although it seldom acts as an irritant; its stimulating, combined with its aperient properties, render it valuable in dyspepsia. Generally speaking, it suits children and aged persons best. Where the bowels are sluggish, combined with ginger and a little extract of dandelion, it makes an excellent dinner pill. The ordinary dose of the powder is from 20 to 36 grains. Some persons have no objection to chew the root, and to such as have not, this is a very good way of taking it. There is an immense variety of medical compounds of which rhubarb forms an important ingredient. Mixed with an equal proportion of carbonate of soda it is an excellent remedy for the irritation of the bowels, common with children when teething. As a common aperient for the young, it is best given combined with magnesia. With both children and adults it has the property of communicating a deep tinge to the urine — this should be known, as the change of colour in the secretion of the kidneys may occasion alarm and misconception. Garden rhubarb when used as food has a slight aperient action upon the bowels In some cases this may be beneficial, but not in all; those who have a tendency to relaxed bowels should not take it. Generally speaking, it is a wholesome and cooling article of diet.

Source: Baldwin’s Herbal Guide To Health, G. Baldwin

Arnica

For internal bruises nothing answers so well as tincture of arnica. 10 drops in a tablespoonful of water every three hours. It is also one of the best remedies for external bruises of all kinds, relieving the pain caused by blows, falls or other injuries. A lotion made of 1 part of the tincture to 10 of water, apply immediately by well saturating a piece of lint and covering over with oiled silk to prevent evaporation. The sooner this is done after receiving the injury the more likely it is to do good.

Source: Fray’s Golden Recipes for the use of all ages, E. Fray

Agrimony

Agrimony, used freely in the manner of tea, will cure an ulcerated mouth, and is good for liver and kidney complaints. 1 ounce to a pint of boiling water. Dose, a wine-glassful three times a day.

Source: Fray’s Golden Recipes for the use of all ages, E. Fray

Broom Tops

There is no remedy so healthful to those who suffer from heaviness of the limbs and tendency to dropsy as a decoction of fresh broom tops. Half an ounce of the tops should be boiled in a pint of water down to a gill. A wine-glassful every three hours.

Source: Fray’s Golden Recipes for the use of all ages, E. Fray

Burdock

The value of this plant cannot be too much known for its direct action on the blood, whether for scurvy, skin eruptions, leprosy, scrofula, venereal, ulcers, kidney disease, convulsions, fits, &c. It is invaluable. Two ounces to be used to three pints of water. This simmer down to two pints; take a gill three times a day.

Source: Fray’s Golden Recipes for the use of all ages, E. Fray

Borage

This plant contains a certain amount of saltpetre, as may be proved by burning a dried leaf. For this reason, it is used with great benefit for the relief of sore throats. The root is rich in gum, and if boiled yields a mucilaginous emulsion, excellent for irritation of the throat and chest. Very violent attacks of toothache, where the nerve has taken cold, are often cured by holding a portion of the leaves, previously boiled in milk, and applied warm, in the mouth, against the affected tooth.

Source: The Universal Cookery Book, Gertrude Strohm