LOVAGE.

Description:

Ligusticum Officinale. It is a salad plant, having a strong and peculiar odour. The stalk is round, thick, and hollow, and deeply striated or channelled. The leaves are very large, each being composed of a number of smaller; these are set on a divided stalk, and are short, broad and indented at the edges. The flowers are small and yellow; the seeds are flat and brown. The root is thick, large and brown, having many fibres.

Herbal Remedies and Medicinal Uses of Lovage:

—The roots and fruit are aromatic, stimulant, and diaphoretic, and may be used as remedies for flatulency, and hysterical disorders arising from uterine obstructions. The fresh roots provoke urine, and are good in jaundice. As they are sudorific, they are good in fevers. Half a drachm at a time of the dried root in powder taken in wine, wonder­fully warms a cold stomach, and promotes digestion. It relieves inward gripings and pains. The decoction of the herb is good for the ague, and to ease pains in the bowels caused by cold. The seed is still more effectual. The distilled water or a strong decoction, as a gargle, relieves quinsy. The decoction drank three or four times a day is effectual in pleurisy. The juice applied to the eyes takes away inflammation. The leaves bruised, and fried with a little hog's lard, and laid hot to any blotch or boil, will quickly break it.