Saffron

Saffron

A Compendium of Domestic Medicine, 1865

All page numbers are recorded as (PDF #/SOURCE #)

Saffron is classified by Savory as an Emmenagogue (remedied which promote the flow of the menses)

“Was known to the ancients, and was employed by the Romans, both as a medicine, and for strewing the temples and theatres, to diffuse an agreeable odour through them. It was brought to England in the reign of Edward III., by a pilgrim, who concealed a bulb of it in his staff, made hollow for that purpose. Much evil is sometimes produced by the custom, prevalent among the lower classes, of administering saffron at the commencement of fevers attended with cutaneous eruptions—as, for example, measles and small-pox—with the idea of throwing out the eruption. It is also much used in cookery, confectionery, and by the dyers.” (148-149/127-8)

Remedies Containing or to be used with Saffron

• Bark, Canella (49/28): saffron is used in the recipe for usquebaugh (whisky), used to treat individuals with “gouty habit[s]” or individuals who suffer regularly from cramps or stomach spasms.
• Saffron (148-49/127-8): see def

Diseases Treated with Saffron

General Diseases

• Ague, or Intermittent Fever (225/204): syrup of saffron included in a cordial diaphoretic draught used during the first (cold) stage of the disease

Medical Articles Containing Saffron

• To Prevent Nightmare (324/303): syrup of saffron

Prescriptions Containing Saffron

Carminatives

• Stomach Mixture (Another) (342/323): syrup of saffron

Expectorants

• Diaphoretic Draught (348/327): syrup of saffron

Emmenagogues 349/

Embrocations

Emetics

• An Emetic Draught, in case of Poison being taken into the Stomach (351/330): syrup of saffron

Narcotics and Anodynes

• Narcotic Draught (352/331): syrup of saffron

Imported from

• France
• Spain
• Egypt
• Germany
• Spain and Canaries
• Ireland
• Channel Islands
• The Americas

Used to Make

• Dye and Colour Industry