Talk:Herbs

Marijuana should be added cus its a healing herb

• But was it used in a medieval context at all? I cant' think of a single example. And it's not a New World plant. It originated in Asia.--User 144 20:15, 3 October 2006 (EST)

• • You may want to check the various period herbals for information. The best source might be the Greek Dioscorides. -- Jibril al-`Attar 1324, 03-Oct-2006 (CST)

This piqued my fancy, so I did a 5 minute scan of the web:

• article gives reference to 1621 use to treat depression in England [1]

Not necessarily the most authoratitive, but suitably presented that it should be easy to trace sources.

• http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgadkw/papers/cannabis.pdf A fairly balanced view, which gives a few sources woth chasing up, and what looks like accurate quotes.

I'm left feeling that before 1600, marajuana was a rare medicinal drug in europe (the 2nd paper says the psycoactive content of hemp species grown away from the tropics was much lower) and an ordinary one in India, and that rarity has not excluded any other herbs from this list. As with most herbs, different names used for them during medieval times, makes them less visible.

As a fibre geek, we have alot of trouble telling hemp fibres from linen and nettle fibres, so it's rather hard to tell how much hemp was about. I suspect it was about, especially in lower class clothing, but I'm not sure how much. Anyway, that doesn't tell us how widely it was used in medicine, even were it widely used in textiles.

Tiff 23:08, 6 October 2006 (EST) It is also my understanding that types of hemp that have the THC drug aren't necessarily the same ones used in the production of hemp fibres for clothing, ropes. etc--User 144 10:57, 7 October 2006 (EST)