Why did ladies use bean poultices?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
September 8, 2003
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John Gerard recognized three of the four main varieties of faba or fava (Vicia faba Linnaeus). He separated them as Faba major hortensis, the great garden Beane, Faba sylvestris, the wilde Beane, and a blacke Beane which "is not used with us at all...sowne onely in a few mens gardens, who be delighted in varietie and studie of herbes."
Gerard had unique (and not entirely wrong) ideas about the faba. "The Beane is windie meate....it is plainly seene, that the meale of Beanes clenseth away the filth of the skin; by reason of which qualitie it passeth not slowly through the belly. And...the Beanes themselves...are yet much more windie."
The bean was used as a styptic after treatment with leeches. "This Beane being divided into two parts (the skin taken off) by which it was naturally joined together, and applied, stancheth the bloud which doth too much issue forth after the biting of the horseleach, if the one halfe be laied upon the place."
Bean meal, the crushed dried seeds, was recommended for a number of problems. The meal mixed with Oxymel (honey and vinegar) was considered a treatment for bruises and "wounded parts...to take away the fiery heat....a good plaister and pultis (poultice) for mens stones and womens paps, for these parts when they are inflamed...."
Ladies did not breastfeed but used peasant women as wet nurses for their babies. Gerard stated this poultice dried up "the cluttered and congealed milke"; the mother could get back to socializing after her pregnancy. To make sure she looked good, the meal mixed with fenugreek and honey "doth take away blacke and blew spots....and tempered with wine healeth...stripes of the eies (irritated bloodshot eyes)." (The Herbal or General Historie of Plants, 1633 ed.)
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia has photographs of broad beans and information concerning world cultivation of this important food. To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fava_bean
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
Why does favism exist? Plants that Changed History - October 14, 2003
What is favism? Plants that Changed History - October 7, 2003
Why did ladies use bean poultices? Herbal Folklore - September 8, 2003
What is L-dopa? Plants that Changed History - September 2, 2003
What is a fava bean? Weird Plants - September 4, 2003
How did we get so many varieties from the common bean? Weird Plants - September 20, 2001
How is a toxin found in the kidney bean useful? Herbal Folklore - September 17, 2001
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