Historical Footnote

I made a Lilies-of-the-Valley tincture. It's an olde cardiac tonic, which has fallen into disuse in the Americas with the advent of pharmaceuticals owing to the many contraindications this plant has with many drugs on today's market. It is stimulating to the heart. Calcium supplements are not to be taken with this botanical. Calcium supplements are prized by many in the prevention of osteoporosis and other rheumatic conditions of the bones, however, there are a great many superior articles of the natural world that help to build bones naturally including teas made from nettles, oatstraw, horsetail, and the controversial comfrey root. Calcium supplements of any kind should be avoided by those who have had kidney problems, gallstones, or kidney stones, and those who do not get adequate exercise.

It is said by some that calcium supplements may contribute to the calcification of the pineal gland, which can be decalcified with the regular usage of loose leaf gotu kola tea, chorella or spirulina tablets, raw apple cider vinegar dressing, and a ginger-lemonade apertif. It is interesting to note that those who have suffered numerous concussions such as boxers, football players and the accident-prone, have a tendency toward angry fits and bouts of general confusion. It has been found that such persons also have significant cerebral calcification.

Lily-of-the-valley was used in antiquity for irregular heartbeat, dropsy (edema), urinary obstructions (kidney stones), epilepsy, strokes and resulting neuralgia, and leprosy. Sounds appetizing, does it not?

According to Botanic.com:
"Culpepper said of the Lily-of-the-Valley: 'It without doubt strengthens the brain and renovates a weak memory. The distilled water dropped into the eyes helps inflammations thereof. The spirit of the flowers, distilled in wine, restoreth lost speech, helps the palsy, and is exceedingly good in the apoplexy, comforteth the heart and vital spirits.'"


Historical Footnote:
An upcoming project is a wood betony extract, once used in the treatment of wildly-weeping-at-the-sea-and-claw-the-walls-hysteria. The archaic term "hysteria" comes from the notion Hippocrates put forward in his teachings, which is that a woman's womb wanders, floating up sometimes under the "cartilage of the heart"! The closest modern day equivalent might be panic attacks. Plato on the wandering womb: "It delights also in fragrant smells, and advances towards them; and it has an aversion to fetid smells, and flees from them; and, on the whole, the womb is like an animal within an animal.[1]" Ah....this explains so much