Some principles of Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) herbalism, as seen from Calontir:

Ms. Agnes deLanvallei

February 2005

1. Plants contain effective biologically active compounds. They range from benevolent to deadly poisonous. (Thoughts on safety).

2. Medieval herbals were repositories for medical information.Physicians summarized what they knew for other physicians. To read the Latin they wrote in, you needed to be quite educated Some (many?) of the treatments they described would be "prescriptions" today: only trained medical professional can get this compound for you, frequently in a specified number of doses.

3. Standardized plant names are post-Medieval. Linneaus in 1753 made order of chaos by beginning what are now called scientific names.Linneaus assigned a unique scientific name to each species. Subsequent botanists have applied the system to all the world's plants (and other organisms) and worked out points of confusion. There is no such system in the Middle Ages. Even the experts are guessing what plant is referred to in Medieval herbals when they assign a scientific name.

4. Herbal knowledge has gotten much better in the last 10-15 years. Science doesn?t stand still, it continually revises and reassesses. Botanical references from 1970 will contain names that have since been revised (and all revision is intended to clarify, tho it may not succeed.)Plants were not much used by individuals for cosmetics or medicine across the 20^th century until its waning years. Thus, much herbal information was passed on without testing or addition. Things have changed rapidly of late, with great interest by individuals in using herbs themselves, with a concomitant increase in the knowledge base.Use recent resources to check safety or names.

5. Reliable references exist and are expanding Be very aware of the biases that are inherent in every person: some authors will be very cautious to avoid lawsuits; I'm an academic, I'm into thinking about, not doing; others may be highly critical of "establishment conservatism".

1. Names. Each plant has a correct scientific name, so in principle you can identify each leaf to a species and then search for what is known about that species. Online references for names are getting better all the time: USDA Plants national data base for US plants plants.usda.gov

2. Medical contents.The medical profession is starting to take herbal medicines seriously and consider them in the treatment of patients. Look for better and better resources, for example Physicians'Desk Reference for Herbal Medicines

3. Safety. A variety of modern sources have considered safety.I'd recommend Germany's Commission E Herbal Monographs (U.S.link / commentary) ; USDA, Physicians' Desk Reference; Rodale Farms' Organic Gardening publications . These groups have very different constituencies and so provide different angles on the issue.