HERB - new Russian herbal

[Kathleen H. Keeler]

Greetings from Mistress Agnes
This week I picked up "A Russian Herbal" Igor V. Zevin, Healing Arts Press,
Rochester VT 1997  ISBN 0 892816260paperback $14.95

Its compiled by a Russian now in the US.  The book talks of modern herbal
plant uses --in which I am not much interested in an SCA context-- but I
couldn't resist it for 1) the history and 2) the plants covered

1) the historical sketch in the beginning is brief but covers an area about
which I knew nothing--the names of the famous herbal writers of the last
300 years --Gmelin, Pallas, Lehepin, Ambodisk-Maksimovich were new to me
(well, I recognize Gmelin as taxonomic botanist).
  In the entries on the plants, the historical stories are often different
from the usual western ones: a Mongol invasion Tartar story for _Althaea_
(marshmallow), Russian folk tales for lily-of-the-valley (_Convallaria_).
"Czar Michael I ordered that no less than 100 pounds of St. John's wort be
collected every year" (Russian proverb: It is as impossible to make bread
without flower as it is to heal people without St. Johns wort") (_Hypericum
perforatum_)
There are plenty of entries that cite western European traditions too

2) the plants represent the Asian and Greek ties of Russia, not just the
ties to western Europe
   _Aloe_, _Althaea_, _Angelica_, _Anise_, _Arnica_  -- are familiar
but Restharrow (_Ononis spinosa_, pea family), yellow gentian (_Gentiana
lutea_, Gentian family), pheasant's eye (_Adonis vernalis_. buttercup
family)
are a lot less common.

There's data where the plants are found and how to prepare them. I can't
address the validity of that stuff, but there are certainly a number of
bold face safety statements.

Altogether a nice book!  I recommend it.

Agnes deLanvallei, O.L., Calontir
Dedicated to the study and safe recreation of the use of plants in the
Middle Ages. If I can assist you in your investigations, I'd be honored.
kkeeler1 at unl.edu


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