SC - Questions

[Kathleen M Everitt]

Every herbal has varying levels of comfort with the toxicity of various
plants.  I have one herbal that is sufficiently paranoid as to list Rosemary
as toxic in large enough doses!  However, this only underscores the need to
have several herbals for reference, not just one or two.  Also, remember that
the doses used in cooking are significantly lower than those used
"medicinally" which is what most herbals are bought for.

In addition, I will repeat here what I say to all newbies who want to practice
period herbalism:

IF YOU WANT TO PRACTICE PERIOD HERBALISM, PLEASE, *PLEASE* GET A COUPLE OF
MODERN HERBALS SO YOU CAN PRACTICE SAFELY!!!!

I am sorry, but I feel I can not stress this enough.

I then almost always will get they "But they did it in period..." arguement. 
Sure, the Italian women put belladonna in their eyes, but that is an
experiment I am not willing to try, are you?

Other plants to be handled with care (as we seem to be discussing this) are
tansy and pennyroyal.  Both these plants were used in cooking during period
(there is even a dish called Tansy), but we need to be careful.  I would
venture that part of the toxicity issue may be that we now have a different
tolerance for the alkaloids present in these plants than our predecessors did.

Lord Ras has been fortunate with the lack of side effects for him. I hope it
continues so for him.

Derdriu


- ----
This message was sent using a demo version of BBEdit, a product of Bare Bones
Software, Inc.
http://www.tiac.net/biz/bbsw/

- -- 
swensel at brandegee.lm.com