SC - Peppers?

[Decker, Terry D.]

Monastery gardens tended to serve the dual function of providing medicinal
plants for the pharmacy and pot herbs for the kitchen.  Much of the food
used by a monastery came from the rents and fees of its tenants, although
some maintained their own vegetable gardens and pastures, depending on the
order and the state of the monastery.

While the peppers may have been used for spicing, the larger purpose was the
pharmacy.  In the case of peppers, they would have been used to improve
circulation, increase blood pressure, improve salivation, and as a specific
against intestinal parasites.

Bear


> Bear commented:
> > BTW, I suspect the peppers at the monastery in Brno were 
> used as medicinals.
> 
> Why do you suspect those peppers in particular as being used 
> as medicinals
> as opposed to spices? Because monks were supposed to not live lives of
> luxury and that they were often into medicinals such as 
> alcohol? Or more
> to it than that?
> 
> And how would you use a pepper medcinally? "Here rub a little of this
> around your eye or on your tongue, and you will forget that little
> ache in your leg..."
> 
> -- 
> THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra