Witches' flying ointment – Part 3
Deadly Nightshade berry harvest You will remember that in Part 1 of this series we looked at the general properties of herbs which could potentially be used as anaesthetics, and in Part 2 we looked at how to grow and preserve some of these herbs. The herbs of particular interest are Henbane, Wolfsbane (aka Monkshood), Belladonna (aka Deadly Nightshade) and Jimsonweed (aka Thornapple). Now in Part 3, we are going to take the first steps into making them into useable medicinal preparations. This is still a work in progress. I haven't been able to produce a working herbal anaesthetic yet, but I'm happy to tell you where I've got to so far, and where I'm planning to go next. My current problem is finding or working out a recipe. These would have been known to Roman physicians and medieval monks, village healers and “cunning-folk”, but they were probably mostly passed down orally from mother to daughter or master to apprentice. If they were written down, the man...