The Eight Galenic Classes of Medicinal Herbs

The Basic Pharmacopoeia of Greek Medicine

 

            Galen organized the core of the Greek materia medica into eight categories suited to treatment of common conditions – probably for the purpose of memorization.  The following list is from the London Pharmacopoeia of John Quincy (1736, 54), with some modernization of names and a few corrections.  Some sources give coriander rather than caraway.  Quincy incorrectly gives “scariola” instead of chicory.  I have substituted fenugreek for “mercury,” the identity of which is uncertain.  There is some debate among scholars about violet, but practicing herbalists recognize violet as an outstanding emollient, and therefore probably the correct plant. 

 

	Five Emollient Herbs			Four Lesser Cold Seeds
		Mallows Marshmallows Violet Fenugreek Pellitory			Endive Chicory Lettuce Purslane
	Four Greater Hot Seeds			Five Greater Opening Roots
		Anise Seed Fennel Caraway (or Coriander Cumin			Smallage Fennel Asparagus Parsley Butcher's Broom
	Four Lesser Hot Seeds			Five Lesser Opening Roots
		Ammi Cardamom Smallage (Celery) Wild Carrot			Couch Grass Madder Eryngo Capers Rest Harrow
	Four Greater Cold Seeds			Four Cordial Flowers
		Cucumber Pumpkin Watermelon Melon			Borage Bugloss (Echium vulgaris) Roses Violets

 

            Emollients break up hardness, dryness, and indurations; hot seeds stimulate vital activities and warm up the tissues; cold seeds sedate, cool, and relax tissues; opening roots primarily promote diuresis, break up clotted blood, release gas, swellings, and stones; cordials lift the spirits.

 

John Quincy, M.D.  Pharmacopoeia officinalis &c. Extermporanea.  Or, A Complete English Dispensatory, In Four Parts.  London: Thomas Longman, 1736.

 

copyright © MMVI  Matthew Wood