Here at Jarrow Hall it is our privilege to work with students who are on placement with us through their universities. Therefore this blog post was written by Eleanor Meardon, a postgraduate student working with us from Newcastle University. Eleanor found herself interested in our herb garden and how the Anglo-Saxons used herbs in the past and decided to research further. If you enjoy this blog post, keep your eye out for the poster Eleanor created which is currently on display on the notice board in our main corridor!
The Anglo-Saxon leech (meaning “doctor” or “healer”) used a wide variety of herbs to treat illness and also injury. Medical books that survived from the time described these herbs, including Laeceboc (also known as Bald’s Leechbook), Lacnunga (meaning “Remedies”) and Herbarium Apulei (a Latin text translated into Old English c.1000AD).
Although people often think of the Anglo-Saxon period as a time of superstitions and rituals, most of the herbal treatments people used at the time were effective, and we continue to use many in healthcare today.
Note: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and therefore should not be used as medical advice.
arlic was part of a treatment called “Bald’s eyesalve”, a substance made with garlic, wine, leek and cow’s bile. This medicine aimed to cure sties small and painful lumps around the eyes caused by an infection.
Recent scientific studies have found Bald’s eyesalve to be an effective way of killing bacteria. In 2015, for example, researchers (including microbiologists and Anglo-Saxon scholars) teamed up to conduct experiments with the salve. They discovered that it was able to kill MRSA, a superbug that is increasingly resistant to antibiotics currently in use.
or the Anglo-Saxons, they believed lungwort was capable of treating different lung conditions. This was because it looked like diseased lung tissue. According to the ‘Doctrine of Signatures’, God designed the appearance of the natural world to mimic the parts of the body that it could treat. For example, people used walnuts to treat mental illness because of their similarity to the brain, and believed mandrakes could provide general wellbeing given their resemblance to the human body as a whole.
orehound was used to treat wounds, colds, and body aches. Similarly to garlic, we now know horehound has antimicrobial effects, indicating its success in the Anglo-Saxon treatment of injuries and viral diseases.
In addition, research has found horehound to be successful in reducing pain. For example, its main chemical component (marrubiin) reduces muscle tension, providing relief for stomach and joint aches.
he white poppy was recommended by leeches for eye pain, headaches and sleeplessness. The Herbarium Apulei, for example, instructed leeches to “take the juice of the plant, rub it on the person” and “quickly give [them] sleep”. Today, for example, we extract morphine and codeine from white poppies and use these as pain-relief medication.
atercress was thought to “cast out poison” by the Anglo-Saxons. As the ‘Nine Herb Charm’ in Lacnunga states, people believed that watercress (or ‘stune’, as it people called it at the time) was capable of “stand[ing] against venom”. Indeed, there is now evidence that watercress is effective at treating bacterial and fungal disease.
Although the Anglo-Saxons did not have our scientific understanding of infection, the idea of “cast[ing] out poison” mirrors our modern way of thinking about disease; harmful microorganisms enter the body from the outside world, much like poison, before the immune system “casts out” or neutralises them.
References
Anonye, B. O. et al. (2020) ‘The safety profile of Bald’s eyesalve for the treatment of bacterial infections’, Scientific Reports, 10, article number 17513. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-74242-2.
Bingham, K. (2021) The Doctrine of Signatures. Available at: https://www.johnmooremuseum.org/the-doctrine-of-signatures/ (Accessed: 4 April 2025).
Cameron, M. L. (2009) ‘Latin works translated into Old English: Herbarium and Peri Didaxeon’, in Anglo-Saxon Medicine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 59-64.
Chaudhary, S., Hisham, H. and Mohamed, D. (2018) ‘A Review on Phytochemical and Pharmacological Potential of Watercress Plant’, Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research, 11(2), pp. 102-197. Available at: https://www.ijpba.in/index.php/ijpba/article/view/390 (Accessed: 28 March 2025).
Michalak, M. et al. (2024) ‘Biological Activity of Horehound (Marrubium vulgare L.) Herb Grown in Poland and Its Phytochemical Composition’, Pharmaceuticals, 17(6), article number 780. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/ph17060780.
Stride, P. (2017) ‘Anglo-Saxon Medicine and the Nine Herbs Charm in the twenty-first century’, Indian Journal of Applied Research, 7(10). Available at: https://www.worldwidejournals.com/indian-journal-of-applied-research-(IJAR)/article/anglo-saxon-medicine-and-the-nine-herbs-charm-in-the-twenty-first-century/MTMxMzg=/?is=1 (Accessed: 28 March 2025).
Watkins, F. et al. (2011) ‘Anglo-Saxon pharmacopoeia revisited: a potential treasure in drug discovery’, Drug Discovery Today, 16(23-24), pp. 1069-1075. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2011.07.002.
Watts, D. (2007) ‘Doctrine of Signatures’, in Dictionary of Plant Lore. London: Elsevier, pp. 115-120.