![\"Series](\"http:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Spices-scaled.jpg\")
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The Health Sciences and Human Services Library Historical Collections\u2019 strives to provide broad access to our diverse collections both in person and digitally. Materials in our collections appear as they originally were published or created and may contain offensive or inappropriate language or images and may be offensive to users. The University of Maryland, Baltimore does not endorse the views expressed in these materials. Materials should be viewed in the context in which they were created.<\/sup><\/p>\n The holiday and winter seasons have common ingredients, usually with bold, warming flavors.\u00a0 The holiday bread, cookie, and cake recipes call for spices and flavorings like nutmeg, ginger, vanilla, and clove or nuts like walnuts and almonds.\u00a0 Historically however, these ingredients were prescribed for a variety of ailments in botanicals and herbals.<\/p>\n Like the post highlighting medicinal uses for winter fruits<\/a>, this post will look at common holiday spices, flavorings, and nuts found in William Woodville\u2019s Medical Botany<\/em> and Robert Bentley\u2019s Medicinal Plants. <\/em>Both men were botanists from England and both works are found in the HSHSL\u2019s Historical Collections.\u00a0 Woodville\u2019s volumes were published in the 1790s, while Bentley\u2019s volumes were published nearly a decade later in 1880 and are digitized<\/a> in the UMB Digital Archive. Read on to see how these comforting holiday flavors were once used for very different purposes.<\/p>\n Common Holiday Spices<\/strong><\/p>\n llicium anisatum <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Common name: Star-Anise or Skimmi in Japan<\/p>\n The oil was used as an expectorant, used in lozenges for coughs.\u00a0 Star-anise was prescribed to help with stomach gases, to promote milk secretion in lactating mothers, to help children with colic, and as a cathartic.\u00a0 Additionally, star-anise was used in medicine for cattle.\u00a0 As it is used today, the oil and fruit from Illicium anisatum<\/em> were also used for flavor to hide other medicines or in spirits.<\/p>\n Myristica fragrans<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Common name: Nutmeg<\/p>\n Nutmeg has a strong, pleasant aroma and a warm, bitter taste.\u00a0 It was used medicinally as a stimulant and for stomach issues and was used to treat mild cases of diarrhea, flatulent colic, and dyspepsia. In large doses it was found to be a narcotic. It was most used to cover the bad taste of other medicines or as a condiment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Caryophyllus aromaticus <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Common name: Clove Tree<\/p>\n Clove is aromatic with a hot and spicey flavor.\u00a0 It was traditionally preserved by immersing the clove in boiling water, fumigating it, and then exposing it to the sun to dry out.\u00a0 Clove is a powerful stimulant for muscular fibres.\u00a0 It was used in some cases to treat atonic gout.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Rosmarinus officinalis<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Common name: Rosemary<\/p>\n Oleum Rosmarini or \u201coil of rosemary\u201d was produced from the plant, with similar scents and tastes and was commonly used externally with other substances to stimulate the growth of hair or in lotions for its pleasant scent. \u00a0Rosemary has stimulant and carminative properties.\u00a0 The plant was prescribed to stimulate or increase menstruation.\u00a0 The leaves could be used as a tea and was prescribed for hypochondriacal people and dyspeptics.\u00a0\u00a0 Finally, rosemary was given to help with hysteria and nervous headaches.<\/p>\n Common Holiday Flavors<\/strong><\/p>\n Zingiber officinale <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Common name: Ginger<\/p>\n There are varieties of ginger depending on where it is grown: Jamaica, Cochin, Bengal, and Africa.\u00a0 Ginger is prescribed in two forms in the British Pharmacopoeia and Pharmacopoeia of India: coated or unscraped and uncoated or scraped.\u00a0 When used internally, ginger was a stimulant and used in the treatment of stomach pain.\u00a0 Ginger was also prescribed for external use to dilate capillaries and improve circulation, sometimes to relieve headaches and toothaches. Ginger was also prescribed for atonic dyspepsia and as an addition to other medicines to correct stomach pain.<\/p>\n Vanilla planifolia<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Common name: Vanilla or Baynilla (in Mexico)<\/p>\n Vanilla has a strong, aromatic odor and warm, sweet taste.\u00a0 It was used as an aromatic stimulant and was regarded as an aphrodisiac.\u00a0 Vanilla was prescribed as a remedy for hysteria, low fevers, and impotency.\u00a0 More regularly vanilla was used for its flavor in lozenges and medical mixtures.\u00a0<\/p>\n Common Holiday Nuts<\/strong><\/p>\n Amygdalus communis<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Amygdalus communis <\/em>is a tree that grows to about twelve to sixteen feet tall with large pale red flowers. The tree flowers in March and April and is a native of Barbary.\u00a0 It was cultivated in England in 1570.<\/p>\n The medicinal qualities of the Almond Tree were discussed as far back as antiquity being mentioned by both Theophrastus and Hippocrates. Almond oil was used internally as a laxative, to sooth coughs and horseness, and for kidney pains.\u00a0 Externally the oil was used to relieve tension and muscle pain.\u00a0 Almond emulsions were also prescribed for inflammatory disorders.\u00a0 The London College prescribed the addition of Almond to gum Arabic to make it easier to use to relieve inflammation caused by colds.<\/p>\n Juglans regia<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Common name: Common Walnut Tree<\/p>\n Unripe walnuts are bitter and in this form were used as a pickle and as a laxative.\u00a0 The London College prescribed walnuts to kill parasitic worms. Walnuts were also used to treat mouth ulcers and sore throats.<\/p>\n William Woodville\u2019s and Robert Bentley\u2019s volumes are found in the Pharmacy Collection in the HSHSL\u2019s Historical Collections.\u00a0 This collection contains influential pharmacy and medical texts, as well as dispensatories, pharmacopoeias, botanicals, and herbals from around the world. The volumes in the collection date from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.\u00a0 Many, including Robert Bentley\u2019s text are available through the UMB Digital Archive<\/a>.\u00a0 Additionally, images from Woodville\u2019s Medical Botany<\/em> were used in the Library\u2019s 2020 Coloring Book<\/a>.<\/p>\n Happy Holidays from Historical Collections!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The holiday and winter seasons have common ingredients, usually with bold, warming flavors.\u00a0 The holiday bread, cookie, and cake recipes call for spices and flavorings like nutmeg, ginger, vanilla, and clove or nuts like walnuts and almonds.\u00a0 Historically however, these ingredients were prescribed for a variety of ailments in botanicals and herbals. Continue reading ![\"Botanical](\"http:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/medicinalplantsb01bent_star_anise-300x203.jpg\")
Illicium anisatum<\/em> is a small tree that blossoms from January to April and is native to Japan.\u00a0 The tree was cultivated in China and introduced in England in 1842.\u00a0 The fruit, called \u201cstar-anise,\u201d has eight or nine points forming a star shape.\u00a0 The fruit is dried to sell and has a pleasant aromatic odor; the taste is a mixture of fennel and anise or black licorice.\u00a0 An oil, called oil of anise or oleum badiani, is produced from the tree.<\/p>\n![\"Botanical](\"http:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/medicinalplantsb03bent_nutmeg-300x203.jpg\")
Myristica fragrans<\/em> is a small evergreen tree that produces fruit the size of a small pear. The seed of the fruit is known as \u201cnutmeg.\u201d\u00a0 The tree was native to Moluccas (Maluku Islands) and Indian Islands, Amboyna Island, Bouro (Portugal), New Guinea, the Philippines, Bencoolen (British East India Company), Penang Island, Singapore, Mauirtius, West Indies, and South America.\u00a0 The tree was introduced to Europe in 1795. The fruit harvest occurred from September to December as well as April to June.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Botanical](\"http:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Woodville_Clove-Tree-200x300.jpg\")
Caryophyllus aromaticus <\/em>is a small tree native of the East Indies, Moluccas (Maluku Islands), and New Guinea.\u00a0 According to Woodville, Dutch traders were rumored to have clove trees outside of their jurisdiction destroyed to hold a monopoly on the clove trade.\u00a0 This confined the trees to the Island of Ternate controlled by the Dutch. \u00a0The Dutch monopoly ended in 1770 when clove and nutmeg trees were brought to the Isle of France, Bourbon, and Seickelles.<\/p>\n![\"Botanical](\"http:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/medicinalplantsb03bent_rosemary-191x300.jpg\")
Rosmarinus officinalis<\/em> is a small shrub native to the Mediterranean. The shrub was also commonly found near the coast in warm, dry, hilly areas in Spain and Asia Minor and in Northern Africa, reaching to Madeira and the Canary Islands.\u00a0 It flowers in April and May.\u00a0 Rosemary is aromatic and has a warm, bitter taste.\u00a0 The flavor and scent are strongest when the plant is fresh; both are impaired when the plant is dried.<\/p>\n![\"Botanical](\"http:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/medicinalplantsb04bent_ginger-196x300.jpg\")
Zingiber officinale <\/em>is a perennial herb.\u00a0 Ginger has a large underground stem, known as a rhizome. It is tough, pale yellow, covered with pale silvery-brown skin, with persistent roundish joints and numerous roots.\u00a0 Ginger is native to tropical Asia and abundant in the West Indies.\u00a0 It was exported to Europe sometime in the seventeenth century.<\/p>\n![\"Botanical](\"http:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/medicinalplantsb04bent_vanilla-300x208.jpg\")
Vanilla planifolia <\/em>is a succulent. It is a dark green perennial climber that grows from five to six inches long.\u00a0 The plant flowers in April and May and is related to orchids.\u00a0 Vanilla is native to southeast Mexico, Vera Cruz, Mauritius, Bourbon, Madagascar, and Java.\u00a0 It was introduced to England sometime around 1800.\u00a0 The plant produces pods, which were traditionally collected before they were fully ripe, dried in the shade, and then covered in a coating of oil.<\/p>\n![\"Botanical](\"http:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Woodville_Almond-216x300.jpg\")
Common name: Almond Tree<\/p>\n![\"Botanical](\"http:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Woodville_Walnut-206x300.jpg\")
Juglans regia <\/em>is a large tree that flowers in April and May.\u00a0 The fruit of the tree ripens at the end of September.\u00a0 The walnut tree is native to Persia but was cultivated in England during Woodville\u2019s time.\u00a0<\/p>\n