Herbal Lesson 21

## **Materia Medica and Repertory...**

Daniel Blankley - Tuesday, December 26, 2017

**The Materia Medica and Repertory....**

These are two of the four most important volumes in developing medicine up through the 19th century; the third was the Formulary, and the Fourth was the Pharmacopia. These terms all evolved from Latin or Greek and were not the fault of medicine, it was the church. As the Christian church evolved in the Roman Empire it adopted the language and numbers of the Romans as well, and that was Latin. After the Crusades the church was largely responsible for the continuation of Herbal Medicine throughout Europe and all the monasteries and convents doubled as hospitals. Latin was used throughout Christendom and was to remain in medicine, law and the church for centuries to come.
When I entered high school, we were sent to the guidance counselor who suggested (and sometimes decided and assigned) the classes we would take, and that was the unhappy way I entered Latin Class in ninth grade, which she decided was necessary were I to ever go to university. I never did enter those Ivy Covered Walls but attended vocational and community colleges instead.

Latin and I did not get on well from the start and the students had a rhyme which we recited.

Latin is a Dead Language,

It’s Dead as Dead can be!

First it Killed The Romans,

And Now It’s Killing Me!

I dropped out of Latin at the end of the first quarter, Alas Latin was to come back and haunt me repeatedly throughout my life.

Materia Medica simply means “Medical Material” in Latin.

Before chemistry when Alchemy and mystery were the manner of medicine, each Plant was cataloged by its Common Name and Botanical Name which (you guessed it were mostly Latin more about that later). Also were described how to find it (there were few pictures and only a few drawings), and when to collect it. Often the church had a hand here, so one collected on some holy day or on some phase of the moon, or when there was no moon at all. Astrology became an integral part of Herbalism. You see this evident in The First English HERBAL by Nicholas Culpeper “The English Physician”

**ASTROLOGY was somewhat different in those days.** The church despised astrology along with witchcraft and the practice of ‘divining’ future events through the stars could get a person barbecued. Instead the ‘signs’ were observed as a sort of celestial agricultural clock. It remains with us today in the form of “The Old Farmers Almanac”. Plant when the moon is in this phase and harvest with the moon is in another “The Harvest Moon”. Each healing plant had a time when it could be planted or gathered, and until Nicholas Culpeper it was all in Latin and readable only by priests and Nuns and those educated by them.

 **The English Physician was a HERBAL for the uneducated** and Apothecaries and Physicians were outraged that their secrets should all become public knowledge. Besides the Holy Bible, it was the second greatest work to be translated into common language!

Fortunately for us, HERBALS continue to be published in common languages so Latin is not necessary..

... well almost  \*sigh\*

**Botanical Names**

Botanical Names were originally all in common Latin and it became evident from the start that many plants had similar or even identical common names. Wort meant “weed” and how many weeds are there for crying out loud? Many were named after saints or even the Nun or Monk who favored them. Saint John’s Wort was named by the monk who favored its use. Then the opposite sometimes happened.. the same herb was called something different in another town or country. It was difficult to know and buy and dispense herbals. Eventually the names were standardized around the 1880s and refined again in the 2000s to the standard we have today.

**Learning Botanical Names... But Ma! I don’t wanna learn Latin!**

Okay it is not as hard as you might think, and it is not exactly true Latin either.

**Historical Roots of Botanical Names**

Sometimes, a botanical name is called a plant’s “Latin” name – even though they aren’t really Latin anymore. Botanical names were originally based on Latin, though, which was the language of higher learning in Europe up until the 1700s.

Botanical names are also sometimes referred to as “binomial nomenclature” because botanical names are made of two parts. The two-name system was first consistently used by Carolus Linnaeus, (sometimes known as Carl Linnaeus) a Swedish scientist, in his 1753 book Species Plantarum (Species of Plants).

Nowadays, botanical names are determined by rules listed in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), which was also known as the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature up until 2011 (ICBN). Changes and additions are voted on by the International Botanical Congress, and the ICN is revised and updated every six years.

Botanical names are important because the common names we use can be so confusing! Depending on where you live, dandelion may be better known as an Irish daisy, monk’s head, priest’s crown, blowball, or swine’s snout. Adding to the confusion, two or more plants can share a common name– all heal, for instance, can refer to three different herbs – do you mean Stachys? Or possibly Prunella vulgaris? Ah, you meant Valeriana officinalis – the only one with white flowers and a pungent smell.

Botanical names are recognized by herbalists and botanists worldwide, no matter what language they speak, and they help us use herbs safely by eliminating confusion about which herb we are discussing. Learning botanical names is a useful skill to practice, but first let’s look at a little history behind the names.
How a Plant Gets Its Name

But that may still leave you scratching your head about how each herb gets its own unique moniker, or how to make sense of a botanical name. It helps to remember that the first part of each name tells us the genus of the plant, and the second part tells us its species.

The genus is always capitalized, and can belong to more than one herb. It describes plants that botanists have grouped together according to their similarities. The second part of the name tells us the species of the herb, and is never capitalized. As an example, all willow trees are in the genus Salix. The species, though, tells us which type of willow – Salix alba is white willow, and Salix nigra is black willow. In this case, both have similar herbal uses, but each has unique applications, as well.

Botanical names are treated like Latin phrases, even though the modern inspirations for names can come from almost anywhere – personal names, languages other than Latin, place names, anagrams, or even puns or jokes. By treating everything like Latin, botanists make sure that there is at least some common ground among all botanical names, regardless of where or how the name originated. Usually, the person responsible for discovering the plant is given the honor of naming it, although the original name may be changed if new discoveries about a plant are made, and botanists decide that it is in the wrong genus. Thankfully, renaming doesn’t happen all that often.

Sometimes you will see a botanical name followed by another name in quotations, like Lavender angustifolia ‘Munstead’. This third name is called a cultivar epithet. Cultivars are created by domestic plant breeders who have selected for specific qualities within a species.

**Using Botanical Names Like a Pro**

* Now that you have some background about botanical names, you can dive into the nitty gritty of using them! There are just a few simple rules you need to know to get started:
* When writing botanical names, use italics if the rest of the text is normal. If the whole sentence needs to be in italics, make the botanical name in regular font – basically, make it stand out visually from the words around it.
* Capitalize the genus portion of the name, but never the species.
* When you are discussing several different species, you can shorten the genus name after the first use. So, for instance, Rosa rugosa, Rosa gallica, and Rosa canina can become R. rugosa, R. gallica, and R. canina.
* Spp. is shorthand for several species, so if you want to refer to a number of rose species generally, you could use the abbreviation Rosa spp.
* Sometimes a botanical name is written with an ‘x,’ like Rosa x alba. This just means that this species is thought to be a cross between two other species (in this case, Rosa gallica and Rosa canina).

**Tips for Learning**

Because botanical names help us get specific within the world of herbs, it’s helpful to incorporate them into your Herbal Studies, and it’s easy, too! Try double labeling your extracts and dried herbs with the common name on one side and the botanical name on the other, or making botanical name markers for your garden. Flashcards are an old standby, of course, or you can create your own word search puzzles or crosswords using an on-line puzzle maker if you’d like something a little more fun and challenging.

Botanical names don’t have to be intimidating, and they go a long way in helping clear up confusion, while increasing our safety when working with herbs, and helping us find reliable information about the herbs we use. They are a valuable part of any herbal education, and open the door to a new level of knowledge to explore.

The Following Sites give a lot of Help to Gardeners about Plant Naming and saying them

**Why We Use Botanical Names to Identify Plants**

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/plantnames.html

**HOW TO PRONOUNCE BOTANICAL NAMES**

 http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/Pronunciation.htm

**How do you say that plant name?**

http://laptopgardener.com/?p=860

The Repertory

“Repertory” simply meant an “index or catalog” in Latin in the mid 16th century.. from Latin repert- ‘found, or discovered.

As making remedies advanced from SIMPLING with a simple remedy for a single illness, to FORMULATIONS of several ingredients, the recipes began to be cataloged in a book called a REPERORY with its “Provings” or evidence that it worked, together with the recipe to make it, and indexed to the type of Illness. It might be nicknamed the “First Physician’s Desk Reference”.

**Originally HERBALS were in the two parts**, a Materia Medica with lengthy descriptions of the individual plants and a separate REPERTORY with index what to use them for and how to prepare them. Since Herbalism continued to be mostly simpling or combinations few and with equal parts of the ingredients, the two were combined into the single HERBAL and remain mostly like that today. Recipes of complex Herbal combinations, or those mixing Herbs with non-herbal substances were kept in a book called a FORMULARY. This list of recipes and the ones which every Apothecary or Pharmacy should stock was called the PHARMACOPIA. This practice continued as long as pharmacists had to ‘make up’ the prescription from scratch in the back of the ‘Drug Store’.

Some of these old FORMULARIES survived and are archived by a few loving people who do not want to see them disappear. One of the most famous is:

Fenner's Complete Formulary and Handbook (1888) Unlike such official pharmaceutical texts as the U.S.P, National Formulary and the U.S.Dispensatory (see below), Fenner's was meant to be a working sourcebook for the individual pharmacist desiring to furnish product for a pharmacy. Every possible product is dealt with, from tinctures to fluid-extracts to dyes to wax paper to imitation booze. Not worried about the "official" status of a preparation, if there was a customer demand, Fenner dealt with it.

This is a HUGE RESOURCE and you can find it in complete at The Southwest School of Botanical Medicine website, lovingly maintained by students and friends of the late herbalist/author Michael Moore. Click HERE and scroll down
In 1796 Doctor Samuel Hahnemann, in Germany, created a system of alternative medicine he called Homeopathy, based on his doctrine of like cures like (similia similibus curentur), a claim that a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people would cure similar symptoms in sick people.

From the beginning Homeopathy was far more complicated than simple herbalism and he revived the use of the REPERTORY to index and catalog his remedies. Homeopathic remedies are derived from Animal, Mineral, and Vegetable substances, not simply plants alone. Some substances are highly toxic and numbers of people succumbed to severe illness and some died, taking a poisonous substance like Arsenic to observe what the symptoms would be. These were called “Provings” and were added to the Repertory. Eventually Hahnemann resorted to testing on himself and his own wife and children who fortunately all survived the ordeal over several years. Many people, especially ‘fakers’ do not realize how so many risked their life, and some died, to make REAL homeopathic remedies available to the world.

If you progress into Homeopathy you will again be faced with the two books, a ‘Materia Medica’ and a ‘Repertory’.
If you specialize, you may also want to have a Formulary.

There aren't really any New Herbal Formularies out there. The LAST Really Good one was “HERBALLY YOURS” by Penny C Royal (a pen name) from Provo Utah. It was a thin paperback almost half an inch thick and was jam-packed with one formula after another, from cover to cover. Long out of print, used copies are still available when you “Google”.

OLD FORMULARIES are still applicable and most are no longer under copyright. Some are available in collections of Herbal Books on-line and at carefully maintained archives. One best source is the old Southwest School of Botanical Medicine site at

http://www.swsbm.com/HOMEPAGE/HomePage.html

You need to Scroll down the page.. there is a LOT There.

**PHARMACOPIA** actually encompasses several parts. First it is the Big Book of remedies which the Pharmacy had to offer, with instructions for making them. Then there were additional references, like Formularies and Repertories, and finally the actual inventory of prepared substances and medicinals carried for sale. Frequently the pharmacist would look at the prescription, which was in Latin back then, and custom prepare a remedy for the patient on the spot. Remedies for chronic complaints were made-up in advance and sold from the shelf. That was early over the counter medicine.

Many Natural Practitioners and Herbalists compile their own Formulary in which they enter their own creations and the recipes of others, sometimes indexed and cataloged like a Repertory in one volume. It included procedures for preparing the remedy along with instructions when dispensing them.

... to be continued in the course Basic Homeopathy

© Copyright 2018 by Daniel Blankley. All rights reserved.