by Elizabeth Hedger

Created on: December 20, 2011

Agrimony has been associated with myth and medicine since ancient times, when Pliny the Elder called it a “herb of princely authoritie”. Even its scientific name, Agrimonia eupatoria, is derived from herbalism. Agrimonia comes from the Greek argemone, describing plants useful for treating eye complaints. Eupatoria refers to Mithridates Eupator, a first-century BC king of Pontus and Armenia Minor said to have invented a potent herbal elixir.

The Anglo-Saxons called it garclive and employed it as a remedy for snake bites, wounds, and warts. It featured among the fifty-seven herbal ingredients of their Holy Salve, a concoction used to repel evil, goblins, and poison. Agrimony’s inclusion stemmed from a belief in its efficacy against elf-shot – arrows fired by ill-natured fairies which drained the victim’s life force and caused them to sicken abruptly or die.

In the Middle Ages the presence of agrimony, now known as egrimoyne, in or under a pillow was believed to induce a deep and dreamless sleep, from which a person would only wake upon the herb’s removal. This legend is captured in a rhyme:

“If it be leyd under mann's heed,

He shal sleepyn as he were deed;

He shal never drede ne wakyn

Till fro under his heed it be takyn.”

Mixed with mugwort and vinegar it was used to treat wounds and backaches. Combined with ground frogs and human blood, agrimony served as a treatment for internal bleeding. Later it formed part of arquebusade water, a concoction said to cure injuries inflicted by an arquebus, an early type of handgun. A modern form of arquebusade water – eau de arquebusade – is available in France for the treatment of sprains and bruises.

In traditional Chinese medicine agrimony is used to stop bleeding, treating conditions such as menorrhagia (excessive menstruation), tuberculosis, and internal bleeding. In current Western herbalism its dominant uses are as a digestive tonic and an antiseptic. It is taken internally for complaints including peptic ulcers, liver and gallbladder conditions, gallstones, jaundice, colitis, intestinal parasites, diarrhea, incontinence, and fevers. Externally agrimony is used to treat cuts and abrasions, varicose veins, conjunctivitis, and pimples and other skin eruptions. It can also be used as a mouthwash, or a gargle for sore throats or inflamed gums.

As well as medicine, agrimony has long been used in, and against, witchcraft. Traditionally credited with protective powers, it is used to ward off spells, or to deflect negative spells and turn their power back upon their sender. It can also banish evil spirits. The 17th-century physician and astrologer Nicholas Culpeper associated agrimony with the planet Jupiter, the astrological sign of Cancer, and the element of air, correspondences still employed today. Uses in modern spellwork include constructing psychic shields, making protective amulets, balancing emotions, and aural cleansing. Local lore on the island of Guernsey says that two nine-leaved fronds of agrimony, crossed and secured with two pins and placed beneath the pillow, enables a girl to dream of her future husband.

Although little-known now compared to its former fame, agrimony continues to hold a place in both medicine and magic as it has done for more than two thousand years.

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