Pilulae Aloephangine
Aromatic Pills of Aloes,
or Sweet Pills of Aloe
Tradition:
Western, Unani
Source / Author:
Mesue
Herb Name | Latin | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Cinnamonum zeylanicum | ||
Piper cubeba | ||
Aquillaria agallocha | ||
Myristica fragrans | ||
Myristica fragrans | ||
Acorus calamus | ||
Eugenia caryophyllus | ||
Elettaria cardamomum | ||
Asarum europeum | ||
Commiphora opobalsamum | ||
Cymbopogon schoenanthus | ||
Nardostachys jatamansi | 1 oz. ea. | |
Artemisia absinthum | ||
Rosa gallica | 5 drams ea. |
Preparation:
Boil in 12 lbs. of water down to 3 lbs. To 3 lbs. of the strained decoction, add 1 lb. of Aloe in powder, mix well, and in the heat of the sun, evaporate the excess, then when most of the moisture has evaporated, add the following in fine powder: Mastic and Myrrh, of each 5 drams, Saffron 2 drams, and form Pills.
Later authors (such as seen in the Dutch Dispensatory) preferred to extract a tincture of the powdered herbs in Brandy to which the Aloe (1 pound) is added. This is kept warm on embers to evaporate to the consistency of Honey, into which the fine powders of Mastic, Myrrh and Saffron (as above), are added. From this, pills are formed.
Function:
Purges Bile, cleanses the Head and Stomach
Use:
1. Promote good appetite and digestion
2. Stops Vomiting caused by Bile
3. Vertigo
4. Headache
5. Migraine
6. Lethargy
7. Obstructed Menstruation
Dose:
2–4 scruples, up to 1 1⁄2 drams, taken a bedtime. (1⁄2 dram works mildly, 1 dram will work strongly the next day so that you should ‘keep the house’ [stay at home]– Culpeper)
Cautions:
Only suitable for use in Winter by the young or those hot by nature.
Modifications:
1. The original version of Mesue had some expensive ingredients as well as some deemed unnecessary. Therefore, it was often reformed; a French version used the following herbs: Cinnamon, Clove, Cardamom, Nutmeg, Mace, Calamus, Juniper berries, Schoenanth, Yellow Sandalwood, Goat’s Rue and Roses. Some versions added Galangal but omitted Juniper berries and Goat’s Rue.
2. To promote Menstruation, add Savin
3. Dead Palsy, add Colocynth (Troches of Alhandal) and Troches of Agaric.
Similar Formulas:
Golden Pills
‘Pills without which I would not be”
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Substitutes
Weights & Measures
“It purges Choler excellently, and cleanses the Head, Stomach and Bowels of gross and putrefied Humors: it strengthens the Ventricle, causes a good Digestion, excites Appetite, stays Vomiting, strengthens the Brain, and is excellent against Vertigo, Migraine, Lethargy, and other the like indispositions”. (Wirtzung)
“It cleanses both stomach and brain of gross and putrified humours, and sets the senses free when they are thereby troubled, it cleanses the brain offended by ill humours, wind, &c. helps Vertigo and Headaches, and strengthens the Brain exceedingly, helps concoction, and strengthens the Stomach, one dram taken at night going to bed, will work gently next day: if the party be weak, you may give less, if strong more. If you take but half a dram, you may go abroad the next day: but if you take a dram, you may keep the house; there can be no harm in that’” (Culpeper)
“Sweet Pills-are most eustomachical, and roborate [strengthen] the nervous parts best: for they at once purge crass, putrid, pituitous, and bilious Humors from the ventricle and vicine parts, and recreate the same; preserve native heat, helps coction, discuss flatulency, dispel crudities, resarciate appetite, help cholical dolours, and conduct to old and frigid men at all times, to bilious and young men only in Winter.” (A Medicinal Dispensatory, Renou, 1657)