Dianisum
Powder of Aniseed Compound
Tradition:
Western, Unani
Source / Author:
Mesue
Herb Name | Latin | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Pimpinella anisum | 2 1⁄2 oz. | |
Glycyrrhiza glabra | ||
Pistacia lentiscus | 1 oz. ea. | |
Carum carvi | ||
Foeniculum vulgare | ||
Alpina officinarum | ||
Myristica fragrans | ||
Zingiber officinalis | ||
Cinnamonum zeylanicum | 5 drams ea. | |
Piper nigrum | ||
Piper longum | ||
Piper album | ||
Cinnamonum cassia | ||
Calamintha officinalis | ||
Anacyclus pyrethrum | 2 drams ea. | |
Elettaria cardamomum | ||
Eugenia caryophyllus | ||
Piper cubeba | ||
Nardostachys jatamansi | ||
Crocus sativus | 1 dram ea. |
Preparation:
Powder. it can be made into an Electuary with 3 times its weight of clarified Honey, or as a confection with Sugar.
Function:
Warms the Stomach and Lungs, clears Cold Phlegm
Use:
1. Cold Stomach pain
2. Nausea
3. Wind-Colic
4. Bloating
5. Chronic Cold-type Cough
6. Asthma coming from Cold.
7. Breathlessness
8. It was said to cause ‘a long Wind, free Breathings, and clear Voice’.
Dose:
1⁄2–1 dram of the Powder; 1–2 drams as an Electuary or Confection
Cautions:
None noted
Modifications:
Similar Formulas:
Powder of Cumin Greater (Diacuminum)
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‘It is chiefly appropriated to the Stomach, and helps the cold infirmities thereof, raw, phlegm, wind, continual Coughs, and other such diseases coming of cold’. (Culpeper)
“This Powder is both usual aud useful; whose description, as tradited by Mesue, we retain; only expunging. Bartram, and substituting Libistica and Sugar-candy, for common Sugar; for Bartram being hot and sharp, and not aromatical, may well be omitted; and Sugar-candy is more idoneous then common Sugar. for the affervation of the Powders. Cubebs are small round fruits, adhering to long pedicles, racemously congested; which some say are Galen’s Carpesia, others Dioscorides his wilde Myrtles, and others the grains of a Willow-tree: but they-are none of these, and their description differs much from any such.
In Java this fruit is called Cumuc, which the Incolists [locals] there so much estimate, that they boil it before they sell it out, lest it should be sown, and germinate elsewhere, as we have shewed, Chap. 14. Sec, 3. Book 4. of our Medicinal Materials.
Dianison cures the cold distemper of the ventricle [Stomach], caused by crude phlegm or flatulency; it cures diuturnal [long-lasting] coughs, proceeding from cold humours, and frees the bowels from obstructions”. (A Medicinal Dispensatory, Renou, 1657)