Stellaria holostea, Stitchwort

Holosteum, All Bones

Greater Stitchwort
Botanologia, Salmon, 1710

Bulliard, P., Flora Parisiensis, vol. 2 (1776-1781)

Stellaria holostea
(Photo by Jerzy Opioła) (Wikimedia)

Botanical name:

Stellaria holostea

Parts used:

Herb; Seed

Temperature & Taste:

Seed: Warm, dry. Pungent

Uses:

1. Moves the Qi, Eases Pain:

-stitches, pain in the sides; flowers have been chewed for stitches
-muscular spasm with pain

2. Warms the Kidneys, Promotes Urine:

-Edema, Painful Urination
-Sugar or albumin in the urine
-Seed was used for Infertility
-said to produce a male child (Dioscorides)
-Rickets

3. Resists Poison, Resolves Masses:

-venomous Bites or Snakes etc.
-Scrofula, Tumors, Cancer
-Whooping Cough (syrup with sugar candy)

4. Externally:

-juice was dropped into the eyes for dimness of sight (Parkinson)
-films growing over the eyes, drop a drop into the eyes 3 or 4 times daily (Salmon

Dose:

1. Herb and Seed are used in similar doses.
Infusion: 1 oz. of the fresh herb in a pint of boiling water; dose is a teacupful, three times daily for weeks or months
Of the Powder of the Herb or Seed: 2–5 grams with white wine.

Substitute:

1. Salmon said it is very similar to Millet

Main Combinations:

1. Stitches and pains in the sides, Stitchwort in wine with Acorn powder (Gerard)
2. Shingles, Stitchwort, Wood Sage, Navelwort
2. Infertility: ‘the seed of Stitchwort being drunk causeth a woman to bring forth a man child, if after the purgation of her sickness, before she conceive, she do drink it fasting thrice in a day, half a dram at a time, in three ounces of water many days together’. (Gerard)