A Pompeian Herbal: Ancient and Modern Medicinal Plants

When workmen excavating the ruins of Pompeii eagerly gathered the native medicinal plants growing there, Jashemski discovered that this was another example of the continuity of life in the shadow of Vesuvius. Many of the plants used for herbal medicine around Pompeii today are the same ones that ancient authorities such as Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides recommended for treating the same types of disorder. In this book, Jashemski presents an herbal of 36 medicinal plants, most of them known to the ancients and still employed today. She describes each plant's contemporary medicinal uses and compares them to ancient practices as recorded in literary sources. Scientific, English and Italian names and the plant's mythological associations complete the entries which are accompanied by full-page portraits of each plant.