Ethnoveterinary medicine: can you help?

[William Milliken]

Plants can, and still occasionally are, used to cure animals. Traditionally, for example, Ivy was used as a medicine to treat warts in cattle (Kildare), Tansy to treat worms in horses (Galway), and Comfrey to treat swollen udders of cows (Meath). Plants have been used for thousands of years in the British Isles to treat animals, or as feeds to improve their health. This information was passed from one generation to the next and was often not written down.

How much of this knowledge remains in the population?

The Ethnoveterinary Medicine Project, established by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, aims to collect the remaining information before it is lost: an important part of the traditional rural culture. However, this knowledge could also be used practically in animal management (livestock, pets), to improve their health and the economy. If you have any information about ethnoveterinary medicines, feed supplements or other information relating to plants/fungi and animal health from the British Isles, please reply here, send an email to ethnovet@kew.org, or alternatively, write to William Milliken, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, RH17 6TN. Thank you.

 

[marco]

Lots of good books on acres usa, including cure your own cattle written by newman turner from the uk in the early 1900s, one of the first to advocate the use of herbal leys to aid soil, plant and animal health. The follow on to that would be the improvement in human health when we eat the meat or their milk etc. Infact herbal leys are starting to gain traction in the commercial farming world after being pushed by the likes of Cotswolds seeds. Lots of very interesting reading. https://www.acresusa.com/blogs/acres-usa-announcements/book-of-the-week-cure-your-own-cattle

https://www.acresusa.com/products/newman-turners-classics

https://www.cotswoldseeds.com/seeds/17/herbal-leys

It's a very interesting subject, that and the symbiotic relationship between plants, fungis connecting plants soil biology etc. There's lots to learn, or should I say relearn. Hope this is some use to you.

 

[William Milliken]

Thanks very much for the contribution. Very useful.