Scolopendrium, Hart’s Tongue

Deers Tongue, Horse Tongue, Lingua cervina, Hemionitis, Phyllitis
Picture Herbarius latinus, Petri, 1485

 Picture Ortus Sanitatis, Meydenbach, 1491
Picture Picture
Dioscorides Materia Medica, Mathias, 1563

 Kurtzes Handtbuchlein, Ryff, 1599
Picture Two varieties of Scolopendrum
Left: Phyllitis; Right: Hemionitis
Kreutterbuch, Matthiolus, 1586

Picture Scolopendrium vulgare
Medical Botany, Woodville, Hooker, 1832

Picture Picture
Alternate varieties of Hart’s Tongue
Left: Finger Hart’s Tongue; Right: Bastard Hart’s Tongue
(Salmon, Botanologia, 1710)

Picture Asplenium scolopendrium
(Photo by Agnieszka Kwiecień, Nova) (Wikimedia)

Botanical name:


Scolopendrium vulgare (syn. S. officinalis, Asplenium scolopendrium)
Salmon listed several kinds of Hart Tongue:
  1. Common Hart’s Tongue
  2. Jagged Hart’s Tongue or Finger Hart’s Tongue
  3. Branched Hart’s Tongue
  4. ‘Bastard Hart’s Tongue’, which itself has three varieties:
    1. Common, True or Greater Bastard Hart’s Tongue
    2. Lesser or Barren Hart’s Tongue
    3. Strange Bastard Hart’s Tongue

Parts used:


Leaf
All the above-mentioned varieties share common effects.

Temperature & Taste:


Neutral, dry. Sweet
Some viewed it as mildly Warm, some as Cool.

Classifications:


4f. SPLENETIC

Uses:


1. Clears Heat and Damp, Opens Obstructions, Clears Melancholy:
-good for the Liver and Spleen
-pain, swelling and hardness of the Spleen (or Liver)
-very good for various obstructions of the organs
-clears Heat and Damp of the Stomach or Liver (water decoction)
-Gravel of the bladder

2. Stops Leakages:
-Diarrhea and Dysentery (since Galen)
-Spitting of Blood
-Diabetes

3. Clears Heat, Moves the Blood:
-Palpitations, Pericarditis
-Cachexia, Chlorosis
-with alcohol (decocted in wine or tincture) for Blood stagnation and Bruising

4. Resists Poison:
-decocted in wine for Snake bite (Dioscorides)
-acid (vinegar) tincture is also used

5. Benefits the Qi:
-‘one of the six mainstays for maintaining Health’ (Wittich, Vademecum, New Arzneybuch, 1594)
-‘Wonderfully strengthens the Viscera’ … ‘strengthens the Stomach and restores the Tone of the Bowels, being depraved or hurt’. (Salmon, Botanologia, 1710)
-‘Strengthens the Viscera’ (Medical Botany, Woodville, Hooker, 1832)
-Rickets in children

6. Externally:
-externally to cleanse Wounds and Ulcers, Burns and Scalds
-bleeding gums (decoction as a gargle)
-distilled water fastens loose gums
-applied to Hernia


Dose:


1. Acid (vinegar) tincture is better to open obstructions
2. Decocted in Wine is better to move the Blood and open obstructions
Decoction (water or wine): 4–6 oz.
Tincture (1 in 10): 3–9 mls. (1–3 drams)
Acid (Vinegar) tincture: add enough to a vehicle to make it pleasantly acidic.

Substitutes:


1. Ceterach and Scolopendrum were used fairly interchangeably.
2. Its use and function are similar to the other Capillary herbs, so it may be replaced with Maidenhair

Main Combinations:


One of the Five Capillary herbs

1. Cleanse the Blood, Skin diseases, Leprosy Hart’s Tongue with Fumitory, Endive, Wormwood, Dodder, Hops (as in Syrup of Fumitory Compound)
2. Pericarditis, Hart’s Tongue, Calendula, Tansy, Vervain, Valerian
3. Heat of the Stomach or Liver, Hart’s Tongue with Golden Seal
4. Diabetes, Hart’s Tongue with Golden Seal
5. Hernia, Hart’s Tongue, Knotgrass, Comfrey root (equal parts) decoct in water and drink internally while applying the cooked herbs externally. (Culpeper)

Major Formulas:


Syrup of Fumitory Compound (Augustana)
Syrup of Senna Comp
Syrup to Purge all Humors of Frankfurt
Electuary of Currants, Electuarium de Corruns
Electuary of Saffron Greater (Diacrocon Majores) (Mesue)

1. Bitter Powder:
  Wormwood           3 handfuls
  Blessed Thistle
    Hart’s Tongue
    Lesser Centaury 1 handful each
  Elecampane          half oz.
  Orris                        1 oz.
  Calamus                 half oz.
  Orange peel          6 drams
Powder. (Palatine)

2. Febrifuge Decoction (Apozem)
  Root of Patience    1 dram
  Elecampane           2 drams
  Chicory leaf
    Burnet leaf            1 handful each
  Hart’s Tongue leaf 3
  Live Crabs bruised 2
  Wood Lice bruised 10–12
  Camomile
    Peach flowers       1 or 2 pugils
  Cinchona
    Rhubarb
    Cascarilla               1 dram each
  Water                       1 pound
Boil for an hour. To be taken in 2 doses, the first with 2 oz. of Syrup of Peach flowers, the second with 1 oz. of Compound Syrup of Smallage. (Pierquin)

3. Bitter Essence:
  Tansy                        1 oz.
  Hart’s Tongue
    Blessed Thistle
    Lesser Centaury
    Gentian
    Herb Patience      3 drams each
  Fresh unripe
    Orange peel         half oz.
  Alcohol                   12 oz.
Digest, express, filter.
  Tonic, stomachic, carminative, anthelmintic.
Dose: 50–70 drops in wine. (Wirtemburg)

Cautions:


Very dry. Not suitable for Yin deficiency.

Main Preparations used: