Stories from folk medicine
Short stories from Anatolian villages, healers’ hearths, old medical texts and archaeology, and from ritual plant traditions around the world. Every story rests on a source. For longer pieces see the articles.
- The month of birch sapThe Baltic and eastern Europe
The flower never brought indoorsBritain and Ireland
Devil’s elder, holy elderPoland, Lublin region- “If there is elecampane, the horse will not die”Kashgar, eleventh century
- Mountain flower and a mother’s milkThe Book of Dede Korkut
- The stone that brings rainCentral Asia, Karakhanids and Mughals
- Until the roses turn whiteFifteenth-century Ottoman
- Salamat: the wheat soup of birthSakha (Yakut) Turks
- The ancestor of keşkek: köçöAltai and Sakha (Yakut) Turks
- Sabuncuoğlu’s roosterFifteenth century, Amasya
- The spring on Mount ArkutBolu, Gerede
- The secret of Anzer honeyRize, Anzer plateau
- The goat-footed lord of the forestPeruvian Amazon, Iquitos
The affair of the poisonsSeventeenth-century France
Hamlet’s poisonShakespeare’s Denmark
The root that screamsMedieval and Renaissance Europe
Fly agaric in SiberiaSiberia
The medieval sleep spongeMedieval Europe- Henbane in the beerMedieval Europe
- The melon that dazesSilifke
Saffron of the Cehennem caveSilifke, Cehennem cave
Medea’s garden in Tarabyaİstanbul, Tarabya
2,500-year-old cannabis braziersPamir Plateau, about 2,500 years ago
A shaman’s thousand-year-old pouchBolivian Andes, about 1,000 years ago
How was a fake drug detected?15th-century Ottoman Empire
Which plant was haoma?Iran, Zoroastrian tradition
Two plants, one drinkPeruvian Amazon
A 60,000-year-old flower burialShanidar Cave (Iraq), Middle Paleolithic
Plants that teachPeruvian Amazon (Shipibo-Konibo)- What evil-eye rue shares with ayahuascaAnatolia and the Amazon
Three remedies of Yunt DağıManisa (Yunt Dağı)
Remedies sold on the streetOttoman İstanbul
How cinchona came into Turkish18th-century Ottoman Empire
The root that dyed the worldOttoman period
The carat is a seedFrom antiquity to today
The garlic maskFrom antiquity to Anatolia
Who did we learn healing from?Kastamonu
A cauldron of herbs for a nameless illnessAğrı- The 95-year-old bonesetterMuğla
- The Mecca stone that grows in flourAydın
The black healer of the Taurusİç Toroslar (Inner Taurus)- A Saturday prayer for temreNorthwest Anatolia
Can a brick give oil?Sakarya
One bay, one poison: two taflansNorthwest Anatolia- Worms falling from the toothNortheast and East Anatolia
- What troubles people most?
- Which wound herb?
The 60 names of the dog rose- 930 studies, one database
- Kerdeme, cırcır, garden cress
A drop of milk on the leafChristian legend; Turkey- The grape’s journey in Mevlânâ
- The palace’s rose water
- Saffron in the first Turkish drug book14th–16th-century Turkish medical texts
600 years of hair care14th–15th-century Turkish medical texts- Resin combed from goat hair
- Leaves on the barn ceiling
- As the potato dries, the wound dries
- 150 kinds of healing hearth
The dyer’s burn ointmentMuğla (Ula)
The nymph who became mintAncient Greece- The root that screams when pulledAntiquity
- A festival named after a crocusHittites
- Sacred tree of the Hittites: juniperHittites
- Fadime Ana, Meryem Ana, Havva Ana
- The flower that opens in the birth room
Hollyhock in the years without soapMuş- The herb of the twins’ village
- The herb in the bride’s trousseau
Why did Lokman Hekim leave this city?Muş (Kurtik Dağı)
What is in the evil-eye pouch?- The seed that measures the evil eye
- Syrian rue on embers, smoke in the roomsMersin (Mut), Adana (Karaisalı), Sivas, Gaziantep (Nizip)
- Wishes tied to mulberry branches
- 28 folk remedies for headache
- Does healing run in the blood? Ocaks
- A healing hearth still at work: Otu Kesme
- One night for toothache: plantain
- The herb that fattens lambs: dadırak
- The herb burned after the summer pasture
- Milk from the root: mountain gum
- An amulet at the door, poison in the mouthAğrı (Diyadin, Doğubayazıt)
The herb of women who want a childAğrı (Diyadin, Doğubayazıt)
Not every chamomile is chamomileAğrı (Diyadin, Doğubayazıt)- Nettle water for falling hairAğrı (Diyadin, Doğubayazıt)
- Marshmallow is not only for coughsAğrı (Diyadin, Doğubayazıt)
Flour sprinkled on wounds: yarrowAğrı (Diyadin, Doğubayazıt)- Mountain healers: women and shepherds
- When are herbs gathered in Ağrı?