Could the Content and Context of the Late Medieval Lelamour Herbal Provide a Source for New Treatments?

This thesis aims to answer the question: Could the content and context of the late medieval Lelamour Herbal provide a source for new treatments? Medieval manuscripts can form an important resource for modern medicine, containing remedies with plant or ingredient combinations that have the potential to provide the basis for new drugs. It also aims to challenge the popular impression of medieval medicine as ineffective. The thesis also aims to situate the herbal in its historical context and how this may have impacted the herbal. The focus for this thesis was remedies that appeared likely to contain anti-inflammatory potential, due to the widespread use of anti-inflammatory drugs in treating a wide range of ailments from aches and pains to serious illnesses such as cancer. The remedies selected contained treatments for pain, swelling, tumours, gout, or other indicators of inflammation. The plants in these remedies were then matched to modern scholarship on the anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, or other relevant properties found within the plants. This thesis has shown that the selected remedies of the Lelamour Herbal are indeed potential anti-inflammatories, as well as antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-Alzheimer’s, and anti-dementia due to the properties found within the plants. Therefore, the author argues that research of medicinal medieval manuscripts opens up an avenue of research for new drugs for a variety of issues, and that further research on the remedies found within medieval medicinal manuscripts is needed.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

mphil

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Harris, Charlotte

• D111 Hanes Canoloesol
• RV Meddygaeth fotanegol, Thomsonaidd ac eclectig

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:2684