Infusion (leaves): 3 tsp. (15 ml) to one cup (250 ml) water. Steep 15 -20 minutes, three times a day for up to seven days. Tincture (fresh leaves): 1:5, 50% alcohol, 10 - 25 drops, four to six times a day, for up to seven days.
Powdered Leaves: 5 - 7 #0 capsules four to six times a day, for up to seven days.
Nutmeg
In all cases of nutmeg poisoning there was prostration with partial or complete coma. Most of them had vertigo, delirium, chiefly hallucinations of sight, rapid, feeble pulse, and free urination. In five instances the nutmegs were taken to produce abortion, and in every case without accomplishing the desired result.
-E. E. Hinman in Northwestern Lancet, January 15, 1902
AKA: Jaiphal and jawz at tiyb.
Part Used: Dried seed kernels.
Medicinal Properties: Gastro-intestinal stimulant, and oxytocic.
Effects on the Body: Narcotic hallucinogenic poison in large doses.
Abortifacient Action: Uterine contraction.
Contains: Myristicin.
Description: Nutmeg is a tropical tree with a round fruit that looks like a yellow apricot streaked with red and green. Upon maturity, the fruit splits open to release the seed, a brown ovoid seed having a scarlet covering (aril). The seed is dried and ground to become the nutmeg spice. The aril is dried and becomes the spice known as mace.
Since it was first imported to Europe, nutmeg has been expensive and mysterious. During the medieval period, nutmeg cost as much as gold or silver. A gilded nutmeg was given as a Christmas present from those who could afford such luxury. Nutmeg was worn on a string or as a poultice to ward off the plague. Nutmeg was also used as a tranquilizer, a sleeping potion, and a medieval form of Viagra™. The profit potential for nutmeg, which was marked up above cost upwards of 30,000%, perhaps was reason enough for some to claim nutmeg as a cure for all ills. Medicinally, roasted nutmeg was applied internally as a remedy for leukorrhea and also was used to help alleviate nausea. Perhaps once, while nutmeg was being used to cure morning sickness, a spontaneous miscarriage happened accidentally, and nutmeg became rumored as an agent to produce abortion.
Nutmeg became an ‘abortifacient’ during the Victorian age when women’s rights were not acknowledged, abortion was criminalized, and common knowledge of herbal abortifacients had been censored for several centuries. Unfortunately, the dosage of nutmeg that was rumored to cause an abortion was very close to the lethal dose. Many deaths resulted from the use of nutmeg to try to induce abortion. Often psychotic effects of nutmeg preceded death. Nutmeg continued to be rumored as an agent to cause abortion into the 1950’s in the United States.[324] Nutmeg was not documented as an abortifacient in antiquity, and nutmeg was not recorded as being used to induce abortion in its native habitat of the South East Asian Bandas Islands.
Preparation: For abortifacient purposes, nutmeg was often taken orally. Sometimes nutmeg was used internally as a pessary.[325]
Words to the Wise: In amounts of one gram or more, nutmeg is a mild to medium hallucinogen, producing visual distortions and a mild euphoria. Ingestion of as little as three grams may cause dry mouth, fast pulse, fever, flushing and possibly death. Large doses of seven grams or more are very dangerous, potentially inducing convulsions, palpitations, nausea, eventual dehydration, and generalized body pain. Onset of toxic effects from nutmeg can be delayed taking up to six hours after ingestion and may last for up to three days. Nutmeg can also cause liver damage when used in large quantities.
Watch for Signs of Toxicity Specific to Nutmeg: Delirium, hallucinations, excitement, thought disorder, a sense of impending death and agitation.
*Extreme caution! Nutmeg is ineffective, psychoactive, and possibly deadly when used as an abortifacient. Nutmeg does have a uterine contracting activity, however its effects on the hypothalamus and the pituitary only occur at life threatening doses of one to three nutmeg kernels.
Onion
…the most common variety of [vaginal] suppository consists of a mixture of grilled (or boiled) onion and one of several varieties of the herb shih [Artemisia sp.]…
-Marcia Claire Inhorn in Quest for Conception, 1994
AKA: Garden onion, bulb onion, and shallot.
Medicinal Properties: Externally, the bulb is hydragogue, stimulant and rubefacient, roasted it acts as a demulcent both internally and externally.
Effects on the Body: Expels water from the lower genital tract.
Abortifacient Action: Estrogenic, uterine contracting, inhibits prostaglandins, and stimulates release of fluids.
Contains: Beta-sitosterol (a phytoestrogen), allyl propyl disulphide, chromium, Vitamin C, and quercetin.
Description: Allium cepa is the common onion. There are white, yellow, and purple varieties. Onions are perennial, and they have hollow green stems that can reach 3 ft. (1 m) in height. Small flowers, usually white or purple appear in late summer. The large round fleshy bulb is harvested for food and medicinal purposes.
The ancient Egyptians worshipped the onion, believing that its spherical shape and concentric rings symbolized eternal life. In the Kahun Gynecological Papyrus, 1900 BC, to test for pregnancy, an onion bulb was placed deep in the woman’s vagina. The next morning, if the odor of onions appeared to her nose, a positive outcome was determined.[326] This ‘test’ may have served as a contraceptive measure in early pregnancy, for the knowledge of onion’s menstrual promoting aspect was likely present. Only three hundred years later in the Ebers Papyrus, two recipes for onion abortifacients exist. One recipe calls for one part onions and one part wine, mixed together and used as a vaginal pessary “for the extraction of woman’s blood.”[327] The other recipe includes onion along with other herbs as a vaginal suppository.[328]
Women, in many countries around the world, have used onion to regulate their fertility. In Europe,[329] India,[330] and Vietnam[331] the onion bulb is documented as being eaten with the intention of encouraging menstruation. In India, the hot water extract of onion bulb is drunk as an emmenagogue.[332] In Germany, the hot water extract of the bulb is taken orally to induce miscarriage.[333] In Egypt, roasted onion bulb is used as a contraceptive pessary, both before and after intercourse.[334] In the Middle East, Unani medicine utilizes the onion bulb in the form of a pessary as an emmenagogue.[335] As late as the 20th Century, Jewish women of New York City attempted to abort by sitting over a pot of steam (or hot stewed onions), a technique described in an 8th Century Sanskrit source.[336]
324
R.C. Green, "Nutmeg Poisoning"
325
Walter Stanley Haines,
329
W. Jochle, “Menses-inducing drugs: Their role in antique, medieval, and renaissance gynecology and birth control.”
330
J. C. Saha and Kasinathan, “Ecbolic Properties of Indian Medicinal Plants - Part II.”
331
A. Petelot, “Les Plantes Medicinales du Chamboge du Laos et du Vietnam. Vols. 1-4.” Archives des Recherches Agronomiques et Pastorales au Vietnam. No. 23 (1954).
332
R.N. Chopra,
333
M. Magid and M. Wenzkowsky, “Illegal Methods of Abortion.”
334
A.A.G.el-Dean Mahmoud, “Study of Indigenous (Folk-ways), Birth Control Methods in Alexandria.” Thesis-MS- Univ of Alexandria. Higher Inst of Nursing, 1972.
335
H.M.A. Razzack, “The Concept of Birth Control in Unani Medical Literature,” unpublished manuscript (1980), 64. as cited in Ivan A.
336
Kathleen London, “The History of Birth Control.”