Witnessed by: Western
Mezereon (Daphne mezereum), of the Thymelaeaceae family. Small deciduous shrub flowering on the naked twig before the leaf, the fruit a scarlet berry; native range: woods on limestone across Europe and into Siberia; naturalised in parts of North America. Globally recognized as mezereon, spurge olive, spurge laurel, dwarf bay in English, Seidelbast in German, and bois-gentil in French. The part used is bark, chiefly the root bark. Tough flexible strips of bark, olive-brown without and whitish within, hard to powder; almost tasteless at first, then a slow acrid burning that seizes the throat and lasts for hours.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
MEZEREON
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- mezereon
- Scientific name
- Daphne mezereum L.
- Family
- Thymelaeaceae
Form
- Part used
- bark, chiefly the root bark
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Western
- acrid · pungent
Temperature
- Western
- hot
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Western
- skin · joints · blood · mucous membranes
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Western
- alterative, stimulating diaphoretic, sialagogue, vesicant and rubefacient applied, emetic and drastic purgative in overdose
Cautions
- Contraindications
- pregnancy; inflamed or ulcerated stomach and bowel; broken skin; not for domestic use, and not for children
- Toxicity
- violently poisonous in every part, the berries especially — a few have killed a child; the daphnetoxin and mezerein blister skin and mucosa on contact, and swallowed bring burning of mouth and throat, salivation, vomiting, bloody purging, collapse and death; the dust blisters the handler
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