THE MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF THE ROSE.
We have hitherto viewed the Rose as the chief ornament of our gardens,
and if we have found it abounding with charms of fragrance and beauty,
we shall now find it occupying a prominent place in Materia Medica.
Some authors have, with a degree of exaggeration, endeavored to make
its medical as brilliant as its floral reputation. Rosenberg, in his
work on the Rose, makes it a specific in every disease, and even
attributes to it supernatural virtues.
In the opinion of most medical men, the medicinal properties of the
Rose are about the same in all the kinds, while some writers assert
that the _Rosa Gallica_ is superior to all others in a greater or less
degree. We will mention those principally used in medicine, and the
properties which are especially attributed to each.
The most valuable properties of the Rose reside in its petals, and in
order to preserve these properties, it is highly essential that the
petals should be quickly and perfectly dried. Those of the Provence
Rose (_Rosa Gallica_) have an astringent and somewhat bitter taste,
and are tonic and astringent in their effects.
According to an analysis recently made in France, they contain,
besides vegetable matter and essential oil, a portion of gallic acid,
coloring matter, albumen, tannin, some salts, with a base of potash or
of chalk, silex, and oxide of iron. A small dose in powder strengthens
the stomach and assists digestion. Their prolonged use will sometimes
cause a slight constipation of the bowels, while in a much stronger
dose they act as purgatives.
The _conserve_ of the Provence Rose has much reputation in France
for the treatment of all chronic affections of the bowels, caused by
weakness and inactivity of the digestive organs; it is also employed
in colic, in diarrhœa, in cases of hemorrhage and leucorrhœa.
The conserve of any variety of roses is considered excellent in
cases of cold or catarrh. It is prepared by bruising in a mortar the
petals with their weight in sugar, and moistening them with a little
rose-water, until the whole forms a homogeneous mass. Some receipts
prescribe powdered petals mixed with an equal part of sugar; others
direct to use two layers of sugar, and only one layer of pulverized
petals.
Opoix, a physician of Provence, states that the true Rose of Provence
has a more sweet and penetrating fragrance than the same rose grown
elsewhere, and even goes so far as to say that it has acquired
properties which it does not possess in its native country, the
Caucasus. On account of the supposed superior qualities of this rose,
the citizens of Provence, in 1807, addressed a petition to government
to encourage in their territory the cultivation of the true Provence
Rose, by giving it the preference in all the hospitals and military
dispensaries. This gave rise to a discussion between two French
chemists, but without deciding the fact whether the _Rosa Gallica_
was superior in medical properties to any other rose. It seems to be
acknowledged that those cultivated at Provence were superior to the
same kind grown elsewhere, and this superiority is attributed by some
to the presence of iron in the soil about that city. It was probably
owing, also, to the very careful cultivation practiced there. The
petals are used extensively in several medical preparations, as the
sugar of roses, the ointment of roses, the treacle of roses, etc.
Rose-water is, however, more extensively used in medicine than any
other preparation of the rose. This water, when manufactured from
_Rosa Gallica_, or any other of the section of _Centifoliæ_, is
employed internally as an astringent, and is sometimes mixed with
other medicines to destroy their disagreeable smell and taste. In
external applications, it is used principally for affections of the
eyes, either alone or with some ointment.
The _alcoholic tincture of roses_, or spirit of roses, before
mentioned, which was formerly given as a stimulus in many cases, has
now fallen very much into disuse, medical opinion being very much
against the employment of any alcoholic medicines excepting in very
rare cases.
The _syrup of roses_, manufactured from the pale or Damask Rose,
is sometimes employed as a purgative, and was once highly esteemed
and recommended as a mild laxative. It is now, however, scarcely
considered purgative, and its laxative properties are probably owing
in a great measure to the senna and other articles which enter into
its preparation.
The _electuary of roses_, which is now no longer used, was also
probably indebted for its medical qualities to the addition of
scammony, a very strong purgative.
_Vinegar of roses_ is made by simply infusing dried rose-petals in the
best distilled vinegar, to which they communicate their perfume. It is
used for cooking and for the toilet, and for headaches, when applied
in the same way as common vinegar. The ancients prepared this vinegar,
and also the wine and oil of roses, which are no longer used.
_Honey of roses_ is made by beating up rose-petals with a very small
portion of boiling water; the liquid, after being filtered, is boiled
with honey. This is esteemed for sore throats, for ulcers in the
mouth, and for anything that is benefited by the use of honey.
The fruit of the rose is said also to possess some astringent
properties; the pulp of the fruit of the wild varieties, particularly
of the dog rose, after being separated from the seeds and beaten up
in a mortar with sugar, makes a sort of conserve, formerly known in
medicine under the name of Cynorrhodon.
Children in the country sometimes eat these fruits after they have
attained perfect maturity, and have been somewhat mellowed by the
frost; they then lose their pungent taste, and become a little sweet.
Belanger, a French writer, who traveled in Persia in 1825, found in
that country a rose whose fruit was very agreeably flavored. The
apple-bearing rose (_R. villosa pomifera_) produces the largest fruit
of all, and is the best adapted for preserving; but an English writer
remarks that the fruit of _R. systyla_ and _R. arvensis_, although of
a smaller size, bears a higher flavor than that of any other species.
Rose-buds, like the fruit, are also frequently preserved in sugar, and
pickled in vinegar. Tea is sometimes made of the leaves of the rose,
which are also eaten readily by the domestic animals.
The ends of the young shoots of the sweet-brier, deprived of their
bark and foliage, and cut into short pieces, are sometimes candied and
sold by the confectioners.
The Dog Rose takes its name from the virtue which the ancients
attributed to its root as a cure for hydrophobia. The heathen deities
themselves, according to Pliny, revealed this marvelous property, in
dream, to a mother whose son had been bitten by a dog affected with
this terrible disease.
The excrescences frequently found on the branches of the Rose, and
particularly on those of the wild varieties, known to druggists by the
Arabic name of _bédeguar_, and which resemble in form a little bunch
of moss, partake equally of the astringent properties of the Rose.
These excrescences are caused by the puncture of a little insect,
known to naturalists as the _Cynips rosæ_, and, occasionally, nearly
the same effects are produced by other insects.