Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) is also known as Common Agrimony, Church Steeples, and Cockeburr. Sticklewort. The plant is found abundantly throughout England, on hedge-banks and the sides of fields, in dry thickets and on all waste places. In Scotland, Agrimony is much more local, and does not penetrate very far northward.

Agrimony has an old reputation as a popular, domestic medicinal herb, being a simple well known to all country-folk. It belongs to the Rose order of plants, and its slender spikes of yellow flowers, which are in bloom from June to early September, and the singularly beautiful form of its much-cut-into leaves, make it one of the most graceful of our smaller herbs.

The name Agrimony is from "Argemone", a word given by the Greeks to plants which were healing to the eyes, and the name eupatoria refers to Mithridates Eupator, a king who was a renowned concoctor of herbal remedies.

Agrimony was one of the most famous vulnerary herbs. The Anglo-Saxons, who called it Garclive, taught that it would heal wounds, snake bites, warts, etc. In the time of Chaucer, when we find its name appearing in the form of Egrimoyne, it was used with Mugwort and vinegar for 'a bad back' and 'alle woundes': and one of these old writers recommends it to be taken with a mixture of pounded frogs and human blood, as a remedy for all internal hemorrhages. It formed an ingredient of the famous arquebusade water as prepared against wounds inflicted by an arquebus, or hand-gun, and was mentioned by Philip de Comines, in his account of the battle of Morat in 1476. In France, the eau de arquebusade is still applied for sprains and bruises, being carefully made from many aromatic herbs. It was at one time included in the London Materia Medica as a vulnerary herb, but modern official medicine does not recognize its virtues, though it is still fully appreciated in herbal practice as a mild astringent and tonic, useful in coughs, diarrhea and relaxed bowels.

By pouring a pint of boiling water on a handful of the dried herb - stem, leaves and flowers - an excellent gargle may be made for a relaxed throat, and a teacupful of the same infusion is recommended, taken cold three or four times in the day for looseness in the bowels, also for passive losses of blood. It may be given either in infusion or decoction.

Agrimony contains a particular volatile oil, which may be obtained from the plant by distillation and also a bitter principle. It yields 5% tannin, so that its use in cottage medicine for gargles and as an astringent applicant to indolent ulcers & wounds is well justified. Owing to this presence of tannin, its use has been recommended in dressing leather.

Astringent exhibits both tonic and diuretic properties. Agrimony has had a great reputation for curing jaundice and other liver complaints. Dioscorides stated that it was not only "a remedy for them that have bad livers," but also "for such as are bitten with serpents." Dr. Hill, who from 1751 to 1771 published several works on herbal medicine, recommends "an infusion of 6 oz. of the crown of the root in a quart of boiling water, sweetened with honey and half a pint drank three times a day," as an effectual remedy for jaundice. It gives tone to the system and promotes assimilation of food.

Agrimony is also considered a very useful agent in skin eruptions and diseases of the blood, pimples, blotches, etc. A strong decoction of the root and leaves, sweetened with honey or sugar, has been taken successfully to cure scrofulous sores, being administered two or three times a day, in doses of a wineglassful, persistently for several months. The same decoction is also often employed in rural districts as an application to ulcers.

In North America, it is said to be used in fevers with great success, by the Indians and Canadians. In former days, it was sometimes given as a Vermifuge, though that use is now obsolete.

Culpepper (1652) recommends it, in addition to the uses already enumerated, for gout, "either used outwardly in an oil or ointment, or inwardly, in an electuary or syrup, or concreted juice." He praises its use externally, stating how sores may be cured "by bathing and fomenting them with a decoction of this plant," and that it heals "all inward wounds, bruises, hurts and other distempers." He continues: "The decoction of the herb, made with wine and drunk, is good against the biting and stinging of serpents . . . it also helpeth the colic, cleanseth the breath and relieves the cough. A draught of the decoction taken warm before the fit first relieves and in time removes the tertian and quartian ague." It "draweth forth thorns, splinters of wood, or any such thing in the flesh. It helpeth to strengthen members that are out of joint."

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