Herbs in History: Cabbage

Cabbage Brassica oleracea L. CONTENTS Hidden in Plain Sight? A Simple, Versatile Plant The Roman Achievement A Cabbage a Day... References

By Alain Touwaide & Emanuela Appetiti | June 2024

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Hidden in Plain Sight?

If there is a dream of Humankind, it is to have a panacea in the house pharmacy. A single medicament capable of treating any possible ailment. Whereas much research has been and will continue to be devoted to identifying or developing it, one might have been at hand for a long time but escaped: Brassica oleracea L. (Brassicaceae) (Illustration 1).
 
Brassica is known under a great many names, with numerous species and varieties: Wild Cabbage, Cauliflower, Collard Greens, Savoy Cabbage Broccoli, Tronchuda cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Kohlrabi, Sprouting broccoli, Cauliflower, and, to mention just those, Broccoli, with the dark-green Sicilian one or the lighter-green and spectacularly fractal Romanesco (Illustration 2).
 

Illustration 1: Brassica oleracea L.	Illustration 2: Roman Broccoli (Broccolo romanesco)

Native to the coastal regions of the Mediterranean and Western Europe, up to France and Britain (Illustration 3), cabbage has been abundantly selected and modified through history, resulting in an extreme genetic diversity.

 

Illustration 3: Native distribution of Brassica oleracea L. - Plants of the World Online (POWO)

A Simple, Versatile Plant

Domesticated Brassica spp. is an easy biennial that can also be perennial. In flower from May to August, it seeds from July to September, and grows in a great variety of soils, preferably moist, in full sun, semi- or no-shade environments, possibly reaching 4 feet at full growth. Sought after for its edible leaves, the genus Brassica has been intensively cultivated and diversified as early as Antiquity.

In the most ancient written information, Brassica, including but not limited to cabbage, is already a well-known plant, with some diversity. In Historia Plantarum (Inquiry into Plants), the Father of Botany Theophrastus (371/0-287/6 BCE), describes its seeds, methods of propagation, and species with a truly unique precision, without equivalent for any other plant or plant genus. This attests to a long horticultural practice aimed at domesticating, improving, and diversifying Brassica.

Leafing through Historia Plantarum and compiling and putting together relevant passages, the Historia offers a set of recommendations on cabbage cultivation from seeds to harvesting. For collecting seeds, Theophrastus explains how to proceed:
 

All herbs grow finer and larger if transplanted …Transplanting is done especially in view of collecting seed; and, while most herbs bear it well, as … cabbage …, others bear it less well (Historia Plantarum VII.5.3).

He then indicates the specific season when cabbage seeds should be sown:
 

There are three seedtimes for all things grown in gardens, at which men sow the various herbs, distinguishing by the season. One is the winter seedtime, another the summer and the third is that which falls between these, coming after the winter solstice. These terms, however, are given in regard not to the sowing, but to the growth and use of each kind ; for the actual sowing takes place, one might almost say, at the opposite seasons. Thus, the winter period begins after the summer solstice … in which they sow cabbage … (Historia Plantarum VII.1.2).

He also briefly explains a method of propagation:
 

Cabbage is propagated by a piece torn off, since it is essential in this case to take a piece
which has root attached to it (Historia Plantarum VII.2.1).

He does not forget to identify the pests specific of cabbage, just as he does for other plants:
 

As for pests, … cabbage [is attacked] by caterpillars … (Historia Plantarum VII.5.4).
 

After these general horticultural techniques, he treats more specifically the different species of cabbage (Illustration 4), starting with general observations about the existence of wild vs. domesticated species and the characteristics that distinguish them:
 

Illustration 4: Cauliflower

Of some herbs there are several kinds, but of others only one … But of others, there is more than one, as .. cabbage ... Differences are marked in the leaves, the root, the colour, the taste, and so forth (Historia Plantarum VII.4.1).

We must now endeavour to speak in the same way of the wild kinds and of those which are called uncultivated herbs. Some of these have the same names as the cultivated kinds; for all these kinds exist also in a wild form, and most of them resemble the cultivated kinds in appearance, except that in the wild forms the leaves and also the stalks are smaller and rougher, and in particular these forms are more pungent and stronger in taste, for instance, … cabbage ... Moreover, all the wild kinds are less juicy than the cultivated, and perhaps this is the very reason why most of them are more pungent and stronger (Historia Plantarum VII.6.1).

Of cabbage, he knows four species: a wild one and three domesticated ones:
 

A peculiarity of ' wild cabbage ' as compared with the others is that its stems are rounder and smoother than in the cultivated kind, and, while in the latter the attachment of the leaf is flat, in the wild kind it is rounder, and the leaf itself has less angles … (Historia Plantarum VII.6.2).

Of cabbage three kinds are distinguished, the curly-leaved, the smooth-leaved, and thirdly, the wild form. The wild form has a small round leaf, it has many branches and many leaves, and further a sharp medicinal taste; wherefore physicians use it for the stomach. Between the other two kinds there seem also to be differences, inasmuch as one of them bears no seed or only inferior seed. In general, the curly-leaved kind has a better flavour than the smooth and it has larger leaves (Historia Plantarum VII.4.4).

However precise and successful it might have been in creating new species, this agronomical technique does not compare with that of the agriculturists of the Roman World.
 

The Roman Achievement

Illustration 5: Purple cabbage

In the Roman World, cabbage was actively promoted by Cato the Elder (234-149 BCE). In a time when Rome began to assimilate Greek culture, Cato energetically defended the old Roman way of life and traditions including by compiling a small manual of agriculture in which he collected Roman traditional horticultural techniques. Cabbage is the plant to which he devoted most of his unfailing energy with a long and detailed development (Illustration 5).
 
According to him, “cabbage surpasses all other vegetables” (De agricultura [On Agriculture], 156). The reason is simple: “What is commonly called The Seven Goods, it (= cabbage) has them all by nature” (157.1). These Seven Goods are the physiological qualities that result in good health according to ancient medicine: heat, cold, moisture, dryness, sweetness, bitterness, and sourness.
 
Having posited this, he goes on by discussing the different varieties of cabbage, with one wild species (157.12) and three domesticated ones (157.1-2):
 

Wild cabbage has the greatest strength …
 
… the first is the so-called smooth; it is large, with broad leaves and thick stem; it is hardy and has great potency.
 
The second is the curly variety, called " parsley cabbage "; it has a good nature and appearance , and has stronger medicinal properties than the above -mentioned variety.
 
So also has the third, the mild, with small stalk, tender, and the most pungent of all; and its juice, though scanty, has the most powerful effect. No other variety of cabbage approaches it in medicinal value …

 

Illustration 6: Sicilian Broccoli (Broccolo siciliano)

This count of varieties probably does not take all of them into consideration (Illustration 6). In another, later Latin treatise on agricultural matters, De re rustica (On Rural Matters) by Columella (1^st cent. CE), seven varieties are listed. Interestingly, each is identified by the city where it was produced as a local specialty. All these cities were in Latium or Campania. In Latium, Tibur (now Tivoli), Aricia (now Ariccia), and Signia (now Segni); in Campagna, Pompeii, Capua, Cumae, Stabia, Naples, and the Caudine Forks (not well identified, between Capua and Benevento).
 
Returning to Cato, he stressed, though briefly, the variations in organoleptic qualities of cabbage according to environmental conditions (157.7):
 

… [cabbage] constantly changes its nature along with the heat, being moist and dry, sweet, bitter, and acid …

 
He nevertheless did not pursue and concluded that these differences might translate into differentiated therapeutic activities.
 
Between Cato and Columella, the Roman encyclopedist Varro (116-27 BCE) compiled a treatise on agriculture in a Catonian way, but with a very different spirit. Whereas Cato wanted to preserve Roman traditions in a time when Rome opened to foreign culture (Greek culture, actually), Varro worked to restore these traditions after the period of civil wars in Rome that ravaged campaigns and ruined society and culture. In Rerum rusticarum libri III (Three Books On Rural Matters) completed in 37 BCE, he dealt with cabbage, without giving it, however, the preeminence it had in Cato’s manual. Varro dealt with seeds, soil, and preparation of sowing:
 

The age of the seed is of such importance in the case of some plants that it alters their nature; thus from the planting of old cabbage seed it is said that rape grows, and on the other hand that cabbage grows from old rape seed (Rerum rusticarum libri III, I. 40.2-3).
 
In rich soil it is better to plant those requiring more food, as cabbage (Rerum rusticarum libri III, I.23.2).
 
Clover is sowed on land that has been thoroughly worked, like cabbage seed (Rerum rusticarum libri III, I.43).

 
Horticultural knowledge had a double goal: alimentary and medicinal. In ancient times, cabbage was probably a basic staple, consumed without much culinary preparation and refinement. As per Cato’s statements:
 

It may be eaten either cooked or raw; if you eat it raw, dip it into vinegar (De agricultura 156.1).

 
Further on, Cato provides a simple preparation:
 

That you may eat it with better appetite, sprinkle it with grape vinegar, and you will like a little better when washed, dried, and seasoned with rue, chopped coriander and salt. This will benefit you … and promote digestion (157.6).

 
It became later a delicacy as the list of species enumerated by Columella suggests. At the same time, it was a much-used medicinal plant, best illustrated by Cato.
 

A Cabbage a Day...

Cato devoted two long and dense chapters to cabbage in De agricultura (156 and 157). There, he starts with general considerations:
 

it (= cabbage) has all the virtues necessary for health … The cabbage has naturally all the virtues …(157.1).

 
More specifically:
 

It promotes digestion marvelously and is an excellent laxative (156.1).
 
This will benefit you, allow no ill to remain in the body, and promote digestion; and will heal any ill that may be inside. Headache and eye ache it heals alike. It should be eaten in the morning, on an empty stomach (157.6),

 
Therapeutic efficacy differs according to the species:
 

The second (species) is the curly variety, called "parsley cabbage"; it has a good nature and appearance, and has stronger medicinal properties than the above-mentioned variety.
 
So also has the third, the mild, with small stalk, tender, and the most pungent of all; and its juice, though scanty, has the most power­ful effect. No other variety of cabbage approaches it in medicinal value (157.2).

 
Whatever the species, however, cabbage is a potent medicine in both internal and external use:
 

… [it is] highly beneficial; it will heal persons whom you despair of healing (157.12).
 
… a thing which no other medicine can do (157.3).

 
The forms and preparations of cabbage differ according to the condition to be treated. One such form is noticeable: the urine of people who have eaten cabbage, which smells of cabbage. Although the fact is not explicitly stated, this way of using cabbage authorizes to infer that ancient medicine hypothesized that active principles of cabbage were not altered by the process of digestion and were transmitted through urine:
 

… the urine is wholesome for everything (156.1).
 
… if you save the urine of a person who eats cabbage habitually, heat it, and bathe the patient in it, he will be healed quickly … (157.10)

 
Cabbage can be an efficacious preventative agent, particularly in gynecology by using the urine as above:
 

If a woman warms her genitals with this urine, they will never become diseased. The method is as follows: when you have heated it in a pan, place this pan under a chair whose seat has been pierced. Let the woman sit on it, cover her, and throw garments around her (157.11).

 
As is already the case in the gynecological application above, the ways for the administration of cabbage are specific according to the medical conditions to be treated. For the treatment of a fistula, for example, a solution should be injected. Cato explains with great detail how to proceed:
 

… make a solution, pour into a bladder attached to a reed, and inject into the fistula by   squeezing the bladder (157.14).

 
Posology, length of the treatment and results to be expected are systematically and precisely provided. Of a way of administering cabbage (through the urine of a person who has regularly eaten cabbage), Cato specifies that “this remedy has been tested” (157.10), making it clear that he relies on the tradition of a persistent use that probably dates way back in time and has been orally transmitted through the generations.
 
Cato is very much aware of the possible necessity to differentiate the therapeutic treatment according to genders and ages:
 

The treatment (for colic) is the same for man, woman, and child (156.6).
 
… if babies are bathed in this urine they will never be weakly (157.10).

 
Similarly, he is aware of the possibility of side-effects of some medicine, which is not the case with cabbage (157.12).
 
The major activity of cabbage is without doubt its detoxifying action. In ancient medicine, this is expressed through the belief in the benefits to be obtained from purgation, which could take two forms: purgation strictly speaking and vomiting:
 

Wild cabbage has the greatest strength; it should be dried and macerated very fine. When it is used as a purge, let the patient refrain from food the previous night, and in the morning, still fasting,  take macerated cabbage with four cyathi of water. Nothing will purge so well, neither hellebore, nor scammony … (157.12).
 
If you wish to clean out the upper digestive tract … he will evacuate such a quantity of bile and mucus that he will wonder himself where it all came from ... If it acts too freely, if he takes two spoons of fine flour, sprinkle it into water, and drink a little, it will cease to act (156.2-4).
 
… when from excess of food the bowels do not act, if you eat cabbage proportionately, prepared as I direct above, you will have no ill effects from these (157.7).

 
Cabbage is efficacious for the treatment of colic:
 

Those who are suffering from colic should macerate cabbage in water, then pour into hot water, and boil until it is quite soft. Pour off the water, add salt, a bit of cummin, barley flour dust, and oil, and boil again; turn into a dish and allow it to cool. You may break any food you wish into it and eat it; but if you can eat the cabbage alone, do so. If the patient has no fever, administer a very little strong, dark wine, diluted; but if he has fever give only water. The dose should be repeated every morning, but in small quantities, so that it may not pall but continue to be eaten with relish (156.5-6)

 
Also, for the treatment of strangury:
 

Now for those who pass urine with difficulty and suffer from strangury: take cabbage, place it in hot water and boil until it is half-done; pour off most of the water, add a quantity of oil, salt, and a bit of cummin, and boil for a short time. After that drink the broth of this and eat the cabbage itself, so that it may be absorbed quickly. Repeat the treatment daily (156.7).

 
Besides being used for inflammations of the gallbladder, hepatitis, and digestive system troubles (157.7), cabbage treated also lungs affections (157.7).
 
In external use, it was indicated for the treatment of wounds, swellings, sores, and fistulas (157.14):
 

It can be used as a poultice on all kinds of wounds and swellings; it will cleanse all sores and heal without pain; it will soften and open boils; it will cleanse suppurating wounds and tumours, and heal them, a thing which no other medicine can do. But before it is applied, the surface should be washed with plenty of warm water, and then the crushed cabbage should be applied as a poultice and renewed twice a day; it will remove all putridity (157.3).
 
Possibly more interesting, the treatment of necrosis and what ancient medicine called cancer:
 
The black ulcer has a foul odour and exudes putrid pus, the white is purulent but fistulous, and suppurates under the surface; but if you macerate cabbage, it will cure all such sores — it is the best remedy for sores of this kind (157.3-4).
 
An ulcer on the breast and a cancer can be healed by the application of macerated cabbage; and if the spot is too tender to endure the astringency,  the cabbage should be mixed with barley-flour and so applied (157.5).
If one has an ulcer, whether suppurated or new, sprinkle this wild cabbage with water and apply it; you will cure him (157.13).
 
An application of cabbage to a malignant scab will cause it to heal without ulcerating (157.16).

 
An intriguing indication is about the cardiovascular system (157.7). As Cato describes it, it can be interpreted as a case of atheroma:
 

… if the heart is painful ... when all the veins are gorged with food they cannot breathe​in the whole body, and hence a disease is caused (157.7).

 
Structural dislocations and articulations, also, can be treated with cabbage:
 

Dislocations will be healed quickly if they are bathed twice a day in warm water and a cabbage poultice is applied; if applied twice a day, the treatment will relieve the pain. A contusion will burst, and when bruised cabbage is applied, it will heal (157.4).

 
This is also the case for arthritis and, possibly also, gout. Here, Cato combines therapeutic and physical treatment by recommending regular activity:
 

But as to disease of the joints, nothing so purges it as raw cabbage, if you eat it chopped, and rue, chopped dry coriander, grated asafetida, and cabbage out of vinegar and honey, and sprinkled with salt.​ After using this remedy you will have the use of all your joints. There is no expense involved; and even if there were, you should try it for your health's sake. It should be eaten in the morning, on an empty stomach (157.7-8).

 
Among the several other conditions treated with cabbage, there is insomnia (157.6) , weakness and lack of energy (157.6 and 10), headache (157.6) and amblyopia (unless it is a reference to cataract) (157.6 and 10), oto-rhino-laryngology (nasal polypus [157.15] and deafness [157.15-16]).
 
Adding to this broad range of conditions, there was also the prevention of drunkenness, which allowed to fully enjoy a dinner where wine was abundantly served:
 

If you wish to drink deep at a banquet and to enjoy your dinner, eat as much raw cabbage as you wish, seasoned with vinegar, before dinner, and likewise after dinner eat some half a dozen leaves; it will make you feel as if you had not dined, and you can drink as much as you please (156.1).

 
A cabbage a day? Perhaps. One of the many types of Brassica spp., whose benefits medicine is currently rediscovering.

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