The Healing Power of Armenian Soil

An old German book “Gart der Gesundheit” (German: “garden of health”, 1470) describes the healing properties of the Armenian soil. The modern medicine has advanced significantly during the subsequent centuries, and examining the knowledge of older generations is rather interesting.

Armenian bole (also known as bolus armenus or bole armoniac) is an earthy clay that is native to Armenia. Due to the presence of iron oxide in it, the bole has a distinct red hue.

Herbarius in Dyetsche wrote: “Bolus armenus is a kind of soil, it has a habit of shrinking and freezing. It is completely red.

The Armenian soil works well against bleeding: take barley water and dissolve Arab gum with Armenian soil in it. The same mixture can be used against redness with the addition of plantain or egg white with seeds of plantain.

To deal with nose bleeding, take Armenian soil and Teesdalia juice, mix them up, and place the mixture in the nose.

Armenian soil heals bites of snakes and other venomous creatures, helps against plague fever, removes poison from beverages, resists decay, stops bleeding, dysentery, and galvanization. Not far from the commune of Wassy in France, there is soil similar to bolus armenus in terms of quality.”

by PeopleOfAr