Tanacetum parthenium
From:http://www.stevenfoster.com/education/monograph/feverfew.html

"The famous (or infamous) English herbalist, Nicholas Culpepper, whose seventeenth
century "English Physician" is the most widely printed English-language herbal of all
time, also observed use of feverfew for headache. My 1787 Dublin edition of Culpepper
says, "It is very effectual for all pains in the head coming of a cold cause, the herb being
bruised and applied to the crown of the head; as also for the Vertigo, that is a sunning
or swimming of the head".

I think you have to be pretty gullible to believe that crushing it and plastering in on your head
will do any good.

Another example of blue sky idiotic acceptance of worthless claims.

so are you saying topical application do nothing? i think vicks vap-o rub is quite effective for .. "all pains in the head coming of a cold cause"-- if by cold cause he means caused by colds -- and who knows maybe feverfew (which is a stongly scented member of the chrystanthium family if i am not mistaken) was as effective as menthol, an other member of the mint family. sometimes volitals can carry the effective ingredient.

there is a evidence that both mustard poltices, and onion poltices, (applied to the chest) where effective in treating pnuemonia. (onion particuarlly, since there are compounds in onions that can pass right through the skin.. they are transdermal molicules, the same kind that are used to "piggy back" drugs into the body with things like the nicotine patches, and the new birth control patches.)

i am sure many herbal remedies were placebos, and the cures the effected came from time and the sense of being cared for... that someone would care enough to learn what would help, and then procure the cure and prepare it..

nowdays, we know, chicken soup does really help a common cold.. the volitals in the broth help moisten the sinus membranes, and ease congestion and releive some sinus pain. (and of course fluid intake is an important part of treating a cold.. ) but the sense of being cared for is also part of the "cure".

there is today no real cure for the common cold.. most medicines just make you feel better.. if i am chilled with fever, i bet a warm poltice on my head would be one more thing that would help me feel warm and cared for.. and make me feel better!

Dear of troy: the next time you have a headache, rub your forehead with an aspirin tablet
and see how much good it does.

Ah, wwh, cut of troy some slack. She makes a very good point about medicinal patches. They work. I know from personal experience--and those patches sure ain't the work of herbalists. I find them to be pretty amazing in how they work. In fact, my mother recently had a break-out of shingles, and the I learned in my research on her behalf that the AMA highly recommends a medicinal patch for relieving post-neuralgic pain associated with shingles.

Another personal account: My grandmother's family doctor completely credited her with saving one of her children from application of mustard plasters when the child had pneumonia.

Hey, WW! That idiot quoted approvingly, or at least without disagreeing, with a guy who
mashed up leaves and put them on head somewhere. Some kinds of topical applications
do work, of course. Mostly they have to be fat soluble, or they won't penetrate skin.
But it is just about impossible to know how much is absorbed.
Then on the other hand there are horror stories, like the one about a very competent
lady chemist working with an especially nasty mercury compound, having a glass container
break and spill on her gloves. It went through her gloves and skin so fast that she died
in spite of immediate medical attention.
I'm grateful to have eyedrops before having introcular tension testing by gadget that
presses on cornea. I like to have dentist apply local anaesthetic before using needle on
my gums. I use sunscreen in spring until I develop the beginnings of a tan.
So I do not despise topical applications propery chosen. I will avoid mentioning
recently publicised ribaldry about benefits of "deep protein deposits." Remember that one?

Shoot, wwh, where would we be without your ribaldry? The gutter police wouldn't have jobs anymore. Poor gutter police.

And poor tsuwm. He's taken a lot of hits on Hogwash, and had even gone to the trouble of posting in orange.

oh-oh, Dr. Bill, is this another one of your homeopathological rants? Ain't goin' there...been there, done that. But just to keep the record straight: