Bedeguar, c1745-1807

Description

Glass jar containing four rose bedeguar galls formed on the dog rose by the wasp Diplolepis rosae. From the Burges Collection.

Text on paper contents label reads ‘Catal. Mat. Med. p. 119, no. 9’ and ‘BEDEGUAR’.

Pereira, in his Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, states that ‘Dried and powdered, it was given…as a diuretic and lithontriptic. More recently it has been recommended as an anthelmintic, and as a remedy for toothache. Pliny says, the ashes mixed with honey were used as a liniment for baldness. In another place he speaks of the fungus being mixed with bear’s-grease, for the same purpose.’