Jaundice

Saffron (orange threads of the saffron crocus) and barberry featured in many recipes because of their yellow color, following from belief that physical appearance of a plant was clue to its curative properties, i.e., like-follows-like. . One remedy involved combining “sixteen long knotted earthworms (collected in the evening) sliced and seethed in ale mixed with cloves and saffron.” Other recipes involved power of blackened egg shells given in white wine with saffron; or dried “fresh dung of a Goose” or “sheep’s dung mixed with the bark of a barberry tree infused in ale and white wine” (Evans I& Read, 85-86)