Historical label: “Scurvy” in the 1850 edition’s “A List of the Principal Diseases”.
Modern reading: scurvy. Searched in PubMed as each plant’s Latin name with scurvy OR "ascorbic acid" OR "vitamin C". The counts and papers are on the Concordance page.
A note on the heading
Plain sense
The disease of bad blood and gums, treated with the cresses and Scurvygrass as a cleansing of the blood; Scurvygrass’s juice is taken “in the Spring”. Culpeper names the gums once (Juniper) and otherwise treats it as a humour to purge.
What the entries treat
8 claims. The spring diet-drink plants: Brook-lime and Water-cresses are “generally used together in diet-drink, with other things serving to purge the blood and body from all ill humours that would destroy health, and are helpful to the scurvy”; Water Cresses “are more powerful against the scurvy, and to cleanse the blood and humours, than Brooklime is”; Scurvygrass, “the Dutch Scurvygrass is of better effect, and chiefly used (if it may be had) by those that have the scurvy”, the juice taken “in the Spring every morning fasting in a cup of drink”; Ladies-smock “excellently good for the scurvy”; Winter-rocket “good for the scurvy”; Horse-raddish juice “held to be very effectual for the scurvy”; Wind Marjoram for “the dropsy, and the scurvy, scabs, itch, and yellow jaundice”. Juniper is the one remedy for the mouth: the ashes of the wood, “a speedy remedy to such as have the scurvy, to rub their gums with”.
Where the word comes from
The noun is from the adjective scurvy, “having scurf, scabby”, Late Middle English scurvi, a variant of scurfi; it was used to translate the foreign names of the disease, Dutch scheurbuik, French scorbut, Middle Low German schorbūk. Quotations from 1589 (“the Scuruie men doe call”) and Gerarde 1597.
Today’s words
scurvy; vitamin C deficiency — a broad match: the heading covers more than this, or several modern things.
How it reads today
The same word, with its cause found: “a disease caused by insufficient intake of vitamin C”, with “livid spots on the skin, spongy gums, loosening of the teeth” and bleeding. Culpeper’s scurvy was looser: Wind Marjoram sets it among “scabs, itch, and yellow jaundice”, and the gums are named once. Scurvygrass’s juice is taken “in the Spring”, and the cresses and Brooklime go into a diet-drink; the text’s reason is “to cleanse the blood”, the humoral one.
References
Wiktionary, s.v. “scurvy” (accessed 2026-10-28): adjective from Late Middle English scurvi, scurvy, variants of scurfi “having scurf, scabby”; the noun “is derived from the adjective” and was used to translate Dutch scheurbuik, French scorbut, Middle Low German schorbūk; sense “a disease caused by insufficient intake of vitamin C”, “livid spots on the skin, spongy gums, loosening of the teeth”, bleeding into the skin and from the mucous membranes; quotations Baker 1589, Nashe 1592, Gerarde 1597.
ThinkDeep333, 2026-10-28 · draft, not yet checked. Offered beside Culpeper’s heading, never in its place; nothing here says whether a plant works.
Old claims, quoted verbatim: not medical advice. A warning sits above the claims and never hides them; no warning does not mean safe, only that no source here has flagged the plant.
8 claims: 8 with a sentence, 0 from the index alone
Brook-lime and Water-Cresses are generally used together in diet-drink, with other things serving to purge the blood and body from all ill humours that would destroy health, and are helpful to the scurvy.
they are excellently good for the scurvy, they provoke urine, and break the stone, and excellently warm a cold and weak stomach, restoring lost appetite, and help digestion.
ScurvygrassCochlearia officinalisCLM-0014891850 index
but the Dutch Scurvygrass is of better effect, and chiefly used (if it may be had) by those that have the scurvy, and is of singular good effect to cleanse the blood, liver, and spleen, taking the juice in the Spring every morning fasting in a cup of drink.
Water CressesNasturtium officinaleCLM-0014831850 index
They are more powerful against the scurvy, and to cleanse the blood and humours, than Brooklime is, and serve in all the other uses in which Brooklime is available, as to break the stone, and provoke urine and woman’s courses.