Cardamom

The best cardamom is sourced from Comagene, Arabia, and the Bosphorus; it grows in India and Arabia. Choose the one that is hard to break, full and rattling [because what this property does not have is collected at the wrong time], which has a numbing odor and sharp, bitter taste. It has warming power. When taken with water, it works against epilepsy, coughing, sciatica, paralysis, lacerations, cramps, and body cutting and wipes off the tapeworm. Taken with wine, it is a good remedy for kidney problems, urinary retention, scorpion stings and all bites of poisonous animals. With one drachma drunk from the root bark of the laurel, it smashes the bladder stone. In the smoking process it kills the embryo, rubbed in with vinegar, it drives off the scabies.