A while ago I posted this on Tik Tok, because I thought the capcut worked well with it. It is my one #herbaltiktok post. I don’t typically have the type of restraint it would require for me to spend time there often being the “well actually” person.
A friend who saw it asked me about it, so I thought I would share a little bit about what I was making. To begin with I need to give proper credit to my source. The following passage is credited to Hildegard Von Bingen who lived in the 12th century CE, although there is a bit of debate about the authorship of Physica.
Take some nutmeg, an equal weight of cinnamon, and a little cloves. Grind these to a powder, add a similar amount of whole wheat and a little water, and make a paste from this. Then eat it often. It will calm all bitterness of heart and mind, open the heart and clouded senses, and make the mind joyful. It will purify the senses and diminish all the noxious humors; it will contribute good liquid to the blood and make one strong.[1]1
Hildegarde Von Bingen c 1250 CR
You should know that you will find people all over the interwebz who want to make this into a cookie recipe, but it wasn’t. Paste was originally the word used for dough– whether it was pastry dough used to make a pie crust or a medicinal paste.
Medicinal pastes were meant to be mixed with just enough liquid to bring them to the consistency of a well form massed that would hang to the pestle when it was lifted from the mortar. These pastes might be applied externally or eaten. Theriac paste was eaten and applied to buboes to combat the Black Death. Alipta muscata was a medicinal paste made with ambergris, camphor, musk, and rosewater used to address breathing difficulties. To make a capsula one formed a paste round a tooth like a modern cap. Pastes sweetened with herbal syrups or honey are called electuaries.
Sometimes a receipt recommended that the paste be formed into shapes such as a troche (wafer or cake) or roule (little ball), and then dried. This is how “pills” were preserved in the days before industry. I wrote about how I make herbal troches quite some time ago, so I will pull that post in from the old blog.
Older receipts often called for powdered grains as binders and water for liquid, but by the early modern era medicine makers often used sugar and syrups or hydrosols as you can see here in receipt for the paste Elizabeth Talbot Grey used for her pectoral roules.
To make Pectorall Roules for a Cold. (1653)
Take four ounces of Sugar finely beaten, and half an ounce of searsed Licorice, two graines of Musk, and the weight of two pence of the sirupe of Licorice, and so beat it up to a perfect paste, with a little sirupe of Horehound, and a little Gum dragon being steeped in Rosewater, then toul them in small rouls, and dry them, and so you may keep them all the whole year.
Elizabeth Talbot Grey 16532
I won’t be adding sugar, but as I am a proper peasant, I will be using some barley malt syrup as my liquid rather than water. This idea came from reading several medicinal receipts from the 1400s, that called for sweet barley wort to make pastes more palatable.
My Twist on Hildegard’s Paste
You are going to start with an equal amount of ground nutmeg and cinnamon. Then you will weigh that powder and use that measurement to determine how much flour to use. Please read the safety information about nutmeg below.
I prefer oat flour to wheat flour for this receipt. There is clinical research that polyphenols in oats inhibit the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and that tocotrienols also have neuroprotective properties.3 You can use whatever you like.
I mix in a little liquid at a time with my hands until it is a good consistency for rolling up. I can’t give you a measurement here because it depends on how dry your ingredients are. You will get a feel for it eventually.
Pastes are usually formed into either a roule or a troche. Roules (pills) were ball-shaped while troches were wafer-like. These I shape into little roules because I am not going to bother with drying them. We have refrigeration and I only make enough for a week or so at a time.
I have words of warning for people who try this. It is a true experience of how medieval people experienced spice. They are strong-tasting. I personally think they are amazing but I grew up eating a lot of strange things. If this is too much for you, you could always use more oat flour and less nutmeg and cinnamon. You can break one up and stir it into a cup of steamed milk, too.
I first read about these on a day that I was stuck on bed rest. Now I make these up when a rheumatic flare is bringing me down and I need a little anti-inflammatory mood-brightening. Cinnamon also helps with blood sugar balance and all of that when I am not eating my best. I feel like my overall focus improves a bit as well, to get me back on track. It’s not something I snack on all the time because…
Nutmeg comes with some concerns.
Myristicin from nutmeg suppresses the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. If you are taking another anticholinergic drug, e.g. diphenhydramine or other antihistamines, do not eat these as myristicin may act synergistically with other anticholinergics.
People were fairly conservative with their nutmeg usage, even back in the day. The most aggressive receipt I have seen suggested quartering one confited (candied) nutmeg and eating it throughout the day as a cordial. It is the most common spice used in bedtime possets, but the receipts just call for culinary amounts or a sprinkle.
I weigh my roules at 4 g, so at most one contains 1.33g of nutmeg but that is still more than a sprinkle. Do not eat more than one daily. It would be best to cut it in quarters. If you notice any facial flushing, tachycardia, agitation, palpitations, anxiety, dry mouth, blurred vision, or chest tightening, stop immediately as some folks are more sensitive to anticholinergics than others.
I read a case study once about a woman who exhibited anticholinergic toxicity after eating too much nutmeg sprinkled on her asparagus. This will not be a concern for most people, but it would be irresponsible of me not to mention it.
The medicinal use of nutmeg is not appropriate for folks with disordered anxiety or who are already experiencing the symptoms I mentioned above due to stress or who have cardiovascular conditions. Culinary use is fine though.
If dosages get too high (5 g or more), you will notice some euphoria the youths like to call getting a natural high. It is a terrible way to get high. Just don’t do it. And yes, there are animal studies that talk about the combination of nutmeg and cloves having aphrodisiac actions, but my guess is that you will be alternating between vomiting and sitting on the toilet, long before that works out for you based on the dosages in this study4.
- Hozeski, Bruce W. Hildegard’s Healing Plants: From Her Medieval Classic Physica. 2001 Translation. Boston: Beacon Press, ca. 1150. ↩︎
- Kent, Elizabeth Grey. A Choice Manual of Rare and Select Secrets in Physick and Chyrurgery Collected and Practised by the Right Honorable, the Countesse of Kent, Late Deceased ; as Also Most Exquisite Ways of Preserving, Conserving, Candying, &c. ; Published by W.I., Gent. 1st ed. London, England: Printed by G.D., and are to be sold by William Shears …, 1653. http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A47264.0001.001. ↩︎
- Guo, W., Wise, M. L., Collins, F. W., & Meydani, M. (2008). Avenanthramides, polyphenols from oats, inhibit IL-1β-induced NF-κB activation in endothelial cells. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 44(3), 415-429. &
Sen, C. K., Khanna, S., & Roy, S. (2009). 12 Tocotrienol Neuroprotection.Micronutrients and Brain Health, 163.&
Frank, J., Chin, X. W. D., Schrader, C., Eckert, G. P., & Rimbach, G. (2012). Do tocotrienols have potential as neuroprotective dietary factors? Ageing research reviews, 11(1), 163-180. ↩︎ - Tajuddin, Ahmad S, Latif A, Qasmi IA. Aphrodisiac activity of 50% ethanolic extracts of Myristica fragrans Houtt. (nutmeg) and Syzygium aromaticum (L) Merr. & Perry. (clove) in male mice: a comparative study. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2003;3(1). doi:10.1186/1472-6882-3-6 ↩︎
Domestic Medicine 
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