The apple was well known to Europeans, having originated in Kazakhstan.
Apples supposedly “cleaned the liver, cure[d] constipation, and tone[ed] the gums.” (Breverton, Breverton’s Complete Herbal)
Descriptions This is a tree so well known for its fruit, that it would be needless to give any description of it here. Among the numerous variety of apples, those which are accounted best for medicinal use, are the pearmain and pippin, yielding a pleasant vinous juice, with a little sharpness.
Place It is well known to grow in orchards and gardens.
Time Different kinds flower at different times; all between April and the latter end of May. The John apple, which is the latest, is not ripe till October.
Government and virtues Apple-trees are all under the dominion of Venus. In general they are cold and windy, and the best are to be avoided, before they are thoroughly ripe; then to be roasted or scalded, and a little spice or warm seeds thrown on them, and then should only be eaten after or between meals, or for supper. They are very proper for hot and bilious stomachs, but not to the cold, moist, and flatulent. The more ripe ones eaten raw, move the belly a little; and unripe ones have the contrary effect. A poultice of roasted sweet apples, with powder of frankincense, removes pains of the side: and a poultice of the same apples boiled in plantain water to a pulp, then mixed with milk, and applied, take away fresh marks of gunpowder out of the skin. Boiled or roasted apples eaten with rose water and sugar, or with a little butter, is a pleasant cooling diet for feverish complaints. An infusion of sliced apples with their skins in boiling water, a crust of bread, some barley, and a little mace or all-spice, is a very proper cooling diet drink in fevers. Roasted apples are good for the asthmatic; either raw, roasted or boiled, are good for the consumptive, in inflammations of the breasts or lungs. Their syrup is a good cordial in faintings, palpitations, and melancholy: The pulp of boiled or rotten apples in a poultice, is good for inflamed eyes, either applied alone or with milk,or rose or fennel-waters. The pulp of five or six roasted apples, beaten up with a quart of water to lamb’s wool, and the whole drank at night in an hour’s space, speedily cures such as slip their water by drops, attended with heat and pain. Gerard observes, if it does not effectually remove the complaint the first night, it never yet failed the second. The sour provokes urine most; but the rough strengthens most the stomach and bowels.
Breverton, Terry. “Apple,” in ‘Breverton’s Complete Herbal,’ edited by Phillip de Ste. Croix, 29. Lyon’s Press, 2011.
Culpeper, Nicholas. “The Complete Herbal,” 1652.