common centaury
noun1
A pink-flowering plant of species Centaurium erythraea, native to Europe, where it is used in traditional medicine.
- Common or lesser centaury is rarely used by medical practitioners; yet it might be employed as an indigenous substitute for gentian.1840, Jonathan Pereira, The Elements of Materia Medica: Vegetable and animal materia medica, page 899:
- The initial advice of Dioscorides on centaury is unclear as he refers to the 'small useless root' of common centaury but then recommends the pounded root as a plaster for injuries, and to cleanse old ulcers to form a scar.2010 November 12, Graeme Tobyn, Alison Denham, Margaret Whitelegg, chapter 13, in The Western Herbal Tradition E-Book: The Western Herbal Tradition E-Book, Elsevier Health Sciences, →ISBN, page 137: