For the relief of toothache

One of the plants that we bought today at our local garden centre, this is Uvularia grandiflora, commonly known as Large Bellwort, Large Merrybells, or Fairybells. A native of North America it is a shade loving woodland plant.

I'm always interested to learn about how plants have been used in herbalism. The interest goes back, I guess, to my childhood when the village herbalist, much to my amazement, managed to cure my eczema with some green sludge. Anyway, it seems that the root of this plant has analgesic properties and can be used as a poultice or salve to treat toothaches, boils, swellings, wounds and ulcers. No less of an authority than the late, great, Geoffrey Smith spoke about it on Radio 4's "Gardeners Question Time" and said that it was the best poultice for boils that he knew of.