Ἀμβροσία,
Ambrosia; when applied as a cataplasm it has astringent and repellent powers.
Commentary. Ambrosia, as Pliny remarks (H. N. xxvii, 11), is a vague name which has been applied to various plants. Our old herbalists describe a plant under the English name of Oak of Cappadocia, which they represent as the A. of Dioscorides. He gives it the same medicinal character as our author (iii.) Galen and Aëtius do the same. It probably is the Ambrosia maritima, a plant not yet wholly unknown to the shops. See Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. p. 70.) We have not found it described by any of the Arabians except Ebn Baithar (i, 80.)
Ἄμμι,
Ammi, Bishop’s Weed, is of the third order of calefacients and desiccants, being composed of subtile particles, discutient and diuretic; but the seed of it is particularly useful.
Commentary. The Ammi copticum, or Bishop’s weed, has long held a place in the Materia Medica, and yet it is now scarcely recognized. See Dioscorides (iii, 63); Galen (De Simpl. v); Avicenna (ii, 2, 60); Serapion (c. 297.) It is now ranked as one of the four lesser hot seeds, and is held to be attenuant, aperient, and carminative. In a word, all the authorities, ancient and modern, agree in giving it the characters bestowed upon it by Dioscorides and Galen.
Ἀμΐαντον,
Lapis Amiantus, is formed in Cyprus, being like stone-alum, and is so called because when put into the fire it is not burnt. Some use it in desiccative depilatories.
Commentary. This is generally confounded with the Alumen plumosum, with which it is compared by Dioscorides, but it is in fact a different substance, being a variety of asbestus. Dioscorides does not mention any medicinal properties of which it is possessed, but states that garments were made out of it, which resisted the force of fire. (M. M. v, 155.) See also Pliny (H. N. xix, 4.)