Medicinal Uses of Cabbage in Cato's On Agriculture

Author: Marcius Porcius Cato ( $234$ – $149$ BCE), also known as Cato the Elder.
Work: On Agriculture (De agricultura), a guide for estate owners sharing expertise on farming and household medicine.
Content: The text highlights cabbage as a superior medicinal vegetable, specifically in Chapters $156$ (attributed to Cato) and $157$ (possibly a later addition).

General Digestion: Cabbage can be eaten cooked or raw (dressed with vinegar) to aid digestion and bowel health.
Alcohol Tolerance: To consume large amounts of food and drink at parties, one should eat raw cabbage with vinegar before the meal and approximately $5$ leaves during the meal.
Purging and Emetics:
- Recipe: Boil $4\,lb$ of tender cabbage in three bunches, pound them, and express $1\,pint$ of juice.
- Additions: A salt crystal the size of a bitter vetch seed and roasted cumin.
- Procedure: After a hot bath and honey water the night before, drink the juice in the morning and walk for $4$ hours before reclining to vomit bile and phlegm.
Colic and Urination: Cabbage boiled with salt, cumin, barley meal, and olive oil is used to treat colic and painful urination.

Levis (Delicate): Large, broad-leaved, and long-stemmed with a powerful nature.
Apiaca (Crinkled): Visually appealing and medicinally more powerful than the levis variety.
Mild: Thin-stemmed and the bitterest kind; considered the most effective medicinal variety for cleaning wounds and healing sores.
Internal Health: Cabbage is claimed to remove sickness from the head, eyes, spleen, heart, liver, lungs, and joints. It is often consumed in the morning on an empty stomach.

Sores and Cancers: Ground cabbage applied twice a day can heal septic wounds and cancers. If the cabbage is too bitter for the patient, it should be mixed with barley flour.
Dislocations and Bruises: Use hot water fomentation followed by an application of ground cabbage to remove pain and break up bruising.
Specific Conditions:
- Nasal Polyps: Ground wild cabbage in wool inserted into the nose; the polyp should fall out within $3$ days.
- Fistulas: Use ground cabbage as a pack or injected via a bladder and reed.
- Hearing Loss: Cabbage juice pressed with wine and dropped warm into the ear.

Cabbage Eaters' Urine: The urine of those who habitually eat cabbage is stored and warmed for treatments.
- Applications: Restoring health to feeble children, clearing blurry vision, easing head/neck pain, and as a wash for feminine health.
Wild Cabbage: Possesses the "greatest strength" among all types.
- Purging: More effective and safer than hellebore or scammony.
- Dosage: $4\,cyathi$ of water mixed with ground cabbage, administered in the morning after a day of fasting.