The Best (and Most Bewildering) of Britain's Home Remedies

Cherry Chappell has compiled a vast compendium of traditional British home remedies. Here is a selection of the best. Some sound sensible, while many are bewildering.

Flatulence

There is a general consensus that some high-fibre foods - lentils, leeks, peas, beans and bran, for instance - can create excessive wind and bloating. A traditional Irish folk remedy for "wind in the stomach", described by Frances Kennett in the 1976 book Folk Medicine: fact and fiction, consists of half a pint of milk (probably warmed) with four teaspoons of soot. This sounds unlikely but, as she points out, carbon is sometimes prescribed for flatulent conditions of the stomach and intestines.

Fennel seeds have long been regarded as a carminative for wind. In India the seeds are toasted and then chewed after a meal to help digestion, and in Britain tea has been made from the seeds to treat everything from hiccups to colic. Read more