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Table 1 Bryonia alba L.—categories of uses based on historical and ethnographic material
From: From medicinal plant to noxious weed: Bryonia alba L. (Cucurbitaceae) in northern and eastern Europe
| Category of use | Use [reference] | Region and country |
|---|---|---|
| Folklorea | Blessed in bouquets on Assumption Day [43, 54, 55] | South-eastern Poland |
| Folklorea | Blessed in wreaths during Corpus Christi [53, 56] | Poland |
| Folklorea | Sepulchral rituals—placed in a coffin, as a “pillow” for a dead person [57] | Eastern Poland |
| Folklorea | Apotropaic for people and domestic animals [56] | Poland |
| Folklorea | Used by witches to harm people and their cattle [54, 58, 59] | Poland |
| Folklorea | Bringing luck plant, endowed with transformative powers [54, 58] | Poland |
| Folklorea | Brings luck to the household [31] | Southern Russia |
| Folklorea | Digging the plant required putting some offering (bread, coins), in return a spirit who lived inside would not get irritated and seeking revenge [48, 60, 61] | Poland, Ukraine |
| Folklorea | Folklore of love and courtship [58] | Poland |
| Folklorea | Folklore of love and courtship [24] | Lower Rhine, Germany |
| Folklorea | Substitute for mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) [22] | Germany, Poland |
| Folklorea | Substitute for mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) [18] | Denmark |
| Food (emergency) | Starch-rich roots were recommended for baking emergency bread [62,63,64] | Finland, Sweden |
| Food (poison) | Berries can be highly toxic [65] | Croatia |
| Medicinal (folk) | Wounds, ulcers [9, 66,67,68]; fruits against sore throat and oedema [66,67,68] | Lithuanian-Belarus borderland |
| Medicinal (folk) | Wounds, mixed with fat against scabies, chest pains (the root, mixed with honey and brandy), fever, rheumatism [38, 69] | Romania |
| Medicinal (folk) | Folk illness: oberwanie (an effect of lifting something heavy); plica polonica [70] | Poland |
| Medicinal (folk) | Epilepsy [71] | Denmark |
| Medicinal (folk) | Leaves used in contusion, bruises, bone fracture [72] | Lithuania |
| Medicinal (folk) | Internal parasites, abortifacient [73] | Ukraine |
| Medicinal (folk) | Constipation [62] | Sweden |
| Medicinal (folk) | Viper bites [18] | Denmark |
| Medicinal (folk) | Snake bites [69] | Romania |
| Medicinal (folk) | Deters snakes [31] | Southern Russia |
| Medicinal (folk current use) | purgative, diuretic, mucolytic, against dropsy, gout, lung catarrh, diarrhoea, epilepsy, wounds, ulcers [51] | Deliblato Sands, Serbia |
| Medicinal (folk current use) | Anti-rheumatic [74, 75] | Kosovo |
| Medicinal (historical) | Oedema, intestinal worms, convulsion, headache, bruises, pneumonia [1] | Sweden |
| Medicinal (historical) | Stitches on the side [4] | Germany |
| Medicinal (historical) | Stitches on the side [35, 36] | Sweden |
| Medicinal (historical) | Epilepsy [35, 36] | Sweden |
| Medicinal (historical) | Constipation; used to remove a dead foetus [36] | Sweden |
| Medicinal (historical) | Internal parasitic worms, laxative, aches and sores [76] | Sweden |
| Medicinal (historical) | Hysterical disorders, inflammation of the hands [77, 78] | Sweden |
| Medicinal (historical) | Pneumonia, gout [79] | Germany |
| Medicinal (historical) | Laxative and purgative medicine [80] | Poland |
| Medicinal (historical) | Dizziness, as heart tonic [81] | Poland |
| Ornamental | Good for covering wooden walls, portals and gazebos [1] | Sweden |
| Ornamental | Ornamental plant in crofters and peasant gardens during the nineteenth century [17, 76, 82,83,84] | Sweden |
| Veterinary (folk) | Used to enhance cow milking [53, 85] | South-eastern Poland |
| Veterinary (folk) | Blessed on St. George’s Day and used in rituals to increase fatness of the cow’s milk [86] | Upper Pčinja, Leskovačka Morava in Serbia |
| Veterinary (folk) | Blessed for Epiphany together with common juniper and used in cow fumigation, when a cow suffered from udder infection [53] | Central-western Poland |
| Veterinary (folk) | Given to pigs, cattle and sheep to prevent and cure several illnesses [38] | Romania |
| Veterinary (folk) | Given to domestic hogs for parasitic worms and anthrax; pigs’ prophylaxis [18] | Denmark |
| Veterinary (folk) | Goats’ treatment (unspecific) [87] | Sweden |
| Veterinary (folk) | Peasants often grew it close to henhouses as it could keep away birds of prey [4] | Scandinavia |
