Zenzur
Zenzur Mus<t>io capitulo de fluxu menstruorum inter herbas frigidas nominat.
Apparatus:
Zenzur BC | Zẽzur A | Zecur e | Zenzurum f
Translation:
Zenzur. This herb is mentioned among the cooling herbs by Mustio in his chapter on menstrual flow.
Commentary:
Little is known of Mustio/Muscio. He lived around 500 AD and wrote a treatise on Gynaecology, Genecia, which is aimed at midwives. He was probably of North African origin as has been assumed from the occurrence of a number of Punic herb names, among them zenzur, in his text. His work is basically a modified translation into Latin of a work, often called "Gynaecology", by the Greek physician Soranus of the 1st c. AD.
Simon must here be alluding to Mustio's Liber secundus, capitulum X: De sanguinatione matricis, i.e. "On bleedings of the uterus", ed. Rose (1882: 67 ff.), where on (1882: 69, 41) the herb is mentioned as part of a herbal mixture used in a decoct and also in a suppository for stopping uterine haemorrhage rather than menstrual flow.
Botanical identification:
Zenzur is mentioned in the cod. Vratislaviensis of the Herbal of Ps.-Apuleius, 18, ed. Howald (1927: 55), Herba Proserpinaca, as Punic zunzur for Greek πολύγονον /polýgonon/, now often identified with Polygonum aviculare L. "knot-grass".
