A return to f25v - the dragon is the key, obviously, but is it basil?

[Searcher]

JKP wrote:

Thew fact that Veratrum is toxic doesn't discount it as a possible ID. A very high proportion of medieval medicinal plants were toxic. In fact, you almost get the feeling that they considered toxins as a way to root out body toxins because they used them so widely. This was true even in the 19th and 20th centuries, when mercury, which is highly toxic, was used to treat Syphilis.

To the point, the legend about Tillo, which was killed (disrupt?) by a dragon or a snake, and revived with a certain herb (Agrippa of Nettesheim calls it simply Dragon-wort), reminded me Slavic (Romanian, Russian...) legends and fairy tales about dead and living waters. Dead water connects parts and heal wounds, live water returns to life. Maybe, the same analogy is with plants, as well: toxic plants - as a dead component, innocuous ones - as a life and health giving component.

H. C. Agrippa thought about similar things after the mention of that story.

Et Juba refert in Arabia herba quadam hominem revocatum ad vitam. Verum an possint talia re vera fieri vi herbarum, vel cuiusvis alterius rei naturali in hominem, in sequentibus differemus: posse autem fieri in caeteris animantibus, certum & manifestum est. Sic muscae submersae si ponantur in cineribus tepidis, reviviscunt: & apes submersae similiter vitam recuperant in succo nepetae, & anguillae defectu aquae mortuae si corpore integro existente ponantur sub fimo in aceto, & addatur de sanguine vulturis post paucos dies omnes recuperant vitam. Echeneim si quis in frusta discerpserit, & in mare projecerit, paulo post partes convenire & reviviscere aiunt. Scimus quoque pellicanum necatos pullos revocare ad vitam proprio sanguine.