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Medicine Hat Newspaper

History of Use Medicinal properties have been ascribed to the peculiar plant Petasites hybridus, common butterbur, since the first-century Greek physician Dioscurides used its pounded leaves to treat skin ulcers. The leaves can reach a diameter of 3 feet and were said to resemble the large felt hat (Greek petasos) worn by shepherds. Powder made from the roots was used to treat fevers and plague, as was noted by John Gerard in his Herball (1633): "The roots of Butter-burre stamped with ale, and given to drinke in pestilent and burning fevers, mightily cooleth and ...