"[Plin. Nat. 24.92.] - THE ARON: THIRTEEN REMEDIES.
The Greeks themselves, in fact, have established an immense difference between these two plants, in attributing to the seed of the dracunculus certain hot, pungent properties, and a fetid odour so remarkably powerful as to be productive of abortion, while upon the aron, on the other hand, they have bestowed marvellous encomiums. As an article of food, however, they give the preference to the female plant, the male plant being of a harder nature, and more difficult to cook. It carries off, they say, all vicious humours from the chest, and powdered and taken in the form either of a potion or of an electuary, it acts as a diuretic and emmenagogue. Powdered and taken in oxymel, it is good for the stomach; and we find it stated that it is administered in ewe’s milk for ulcerations of the intestines, and is sometimes cooked on hot ashes and given in oil for a cough. Some persons, again, are in the habit of boiling it in milk and administering the decoction; and it has been used also in a boiled state as a topical application for defluxions of the eyes, contusions, and affections of the tonsillary glands. Cleophantus prescribes it with oil, as an injection for piles, and recommends it as a liniment, with honey, for freckles.
Cleophantus has greatly extolled this plant as an antidote for poisons, and for the treatment of pleurisy and peripneumony, prepared the same way as for coughs. The seed too, pounded with olive oil or oil of roses, is used as an injection for pains in the ears. Dieuches prescribes it, mixed in bread with meal, for the cure of coughs, asthma, hardness of breathing, and purulent expectorations. Diodotus recommends it, in combination with honey, as an electuary for phthisis and diseases of the lungs, and as a topical application even for fractured bones. Applied to the sexual parts, it facilitates delivery in all kinds of animals; and the juice extracted from the root, in combination with Attic honey, disperses films upon the eyes, and diseases of the stomach. A decoction of it with honey is curative of cough; and the juice is a marvellous remedy for ulcers of every description, whether phagedænic, carcinomatous, or serpiginous, and for polypus of the nostrils. The leaves, boiled in wine and oil, are good for burns, and, taken with salt and vinegar, are strongly purgative; boiled with honey, they are useful also for sprains, and used either fresh or dried, with salt, for gout in the joints.
Hippocrates has prescribed the leaves, either fresh or dried, with honey, as a topical application for abscesses. Two drachmæ of the seed or root, in two cyathi of wine, are a sufficient dose to act as an emmenagogue, and a similar quantity will have the effect of bringing away the after-birth, in cases where it is retarded. Hippocrates used to apply the root also, for the purpose. They say too, that in times of pestilence the employment of aron as an article of food is very beneficial. It dispels the fumes of wine; and the smoke of it burnt drives away serpents, the asp in particular, or else stupefies them to such a degree as to reduce them to a state of torpor. These reptiles also will fly at the approach of persons whose bodies have been rubbed with a preparation of aron with oil of laurel: hence it is generally thought a good plan to administer it in red wine to persons who have been stung by serpents. Cheese, it is said, keeps remarkably well, wrapped in leaves of this plant.”
(The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)

"[Plin. Nat. 24.93.] - THE DRACUNCULUS; TWO REMEDIES.
The plant which I have spoken of as the dracunculus, is taken out of the ground just when the barley is ripening, and at the moon’s increase. It is quite sufficient to have this plant about one, to be safe from all serpents; and it is said, that an infusion of the larger kind taken in drink, is very useful for persons who have been stung by those reptiles: it is stated also that it arrests the catamenia when in excess, due care being taken not to let iron touch it. The juice of it too is very useful for pains in the ears.
As to the plant known to the Greeks by the name of “dracontion,” I have had it pointed out to me under three different forms; the first having the leaves of the beet, with a certain proportion of stem, and a purple flower, and bearing a strong resemblance to the aron. Other persons, again, have described it as a plant with a long root, embossed to all appearance and full of knots, and consisting of three stems in all; the same parties have recommended a decoction of the leaves in vinegar, as curative of stings inflicted by serpents. The third371 plant that has been pointed out to me has a leaf larger than that of the cornel, and a root resembling that of the reed. This root, I have been assured, has as many knots on it as the plant is years old, the leaves, too, being as many in number. The plant is recommended also for the stings of serpents, administered either in wine or in water.”
(The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)