"[Plin. Nat. 26.69.] - THE ONOTHERAS OR ONEAR: THREE REMEDIES.
Among the various evils by which the whole of the body in common is afflicted, that of wakefulness is the most common. Among the remedies for it we find panaces mentioned, clymenus, and aristolochia, the odour of the plant being inhaled and the head rubbed with it. Aizoüm, or houseleek, is beneficial, wrapped in black cloth and placed beneath the pillow, without the patient being aware of it. The onotheras too, or onear, taken in wine, has certain exhilarating properties; it has leaves like those of the almond tree, a rose-coloured flower, numerous branches, and a long root, with a vinous smell when dried: an infusion of this root has a soothing effect upon wild beasts even.
For fits of indigestion attended with nausea, betony is taken in drink: used similarly after the evening meal, it facilitates the digestion. Taken in the proportion of one drachma to three cyathi of oxymel, it dispels crapulence. The same is the case, too, with agaric, taken in warm water after eating. Betony is curative of paralysis, it is said; the same, too, with iberis, as already stated. This last is good, too, for numbness of the limbs; the same being the case with argemonia, a plant which disperses those affections which might otherwise necessitate the application of the knife.”
(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.)