Lupines, manganese, and devil-sickness: An Anglo-Saxon medical response to epilepsy

The most frequently prescribed herb for devil-sickness in the vernacular medical books from Anglo-Saxon England, the lupine, is exceptionally high in manganese. Since manganese depletion has been linked with recurring seizures in both clinical and experimental studies, it is possible that lupine administration responded to the particular pathophysiology of epilepsy. Lupine is not prescribed for seizures in classical Mediterranean medical sources, implying that the Northern European peoples (if not the Angle-Saxons themselves) discovered whatever anticonvulsive properties the herb may exhibit.