Vine ash

Statema, B. C. P.

Mineral

Vine ash

Cenere di vite

Known today as: Ash of burnt vine wood.
Kind: Mineral, in 2 older authorities
Constituents: potassium carbonate, calcium carbonate, phosphates
Earliest authority here: Dioscorides (c. AD 40–90)
In other databases: Wikidata search
In the Canale glossary: On the Manner of Discerning and Healing the Bewitched, Appendix A: Part Three, Chapter 9: Anointings

Revised October 1, 2026: Tradition, lore, modern assessment, and sources extended. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.

Vine ash: what did Canale use it for?

In the oil for hexes (ch. 9).

Vine ash: what does modern science say?

Alkaline ash; its role in the distillation was mechanical. Wood ash is mostly potassium carbonate and lime, strongly alkaline; in Canale’s still it would have held the oils and resins in the mash, and in the ointment it was a mild caustic.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

Mechanism

The ash of vine prunings is a potash like any wood ash, alkaline and mildly caustic; in an oil it is an inert grit that makes the oil alkaline and a mild abrasive. The vine lent the ash its name and nothing of its nature.

Toxic dose

Inert at the amounts in an oil.

Standing

A sympathetic ingredient.

Canale, F. (1622). Discerning and Healing the Bewitched, ch. 9. Primary text

Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.

Vine ash: what lore surrounds it?

The alchemists called the ash left after calcining the caput mortuum, the dead head, and the salt leached from it the body’s fixed part; vine ash, from the plant of Dionysus and of the Eucharist, was ash of a sacred wood.

Vine ash: what did the older authorities say?

Dioscorides: Gives the ash of vine twigs, with vinegar, for swellings and the bite of serpents, and the lye of it for warts and the hair.
The dyers and soap-boilers: Vine ash and other wood ashes were the alkali of every trade before soda: the lye leached from them cleaned wool, made soap with oil, and whitened linen.

Sources

Dioscorides, De materia medica V. Primary text

Verification

Checked

October 1, 2026

Passes

Every sentence read against its sources, in the fifty-entry sample
The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database

Sources

2 cited: 2 primary text.

Corrections

None were needed.

What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.

Cite This Entry

Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026

Chicago: “Vine ash.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/vine-ash.
MLA: “Vine ash.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/vine-ash. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Vine ash. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/vine-ash

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