The editor of the text containing this unique attestation suggests that the word refers to ‘a medicament’, and the context seems to confirm this. However, the word philanthropos (literally meaning ‘friend of man’ and hence ‘humane or benevolent’) is not found elsewhere with this sense. According to the DMLBS, the same word can also refer to a ‘kind of plant, burdock, cleavers’, which may be an alternative (though less likely) interpretation of the word this attestation.