Nature's pharmacy
Botanist David Stuart captivates Kevin Rushby with a detailed study of
medicinal plants, Dangerous Garden
Saturday May 15, 2004
The Guardian
Dangerous Garden: The Quest for Plants to Change Our Lives
by David Stuart
208pp, Frances Lincoln, £25
In medieval times there was a belief that God had created the Garden
of Eden with plants that would remedy all humankind's woes: for every
disease or desire, there was a botanic specimen that would salve or
save. Taken one step further, the belief led to the doctrine of
signatures which stated that each plant had a God-given sign as to its
purpose. Hence foxgloves, now known as effective in heart conditions,
were applied to lung problems - the spotted flowers supposedly being
reminiscent of diseased lungs. (In George Eliot's Silas Marner, the
hero correctly supplies the flower to an old cobbler's wife who has
dropsy - congestive heart failure - but that was 1861, after science
had sorted the truth out.)
David Stuart
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Practical applications of Evolutionary Biology
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