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7 results
  • Tussilago farfara L. Asteraceae. Coltsfoot. Distribution: Europe, N. Africa, W & N Asia . Culpeper (1650) writes: ‘Tussilago. Coltsfoot. ... they are admirable good for coughs and consumptions of the lungs, shortness of breath etc. It is often used and with great success taken in a tobacco pipe, being cut and mixed with a little oil of Annis seeds.’ It is hepatotoxic genotoxic and carcinogenic due to the pyrrolizidine alkaloids that it contains. It should not be taken internally (Medicines Control Agency, 2002). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Lobelia tupa L Campanulaceae Tabaco del Diablo [Devil's tobacco]. Distribution: Central Chile. Dried leaves are smoked as a hallucinogen by the Mapuchu Indians of Chile. It was also used as a respiratory stimulant. The genus was named after Matthias de L’Obel or Lobel, (1538–1616), Flemish botanist and physician to James I of England, author of the great herbal Plantarum seu Stirpium Historia (1576). Lobeline, a chemical from the plant has nicotine like actions and for a while lobeline was used to help people withdraw from smoking, but was found to be ineffective. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Galega officinalis L. Fabaceae. Goat's Rue. Distribution: Central and Southern Europe, Asia Minor. Culpeper (1650) writes that it ‘... resists poison, kills worms, resists the falling sickness [epilepsy], resisteth the pestilence.’ Galega officinalis contains guanidine which reduces blood sugar by decreasing insulin resistance and inhibiting hepatic gluconeogenesis.. Metformin and Phenformin are drugs for type II diabetes that rely on this group of chemicals, known as biguanidines. Its name gala, meaning milk plus ega meaning 'to bring on', refers to its alleged property of increasing milk yield, and has been used in France to increase milk yield in cows. officinalis refers to its use in the offices of the monks, and is a common specific name for medicinal plants before 1600 and adopted by Linnaeus (1753). The fresh plant tastes of pea pods. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Hacquetia epipactis DC Apiaceae. Small herbaceous perennial. No common name except Hacquetia Distribution: Europe. Named for the Austrian physician, Balthasar (or Belsazar) Hacquet (1739/40-1815). He studied medicine in Vienna, was a surgeon in the brutal Seven Years War (1756-1763) – a world-wide war in which up to 1,400,000 people died. Later he was professor at the University of Lemberg (1788-1810). He wrote widely on many scientific disciplines including geology. Parkinson (1640) grouped it with Helleborus and Veratrum, calling it 'Epipactis Matthioli, Matthiolus, his bastard black hellebore' but does not give any uses. It has no medicinal properties. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Tropaeolum cv
  • Tropaeolum cv
  • Acanthus dioscoridis L. Acanthaceae. Distribution: Iran, Iraq, southern Turkey. Herbaceous perennial flowering plant. Named for Pedanius Dioscorides of Anazarbus, 1st century Greek physician and herbalist whose book, De Materia Medica, was the main source of herbal medicinal information for the next 1,600 years. He describes some 500 plants and their medicinal properties. His manuscript was copied and annotated over the centuries, and the earliest Greek text in existence is the illustrated Juliana Anicia Codex dated 512CE (Beck, 2005). The first English translation was made around 1650 by John Goodyear and published by Robert T. Gunther in 1934