244 results filtered with: Pink
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Paeonia officinalis L. Paeoniaceae, European Peony, Distribution: Europe. The peony commemorates Paeon, physician to the Gods of ancient Greece (Homer’s Iliad v. 401 and 899, circa 800 BC). Paeon, came to be associated as being Apollo, Greek god of healing, poetry, the sun and much else, and father of Aesculapius/Asclepias. Theophrastus (circa 300 BC), repeated by Pliny, wrote that if a woodpecker saw one collecting peony seed during the day, it would peck out one’s eyes, and (like mandrake) the roots had to be pulled up at night by tying them to the tail of a dog, and one’s ‘fundament might fall out’ [anal prolapse] if one cut the roots with a knife. Theophrastus commented ‘all this, however, I take to be so much fiction, most frivolously invented to puff up their supposed marvellous properties’. Dioscorides (70 AD, tr. Beck, 2003) wrote that 15 of its black seeds, drunk with wine, were good for nightmares, uterine suffocation and uterine pains. Officinalis indicates it was used in the offices, ie the clinics, of the monks in the medieval era. The roots, hung round the neck, were regarded as a cure for epilepsy for nearly two thousand years, and while Galen would have used P. officinalis, Parkinson (1640) recommends the male peony (P. mascula) for this. He also recommends drinking a decoction of the roots. Elizabeth Blackwell’s A Curious Herbal (1737), published by the College of Physicians, explains that it was used to cure febrile fits in children, associated with teething. Although she does not mention it, these stop whatever one does. Parkinson also reports that the seeds are used for snake bite, uterine bleeding, people who have lost the power of speech, nightmares and melancholy. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley
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Apoptosis
Odra Noel
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Mitchell's equation I
Odra Noel
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Human femoral bone, AFM
Justyna Miszkiewicz and Wei-Feng Xue
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Raynaud's Phenomenon
Thermal Vision Research
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HeLa cell, immortal human epithelial cancer cell line, SEM
Anne Weston, Francis Crick Institute
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Brugmansia suaveolens 'Pink Beauty'
Dr Henry Oakeley
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Fetal piglet
Michael Frank, Royal Veterinary College
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Retina development, composition
Leo Valdivia, Dr Steve Wilson
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Partners in crime - chloroplasts and mitochondria
Odra Noel
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Bacterial microbiome mapping, bioartistic experiment
François-Joseph Lapointe, Université de Montréal
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Sempervivum tectorum L. Crassulaceae Houseleek, Senegreene Distribution: Europe. Sempervivum means 'live forever', tectorum means 'roof', and was apparently grown on house roofs to protect against lightning. Lyte (1578 distinguishes Stonecrops (Sedum) from Sengreene (Sempervivum) for he advises the latter, alone or mixed with barley meal, applied topically to burns, scalds, St Anthony's fire [erysipelas] , ulcers and sores, will cure them and sore eyes. Apropos of stonecrops (Sedum), he describes the redness and blistering that the sap has on bare skin, and how it is good for poisons for if taken with vinegar by mouth it causes vomiting, but only safe to do so in strong people. He seems fairly confused as to which is which. Not approved by the European Medicines Agency for Traditional Herbal Medicinal use. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley
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Phalaenopsis, Orchidaceae
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Apoptosis
Odra Noel
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Human oral squamous cell carcinoma cell
Anne Weston, Francis Crick Institute
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Rubus spectabilis 'Olympic Double'
Dr Henry Oakeley
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Lung cancer cells
Anne Weston, Francis Crick Institute
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Arctium lappa L. Asteraceae. Greater Burdock. Distribution: Europe to India and Japan. Dioscorides (Beck, 2003) writes: '... helps those who spit blood and who suffer from abscesses ... plastered on it stems the pains around the joints that stem from twistings. The Leaves are applied beneficially on old ulcers.' Culpeper (1650) writes: ‘Burdanae, etc. Of Bur, Clot-Bur or Burdock, ... helps such as spit blood and matter, bruised and mixed salt and applied to the place, helpeth the bitings of mad dogs. It expels wind, easeth pains of the teeth, strengthens the back, helps the running of the reins, and the whites in women, being taken inwardly.’ The roots contain inulin, which is made into a non-digestible sweetener for diabetics. It has a multitude of uses in herbal medicine, in particular it is a component of a compound called ‘essiac’ that has been widely used as a treatment of cancers in the USA, but which is of no proven benefit. The young roots can be eaten raw or cooked. The seeds are hairy and care should be taken when harvesting them as inhaled they are reported as ‘toxic’. The root is licensed for use in Traditional Herbal Medicines in the UK (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley
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Breast cancer cell spheroid, SEM
Khuloud T. Al-Jamal, David McCarthy & Izzat Suffian
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Rosa 'Ispahan'
Dr Henry Oakeley
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Future element
Odra Noel
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Lavatera olbia 'Pink Frills'
Dr Henry Oakeley
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Matthiola incana (L.)W.T.Aiton Brassicaceae Distribution: The genus name commemorates Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1500/1–77), physician and botanist, whose name is Latinised to Matthiolus.. Incana means hoary or grey, referring to the colour of the leaves. Mattioli's commentaries on the Materia Medica of Dioscorides were hugely popular. Matthiola incana was first described by Linnaeus as Cheiranthus incanus, being changed to Matthiola by William Aiton, at Kew, in 1812. It is in the cabbage family. Commercial seed packets contain a mixture of single and double forms. The latter are sterile, but selective breeding has increased the proportion of double forms from the seed of single forms to as much as 80%. ‘Ten week stocks’ are popular garden annuals, flowering in the year of sowing, whereas ‘Brompton stocks’ (another variety of M. incana) are biennials, flowering the following year. Gerard (1633), called them Stocke Gillofloure or Leucoium, and notes the white and purple forms, singles and doubles. About their medicinal value he writes ‘not used in Physicke except among certain Empiricks and Quacksalvers, about love and lust matters, which for modestie I omit’. The thought of a member of the cabbage family being an aphrodisiac might encourage the gullible to take more seriously the government’s plea to eat five portions of vegetable/fruit per day. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley
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Fetal piglet
Michael Frank, Royal Veterinary College
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Ajuga reptans 'Pink Elf'
Dr Henry Oakeley