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Gaultheria procumbens Kalm Ericaeae. Wintergreen, teaberry, boxberry, chickerberry. Distribution: North American forests. Named for French physician/botanist Jean Francois Gaultier (1708-1756). Physician to the French King, emigrated to Quebec in 1742. Researched flora of North America, died of typhus (Oakeley, 2012). Source of oil of wintergreen. Ten pounds of oil can be extracted from a ton of leaves. Toxic effects: Stupidity, swelling of the tongue, food craving, epigastric tenderness, vomiting, dyspnoea, hot skin, tachycardia, restlessness (MiIlspaugh, 1974). Active chemical is methyl salicylate. Used topically for musculo-skeletal conditions, it is converted to salicylic acid when absorbed. Excess use has caused a death. Salicylic acid is also used for warts and corns (first described by Dioscorides in 70CE)
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Acheivement of arms, by Heather Childs; c. 1970
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Crocus vernus (L,)Hill Iridaceae. and Bombus terrestris, spring crocus with bumble bee. Distribution: Europe. Crocus sativus is the source of Saffron, a spice from the pollinia of the flower
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Hepatica nobilis Mill. Ranunculaceae. Liverwort - not to be confused with the lichen of the same name. Distribution: North America. Liverwort (‘liver plant’): discontinued herbal medicine for disorders of the liver. The name and the use to which the Liverworts have been put medicinally is suggested, according to the doctrine of signatures, by the shape of the leaves which are three-lobed, like the liver. It is little used in modern herbalism but was employed in treating disorders of the liver and gall bladder, indigestion etc. It is highly toxic. Hepatica acutiloba was widely used for liver disorders in the 1880s, with up to 200,000 kilos of leaves being harvested per annum to make liver tonics - which eventually caused jaundice. Gerard (1633) calls it Hepaticum trifolium, Noble Liverwort, Golden Trefoile and herbe Trinity and writes: 'It is reported to be good against weakness of the liver which proceedeth from a hot cause, for it cooleth and strengtheneth it not a little. ' He adds ' Baptista Sardus[a Piedmontese physician fl. 1500] commendeth it and writeth that the chiefe vertue is in the root
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Hepatica nobilis Mill. Ranunculaceae. Liverwort - not to be confused with the lichen of the same name. Distribution: North America. Liverwort (‘liver plant’): discontinued herbal medicine for disorders of the liver. The name and the use to which the Liverworts have been put medicinally is suggested, according to the doctrine of signatures, by the shape of the leaves which are three-lobed, like the liver. It is little used in modern herbalism but was employed in treating disorders of the liver and gall bladder, indigestion etc. It is highly toxic. Hepatica acutiloba was widely used for liver disorders in the 1880s, with up to 200,000 kilos of leaves being harvested per annum to make liver tonics - which eventually caused jaundice. Gerard (1633) calls it Hepaticum trifolium, Noble Liverwort, Golden Trefoile and herbe Trinity and writes: 'It is reported to be good against weakness of the liver which proceedeth from a hot cause, for it cooleth and strengtheneth it not a little. ' He adds ' Baptista Sardus [a Piedmontese physician fl. 1500] commendeth it and writeth that the chiefe vertue is in the root
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Serratula tinctoria subsp. seoanei (Willk.)M.Lainz Asteraceae. Saw-wort (in the USA called Dyer's plumeless saw-wort). Distribution: Europe. Named after Dr Victor Lopez Seoane (1832-1900) a Spanish naturalist and physician who was Professor of Physics, Chemistry and Natural History in Corunna. He attained a certain infamy in that three of the subspecies of birds which he published as new discoveries were in leaflets dated 1870 and 1891 but were actually published in 1894, the discovery of which rendered two of his discoveries attributable to others (Ferrer, in Ingenium 7:345-377 (2001). This plant was described by Heinrich Willkomm in 1899 as Serratula seoanei, but M. Lainz, in 1979, decided it was merely a subspecies of Serratula tinctoria, a plant described by Linnaeus (1753). Linnaeus based his description on a plant with a woodcut in Dodoens' Pemptades (1583), saying it had pinnate leaves. However, that woodcut is of two different plants, and when re-used by Gerard (1633) he pointed out that Tabernamontanus (1625) had a woodcut of them and a third plant all with leaves varying from just pinnate to entire. Whatever, the leaves on Serratula tinctorius subsp. seoanei are very distinct, but while pinnate the leaflets are exceedingly narrowly and deeply dissected, Gerard (1633) writes that it is 'wonderfully commended to be most singular [useful] for wounds, ruptures, burstings, and such like...' It is a dye plant, containing luteolin, the same yellow dye as is present in Reseda luteola (source of the dye 'weld'). Seoane also has a viper, Vipera seoanei, named after him
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Knautia macedonica Griseb. Dipsacaceae. Distribution: Macedonia. This honours the brothers Knaut, both physicians and botanists: Christof Knaut (also Knauth, 1638–94) and his brother Christian Knaut (1654–1716). The plant was traditionally used as a compress in its native Balkans to relieve dermatitis and itching. This use is a local survival of what was once a widespread application of this plant and its relations, and is an example of the doctrine of signatures in which the therapeutic benefit of a plant is suggested by some aspect of its anatomy
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Iris graminea L. Iridaceae Grass-leaved flag. Flower de Luce. Distribution: Central and Southern Europe. This is probably the Iris bulbosa minor sive angustifolia [the lesser bulbed or narrow-leaved Iris], Lesser bulbed Flower de luce of Parkinson (1640). He advised that the properties of all Flag Irises were more or less the same, but says there is no agreement about the properties of the bulbous kinds (such as this plant). Of the Flag Irises, Culpeper (1650) writes that the roots 'resist poison, help shortness of the breath, prove the terms [menstruation]
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Verbena bonariensis L. Verbenaceae. Purpletop Verbena. Distribution: South America. Verbena is Latin for the shoots of Laurel
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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
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Veronica officinalis L. Scrophulariaceae Speedwell. Distribution: Europe. Gerard (1633) calls this the female Fluellen, or Speedwell and Elantine. Pena and Lobel (1570/1) report how a barber cured a man whose nose was being eroded off by giving him Elatine (sic) to drink and by applying a poultice of the crushed herb to the sore - after learned physicians and surgeons had said the only remedy was to cut the nose off. Gerard lists several Veronica
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Coreopsis tinctoria Nutt. Asteraceae. Plains coreopsis. Golden tickseed. Distribution: North America. Used by Cherokee as an infusion for diarrhoea. Drunk by the Lakota as a tea. Zuni women drink infusion of plant, minus roots, if they wish to have female babies
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Teucrium chamaedrys L. Lamiaceae. Wall Germander. Distribution: Europe. Teucrium is named after king Teucer (who lived in the era between 1400 and 1000 BC) the first King of Troy. Dioscorides named a medicinal herb after Teucer, and Linnaeus consolidated this in 1753
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Eucryphia glutinosa (Poepp. & Endlich.) Baill. Eucryphiaceae. Santo sour cherry. Woodland tree. Distribution: Ancient genus from Gondwanaland. Native of Chile, other species being found in eastern coastal Australia. It is now rare in its habitat, since it was much used as a timber tree. Australian aboriginals have used leatherwood (Eucryphia lucida) as an antiseptic and styptic. A recent investigation by the Australian Government Rural Industries and Development Corporation (B R D’Arcy, 2005) finds that leatherwood honey is rich in phenolic acids that possess some antibacterial and anti-oxidant activity. These natural products have been proposed as preservers of freshness in foodstuffs - a possible alternative to the synthetics currently used.
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Fargesia rufa T.P.Yi Poaceae. Farges bamboo. Distribution: China. Named, in 1985, after Paul Guillaume Farges (1844-1912), a French missionary and plant collector, who went in 1867 with the Missions Étrangères to north-east Szechuan. He botanised extensively and amassed 4,000 herbarium specimens which he sent back o France. He discovered and sent back seeds of the handkerchief tree, Davidia involucrata, one of which germinated after 18 months. Eighty plants have been named after him. (Cox, 1945
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Petasites hybridus (L.)G.Gaertn., B.Mey. & Scherb. Asteraceae. Butterbur, Bog rhubarb. Distribution: Europe, NW Asia. Culpeper (1650) writes: “The roots are ... exceeding good in violent and pestilential fevers, they provoke the terms, expel poison, and kill worms.” Modern herbalists recommend it for a wide range of therapies, but it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which are hepatotoxic and cause liver cancers. Nevertheless, in a trial aimed at reducing frequency of migraine attacks, a standardised commercial preparation was well tolerated, and was effective at higher doses, but placebo in this trial reduced migraines by over 50% in 49% of the patients (Neurology 2004
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Petasites hybridus (L.)G.Gaertn., B.Mey. & Scherb. Asteraceae. Butterbur, Bog rhubarb. Distribution: Europe, NW Asia. Culpeper (1650) writes: “The roots are ... exceeding good in violent and pestilential fevers, they provoke the terms, expel poison, and kill worms.” Modern herbalists recommend it for a wide range of therapies, but it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which are hepatotoxic and cause liver cancers. Nevertheless, in a trial aimed at reducing frequency of migraine attacks, a standardised commercial preparation was well tolerated, and was effective at higher doses, but placebo in this trial reduced migraines by over 50% in 49% of the patients (Neurology 2004
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Silphium perfoliatum L. Asteraceae Indian Cup. Distribution: North America. Austin (2004) records that another species, S. compositum, was used by Native Americans to produce a chewing gum from the dried sap of the roots, and Native American medicinal uses for 'Indian Cup' are probably referrable to S. compositum and not S. perfoliatum. Silphium perfoliatum contains enzymes that inhibit trypsin and chymotrypsin which gives it resistance to fungal, bacterial and insect attacks. Male gall wasps (Antisotrophus rufus) alter the chemistry of the plant to enable them to locate females, making it a 'signpost' plant. The gall wasp lays its eggs in the stem of Silphium laciniatum, to provide food for the larva on emergence, and the galls containing a male or a female wasp will cause the plant to give off a different chemical odour. Emerging male wasps can search for female wasps, which emerge later, by locating this chemical fragrance which acts as a sex pheromone proxy (Tooker et al Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Nov 26
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Galanthus nivalis L. Amaryllidaceae Snowdrop. Hardy, bulbous herb. Distribution: Europe. A chemical, galantamine, is sourced principally from the Caucasian snowdrop, Galanthus woronowii but is present in our ‘English’ snowdrop and related genera. It is a competitive, reversible, acetylcholinesterase inhibitor so increases brain acetylcholine, a chemical of great importance in cerebral function. As such it has been recommended for ameliorating the symptoms of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, but not for mild cognitive impairment as in US clinical trials there was an increased mortality. Johnson (Gerard, 1633) calls it the bulbous violet, Viola theophrasti
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Alchemical Manuscript
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Alchemical Manuscript
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Magnolia stellata (Siebold & Zuch.) Maxim. Magnoliaceae. Star magnolia. Small flowering tree. Distribution: Japan. Named for the French botanist and physician, Pierre Magnol (1638-1715), Professor of Botany and Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Montpelier. Charles Plumier (1646-1704) named a tree on Martinique after him (Magnolia) and the name was continued by Linnaeus (1753). No medicinal use. This is a very ancient genus of flowering plants. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Westringia longifolia R.Br. Lamiaceae. Long leaf Westringia. Shrub. Distribution: Australia. Commemorates Dr Johan (John) Peter Westring (sometimes West Ring (1753-1833), also known as Johan Petter Westrin), physician to King Karl XIV of Sweden, and a keen lichenologist. He was born in Linköping, Sweden, where his father was a shoemaker. No information has been found for any medicinal use or toxicity, Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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John Snow's M.R.C.P. certificate.
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Justicia carnea Lindl. Acanthaceae. Brazilian Plume flower, Flamingo flower. Shrimp plant. Tender shrub. Distribution: Atlantic coast of Brazil. Named for James Justice (1698-1753) Scottish horticulturist, lawyer, 'tulip maniac' (Desmond, 1977). Asian species of Justicia are noted to be toxic and contain cytotoxic compounds which inhibit virus replication (Wiart, 2006) Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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