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Stories

  • Article

Plant portraits

The beautiful and mysterious illustrations in medieval herbals convey a wealth of knowledge about the plants they portray.

  • Article

Tripping for spiritualism and science

Getting high in the name of religion or creativity has been practised for centuries. Now it seems hallucinogenics could help treat mental illnesses too.

  • Article

The healing power of the physic garden

Having experienced the healing power of plants and gardens, Iona Glen goes in search of present-day “physic gardens” and their origins in history.

  • Article

How Indigenous insight inspires sustainable science

The forest of the Amazon Basin is inextricably bound up with the lives of the Indigenous peoples living there. Find out how they feel about the forest, use what it provides, and try to protect it from aggressive commercial exploitation.

All stories (23)

Images

  • 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
  • Seed head of a thuja tree. This plant has natural antimicrobial properties and is used in a variety of preparations for wart removal, thrush, and ringworm.
  • The London dispensatory, containing: I, the elements of pharmacy; II, the botanical description ... and medicinal properties, of the substnaces of the materia medica; III, the pharmaceutical preparations and compositions of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Colleges of Physicians ... a practical synopsis of materia medica, pharmacy, and therapeutics : illustrated with many useful tables and copper-plates of pharmaceutical apparatus / by Anthony Todd Thomson.
  • The London dispensatory, containing: I, the elements of pharmacy; II, the botanical description ... and medicinal properties, of the substnaces of the materia medica; III, the pharmaceutical preparations and compositions of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Colleges of Physicians ... a practical synopsis of materia medica, pharmacy, and therapeutics : illustrated with many useful tables and copper-plates of pharmaceutical apparatus / by Anthony Todd Thomson.
  • Colibil Guerin (granulado) / A. Rueff y Cia.
  • Colibil Guerin (granulado) / A. Rueff y Cia.
  • Spurge laurel (daphne laureola. Family: Thymelaeaceae) : Myolgin tablets.
  • Spurge laurel (daphne laureola. Family: Thymelaeaceae) : Myolgin tablets.
  • Trial sample free : the name and reputation of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills stand higher in public estimation than all others ...
  • Superioridad clinica / Endo Products, Inc. ; representante para Cuba: Medical Products, S.A.
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