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Stories

  • Article

Chillies and the trouble with Scoville

Measuring the heat of these peppers can leave you a little lukewarm.

  • Article

Illuminated manuscripts, illuminating medicines

From rare bugs to exorbitantly priced plant parts, find out more about the artistic and medical uses of pigments from the past.

  • Article

Indian botanicals and heritage wars

Colonial botanical texts, as astonishingly beautiful as they are, may cast very dark shadows.

  • Book extract

Ayurveda: Knowledge for long life

The story of medicine in India is rich and complex. Aarathi Prasad investigates how it came to be this way.

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Images

  • Nigella sativa L. Ranunculaceae Love-in-the-mist, Black Cumin, Nutmeg flower, Roman Coriander. Distribution: SW Asia. Culpeper (1650) writes: ‘Nigella seeds, boyled in oil, and the forehead anointed with it, ease pains in the head, take away leprosie, itch, scurf, and helps scald-heads, inwardly taken they expel worms, they provoke urine and the terms, help difficulty of breathing: the smoke of them (being burned) drives away serpents and venomous beasts.’ The seeds are used as a spice, but as might be expected as a member of the family Ranunculaceae, the buttercups, the plant contains a highly poisonous glycoside, in this case called melanthin. The amount of toxicity present in spices is clearly insufficient to cause problems when used as such. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Nigella sativa L. Ranunculaceae Love-in-the-mist, Black Cumin, Nutmeg flower, Roman Coriander. Distribution: SW Asia. Culpeper (1650) writes: ‘Nigella seeds, boyled in oil, and the forehead anointed with it, ease pains in the head, take away leprosie, itch, scurf, and helps scald-heads, inwardly taken they expel worms, they provoke urine and the terms, help difficulty of breathing: the smoke of them (being burned) drives away serpents and venomous beasts.’ The seeds are used as a spice, but as might be expected as a member of the family Ranunculaceae, the buttercups, the plant contains a highly poisonous glycoside, in this case called melanthin. The amount of toxicity present in spices is clearly insufficient to cause problems when used as such. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Illicium verum Hook.f. Illiciaceae Chinese Star Anise Distribution: China. Illicium anisatum Japanese Star Anise. Distribution Japan. Illicium verum is used as a spice in Asian cooking and for Star Anise tea. The distilled oil is added to cough mixture used by children. Introduced to Europe in 1588 (Pharmacographia Indica, 1890). Illicium anisatum syn. religiosum, has been confused with it (Lindley, 1838, Bentley 1861) but is poisonous and was used to make incense in Japanese and Chinese temples. It was called Skimi by Kaempfer. The seed pods of both species contain shikimic acid (the name being derived from the Japanese word for the plant - shi-kimi) from which Tamiflu, the antiviral drug was synthesised. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Calabash nutmeg plant (Monodora myristica): flowering stem, fruit and floral segments. Coloured lithograph.
  • Pepper plant (Piper nigrum L.): fruiting stem. Line engraving after C. de Bruin, 1706.
  • Milk parsley (Peucedanum palustre (L.) Moench): entire flowering and fruiting plant with separate flower, fruit and seed. Coloured etching by M. Bouchard, 1778.
  • Clove plant (Syzygium aromaticum): stem with flower buds. Watercolour, c.1833.
  • Cinnamon tree (Cinnamomum verum): flowering and leafy stem with floral sections. Coloured lithograph after M. A. Burnett, c. 1843.
  • Saffron crocus (Crocus sativus L.): flowering stem with separate floral segments and bulb and a description of the plant and its uses. Coloured line engraving by C.H.Hemerich, c.1759, after T.Sheldrake.
  • Roots of ginger (Zingiber officinale) and of dropwort (Filipendula vulgaris). Watercolour.
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