Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events

Stories

  • 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.

  • Article

How nature is defending itself in court

The idea that nature has legal rights is increasingly being taken seriously, but who gets to speak for it? Isabella Kaminski asks how the non-human can be represented within a human-made system.

All stories (19)

Images

  • 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.
  • Alepol brand sodium hydnocarpate / Burroughs Wellcome & Co. (The Wellcome Foundation Ltd.).
  • Alepol brand sodium hydnocarpate / Burroughs Wellcome & Co. (The Wellcome Foundation Ltd.).
  • Alepol brand sodium hydnocarpate / Burroughs Wellcome & Co. (The Wellcome Foundation Ltd.).
  • Alepol brand sodium hydnocarpate / Burroughs Wellcome & Co. (The Wellcome Foundation Ltd.).
  • [Leaflet advertising G.R. Lane of Gloucester's Olbas Oil, used to relieve flatulence, colds, respiratory problems and headaches].
  • [Leaflet advertising G.R. Lane of Gloucester's Olbas Oil, used to relieve flatulence, colds, respiratory problems and headaches].
  • [Leaflet advertising G.R. Lane of Gloucester's Olbas Oil, used to relieve flatulence, colds, respiratory problems and headaches].
  • [Leaflet advertising G.R. Lane of Gloucester's Olbas Oil, used to relieve flatulence, colds, respiratory problems and headaches].
  • [Leaflet advertising G.R. Lane of Gloucester's Olbas Oil, used to relieve flatulence, colds, respiratory problems and headaches].
All images (13)

Catalogue

All works (118)