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  • Long read

Rehab centres and the ‘cure’ for addiction

Guy Stagg takes us on a brief history of rehab centres and their approaches to addiction and recovery.

  • 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

Inhaling happiness and gasping for a high

The rapid, short-lived high we get from whippets, reefers and vapes can be accompanied by long-term health consequences. The search is on for safer ways to get stoned.

  • Article

A history of mindfulness

Matt Drage questions how an ancient religious practice became a secular cure for stress.

All stories (43)

Images

  • AIDS : issues and perspectives : a conference for everyone wishing to contribute to the public understanding of science : on Saturday 5 December 1992, 10.00am - 4.30 pm at Channel 4 Preview Studio, 44 Whitfield Street, London W1 / Birkbeck College University of London Centre for Extra-Mural Studies in association with Channel Four Television.
  • AIDS : issues and perspectives : a conference for everyone wishing to contribute to the public understanding of science : on Saturday 5 December 1992, 10.00am - 4.30 pm at Channel 4 Preview Studio, 44 Whitfield Street, London W1 / Birkbeck College University of London Centre for Extra-Mural Studies in association with Channel Four Television.
  • AIDS : issues and perspectives : a conference for everyone wishing to contribute to the public understanding of science : on Saturday 5 December 1992, 10.00am - 4.30 pm at Channel 4 Preview Studio, 44 Whitfield Street, London W1 / Birkbeck College University of London Centre for Extra-Mural Studies in association with Channel Four Television.
  • AIDS : issues and perspectives : a conference for everyone wishing to contribute to the public understanding of science : on Saturday 5 December 1992, 10.00am - 4.30 pm at Channel 4 Preview Studio, 44 Whitfield Street, London W1 / Birkbeck College University of London Centre for Extra-Mural Studies in association with Channel Four Television.
  • Bergenia ciliata (Haw.)Sternb. Saxifraginaceae. Elephant's ears. Named for Karl August von Bergen (1704-1759), physician and botanist, professor at Viadrina University, Frankfurt. Has hairy leaves, hence ciliata. Distribution: E. Afghanistan, Himalayas, Assam. Used for fevers, diarrhoea, bruises and boils, coughs, renal stones, diabetes, heart disease, haemorrhoids, stomach disorders (Harish et al www.ijabpt.com). It was described in the 1820s so there is no early literature. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Rudbeckia triloba L. Asteraceae Orange Cone flower. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution: North America. It is named for Olof Rudbeck, father (1630–1702) and son (1660–1740). Olof Rudbeck the Elder was professor of medicine at Uppsala University, and established a botanic garden there. He was the discoverer of the human lymphatic system. His son succeeded his father as professor of medicine, and one of his students was Carl Linnaeus (1707–88) who named the genus Rudbeckia after him and his father. It is a plant which is poisonous to cattle, sheep and pigs with no medicinal uses. Austin (1974) discusses R. hirta, also regarded as a toxic plant. It was used externally by the Cherokee to bathe sores and snakebites and made into a tea for treating diarrhoea. The Seminoles used it for headaches and fever and the Miccosukee for sunstroke and headache. The Cherokee and the Iroquois used it to treat intestinal worms Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Hacquetia epipactis DC Apiaceae. Small herbaceous perennial. No common name except Hacquetia Distribution: Europe. Named for the Austrian physician, Balthasar (or Belsazar) Hacquet (1739/40-1815). He studied medicine in Vienna, was a surgeon in the brutal Seven Years War (1756-1763) – a world-wide war in which up to 1,400,000 people died. Later he was professor at the University of Lemberg (1788-1810). He wrote widely on many scientific disciplines including geology. Parkinson (1640) grouped it with Helleborus and Veratrum, calling it 'Epipactis Matthioli, Matthiolus, his bastard black hellebore' but does not give any uses. It has no medicinal properties. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Osmanthus delavayi Franch. Oleaceae Evergreen shrub. Distribution: China. Osmanthus is derived from the Greek for 'fragrant flower', delavayi from its discoverer, the French Missionary with the Missions Étrangères, and plant collector, Pierre Delavay (1834-1895). He sent 200,000 herbarium specimens containing 4000 species including 1,500 new species to Franchet at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. He sent seed of O. delavayi to France (1886), but only one germinated, and all the plants in cultivation until it was recollected 40 years later, arose from this plant (Bretschneider, 1896). The flowers are used to make a tea in China, but the berries (drupes) are not regarded as edible. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Punica granatum L. Lythraceae Pomegranate, granatum malum, balustines. Distribution: E. Mediterranean to Himalayas. The Pomegranate is in the centre of the Arms of the Royal College of Physicians, perhaps for its use in cooling, and therefore for fevers. However it was the sour pomegranate that would have been used as Dioscorides says the sweet ones are unfit for use in agues. Culpeper (1650) makes no mention of the fruit, but says of the flowers ‘... they stop fluxes and the Terms in women.’ In the Complete Herbal and English Physician (1826) says the fruit ‘... has the same general qualities as other acid fruits.’ Of the flowers he says (among other properties) that ‘A strong infusion of these cures ulcers in the mouth and throat, and fastens loose teeth.’ Gerard (1633) says that the cravings of pregnant women can be abolished with the juice, and perhaps it was scurvy which was being treated effectively when he reports that the juice was very effective against splitting of blood and for loose teeth. The dwarf form of this species, Punica granatum var. nana with fruits no more than 3cm across, grows in the border beds. Pomegranate bark can only be sold by registered pharmacies in the UK and used to be used as a vermifuge, with the secondary use that the tincture made from it doubled as a permanent ink. In South Africa the fruit rind is used for diarrhoea and stomach ache, and the bark as a vermifuge, but undesirable side effects make this dangerous. It is reported to be effective against fevers, as a diuretic, to lower blood sugar and to be both antibacterial and antiviral (van Wyk, 2000). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Punica granatum L. Lythraceae Pomegranate, granatum malum, balustines. Distribution: E. Mediterranean to Himalayas. The Pomegranate is in the centre of the Arms of the Royal College of Physicians, perhaps for its use in cooling, and therefore for fevers. However it was the sour pomegranate that would have been used as Dioscorides says the sweet ones are unfit for use in agues. Culpeper (1650) makes no mention of the fruit, but says of the flowers ‘... they stop fluxes and the Terms in women.’ In the Complete Herbal and English Physician (1826) he says the fruit ‘... has the same general qualities as other acid fruits.’ Of the flowers he says (among other properties) that ‘A strong infusion of these cures ulcers in the mouth and throat, and fastens loose teeth.’ Gerard (1633) says that the cravings of pregnant women can be abolished with the juice, and perhaps it was scurvy which was being treated effectively when he reports that the juice was very effective against splitting of blood and for loose teeth. The dwarf form of this species, Punica granatum var. nana has fruits no more than 3cm across. Pomegranate bark can only be sold by registered pharmacies in the UK and used to be used as a vermifuge, with the secondary use that the tincture made from it doubled as a permanent ink. In South Africa the fruit rind is used for diarrhoea and stomach ache, and the bark as a vermifuge, but undesirable side effects make this dangerous. It is reported to be effective against fevers, as a diuretic, to lower blood sugar and to be both antibacterial and antiviral (van Wyk, 2000). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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