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A year in the medicinal garden of the Royal College of Physicians / Dr. Henry Oakeley.
Oakeley, Henry F.Date: [2011]- Digital Images
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Lilium henryi Baker Liliaceae. Tiger Lily. Distribution: China. This commemorates Dr Augustine Henry (1857–1930) who collected plants in China and Taiwan while working for Britain’s Imperial Customs Service (Oakeley, 2012). Reported to cause renal failure in cats. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Lilium henryi Baker Liliaceae. Tiger Lily. Bulbous perennial. Distribution: China. This commemorates Dr Augustine Henry (1857–1930) who collected plants in China and Taiwan while working for Britain’s Imperial Customs Service (Oakeley, 2012). Reported to cause renal failure in cats. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Camellia sasanqua Thunb. Theaceae. Christmas camellia. Camellia commemorates Georg Josef Kamel (1661-1706), Jesuit pharmacist from Moravia (Czech Republic) who worked in the Philippines and sent plants to John Ray in England (Oakeley, 2012) Evergreen shrub. Distribution: Japan and China. Leaves are used in Japan to make tea (normally made from C. sinensis) and the seeds to make the edible tea seed oil. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Stokesia laevis Greene Asteraceae. Stoke's Aster, Cornflower Aster. Distribution: South-eastern USA. Named by Charles Louis L’Héritier in 1789 for Dr Jonathan Stokes (1755-1831), a member of the Lunar Society and Linnean Society, botanist and physician. Stokes dedicated his thesis on dephlogisticated air [later realised to be oxygen] to Dr William Withering and wrote the preface to Withering’s iconic work On the Foxglove (1785). He also contributed histories on six patients he had treated for heart failure (‘dropsy’) with foxglove leaf, Digitalis, in his medical practice in Stourbridge. He continued at the Lunar Society until 1788
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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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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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Zantedeschia aethiopica (L)Spreng. Calla lily, Arum lily. Half hardy annual. Distribution: South Africa. The genus name commemorates Giovanni Zantedeschi (1773-1846) an Italian physician and botanist. Born in Molina he studied medicine in Verona and Padua. He corresponded with the German botanist, Kurt Sprengel, who named the genus Zantedeschia in his honour in 1826, separating it from Calla, where, as C. aethiopica, it had been previously described by Linnaeus. He had broad interests, including the effect of different parts of the spectrum of light on plant growth, reporting in 1843, that red, orange and yellow light are heliotropically inactive. The botanic museum in Molina is dedicated to his memory. Aethiopica, merely means 'African'. The leaves are used as a warm poultice for headaches in ‘muthi’ medicine. It has become an invasive weed in parts of Australia. It was introduced, as a greenhouse plant, to Europe in the mid-17th century, where the long lasting flowers are popular in flower arranging and for weddings and funerals – a curious combination (Oakeley, 2012). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Adiantum venustum D.Don Adiantaceae (although placed by some in Pteridaceae). Himalayan maidenhair fern. Small evergreen hardy fern. Distribution: Afghanistan-India. It gains its vernacular name from the wiry black stems that resemble hairs. Adiantum comes from the Greek for 'dry' as the leaflets remain permanently dry. The Cherokee used A. pedatum to make their hair shiny. Henry Lyte (1576), writing on A. capillus-veneris, notes that it restores hair, is an antidote to the bites of mad dogs and venomous beasts
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Abelia x grandiflora R.Br. Caprifoliaceae. Distribution (A. chinensis R.Br. × A. uniflora R.Br.). Mexico, Himalayas to Eastern Asia. Ornamental flowering shrub. The name celebrates the short life of Dr Clarke Abel FRS (1789-1826), one of the first European botanists to collect in China, which he did when attached as physician to the Canton embassy in 1816-17. It has no medicinal uses but is a popular ornamental shrub in the honeysuckle family because it attracts butterflies and has a long flowering period. From June to October it produces a profusion of small, fragrant, pink-flushed, white flowers on long, arching branches. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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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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Lonicera periclymenum L. Caprifoliaceae. Honeysuckle Distribution: Europe. This shrubby, fragrant, white-flowered honeysuckle is named for Adam Lonitzer (Lonicerus) (1528–86). German botanist, physician and author of Naturalis historiae opus novum (1551, 1555) and the Kreuterbuch (1557)
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Gardenia jasminoides J.Ellis Rubiaceae. Cape jasmine - as erroneously believed to have come from South Africa. Distribution: China. Named for Dr Alexander Garden FRS (1730-1791) Scottish-born physician and naturalist who lived in Charles Town, South Carolina, and corresponded with Linnaeus and many of the botanists of his era. The fruits are used in China both as a source of a yellow dye, and for various unsubstantiated medicinal uses. Other species of Gardenia are found in tropical Africa and the roots and leaves have all manner of putative uses. Gardenia tenuifolia is used as an aphrodisiac, for rickets, diarrhoea, leprosy, gall bladder problems, toothache, liver complaints, diabetes, hypertension, malaria and abdominal complaints. It causes violent vomiting and diarrhoea. It, and other species, are used to poison arrows and to poison fish. Some native, muthi medicine, healers regard Gardenia as a ‘last chance’ medicine, given to patients when all else fails – the patient either dies or recovers (Neuwinger, 1996). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Aconitum carmichaelii Debeaux. Ranunculaceae. Chinese aconite, Chinese wolfsbane, Carmichael's monkshood. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution C. to W. China to N. America. Named for Dr J.R. Carmichael (d. 1877), English physician, plant collector and Protestant missionary from 1862-1877 in Guangdong and Shandong, China initially in Canton. He aided Francis Forbes to collect plants for Kew. Aconitum plants are so poisonous that Theophrastus states that death was the punishment for possessing them. Aconitine is the poison and was used - from Aconitum ferox - in the 'curry murder' in London in 2009. It causes respiratory paralysis, bradycardia (slowing of the pulse), cardiac arrhythmias, tingling, sweating, gastric cramps, diarrhoea and death, both by ingestion and by absorption through the mucous membranes and the skin. Despite this it is widely used in Chinese herbal medicine. It is a restricted herbal medicine which can only be dispensed by a herbal practitioner for external use following a one-to-one consultation, or by prescription from a registered doctor or dentist (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Papaver somniferum L. Papaveraceae Opium Poppy Distribution: Asia minor, but has been dated to 5000BC in Spanish caves. Now grows almost everywhere. The oldest medicine in continuous use, described in the Ebers' papyrus (1550 BC), called Meconium, Laudanum, Paregoric and syrup of poppies. Culpeper (1650) on Meconium '...the juyce of English Poppies boyled till it be thick' and 'I am of the opinion that Opium is nothing else but the juyce of poppies growing in hotter countries, for such Opium as Authors talk of comes from Utopia.[he means an imaginary land, I suspect]’]. He cautions 'Syrups of Poppies provoke sleep, but in that I desire they may be used with a great deal of caution and wariness...' and warns in particular about giving syrup of poppies to children to get them to sleep. The alkaloids in the sap include: Morphine 12% - affects ?-opioid receptors in the brain and causes happiness, sleepiness, pain relief, suppresses cough and causes constipation. Codeine 3% – mild opiate actions – converted to morphine in the body. Papaverine, relaxes smooth muscle spasm in arteries of heart and brain, and also for intestinal spasm, migraine and erectile dysfunction. Not analgesic. Thebaine mildly analgesic, stimulatory, is made into oxycodone and oxymorphone which are analgesics, and naloxone for treatment of opiate overdose – ?-opioid receptor competitive antagonist – it displaces morphine from ?-opioid receptors, and constipation caused by opiates. Protopine – analgesic, antihistamine so relieves pain of inflammation. Noscapine – anti-tussive (anti-cough). In 2006 the world production of opium was 6,610 metric tons, in 1906 it was over 30,000 tons when 25% of Chinese males were regular users. The Opium wars of the end of the 19th century were caused by Britain selling huge quantities of Opium to China to restore the balance of payments deficit. Laudanum: 10mg of morphine (as opium) per ml. Paregoric: camphorated opium tincture. 0.4mg morphine per ml. Gee’s Linctus: up to 60 mg in a bottle. J Collis Browne’s chlorodyne: cannabis, morphine, alcohol etc. Kaolin and Morph. - up to 60 mg in a bottle. Dover’s Powders – contained Ipecacuana and morphine. Heroin is made from morphine, but converted back into morphine in the body (Oakeley, 2012). One gram of poppy seeds contains 0.250mgm of morphine, and while one poppy seed bagel will make a urine test positive for morphine for a week, one would need 30-40 bagels to have any discernible effect. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Papaver somniferum L. Papaveraceae Opium Poppy Distribution: Asia minor, but has been dated to 5000BC in Spanish caves. Now grows almost everywhere. The oldest medicine in continuous use, described in the Ebers' papyrus (1550 BC), called Meconium, Laudanum, Paregoric and syrup of poppies. Culpeper (1650) on Meconium '...the juyce of English Poppies boyled till it be thick' and 'I am of the opinion that Opium is nothing else but the juyce of poppies growing in hotter countries, for such Opium as Authors talk of comes from Utopia [he means an imaginary land, I suspect]’. He cautions 'Syrups of Poppies provoke sleep, but in that I desire they may be used with a great deal of caution and wariness...' and warns in particular about giving syrup of poppies to children to get them to sleep. The alkaloids in the sap include: Morphine 12% - affects ?-opioid receptors in the brain and causes happiness, sleepiness, pain relief, suppresses cough and causes constipation. Codeine 3% – mild opiate actions – converted to morphine in the body. Papaverine, relaxes smooth muscle spasm in arteries of heart and brain, and also for intestinal spasm, migraine and erectile dysfunction. Not analgesic. Thebaine mildly analgesic, stimulatory, is made into oxycodone and oxymorphone which are analgesics, and naloxone for treatment of opiate overdose – ?-opioid receptor competitive antagonist – it displaces morphine from ?-opioid receptors, and reverses the constipation caused by opiates. Protopine – analgesic, antihistamine so relieves pain of inflammation. Noscapine – anti-tussive (anti-cough). In 2006 the world production of opium was 6,610 metric tons, in 1906 it was over 30,000 tons when 25% of Chinese males were regular users. The Opium wars of the end of the 19th century were caused by Britain selling huge quantities of Opium to China to restore the balance of payments deficit. Laudanum: 10mg of morphine (as opium) per ml. Paregoric: camphorated opium tincture. 0.4mg morphine per ml. Gee’s Linctus: up to 60 mg in a bottle. J Collis Browne’s chlorodyne: cannabis, morphine, alcohol etc. Kaolin and Morph. - up to 60 mg in a bottle. Dover’s Powders – contained Ipecacuana and morphine. Heroin is made from morphine, but converted back into morphine in the body (Oakeley, 2012). One gram of poppy seeds contains 0.250mgm of morphine, and while one poppy seed bagel will make a urine test positive for morphine for a week, one would need 30-40 bagels to have any discernible effect. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Rohdea japonica Roth Convallariaceae Distribution: Japan. It is a monotypic genus known as omoto in Japan, meaning ‘evergreen’. It is regarded as a symbol of long life and good fortune
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Fuchsia magellanica Lam. Onagraceae. Hardy fuchsia. Semi-hardy shrub. Distribution: Mountainous regions of Chile and Argentina where they are called 'Chilco' by the indigenous people, the Mapuche. The genus was discovered by Charles Plumier in Hispaniola in 1696/7, and named by him for Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566), German Professor of Medicine, whose illustrated herbal, De Historia Stirpium (1542) attempted the identification of the plants in the Classical herbals. It also contained the first accounts of maize, Zea mays, and chilli peppers, Capsicum annuum, then recently introduced from Latin America. He was also the first person to publish an account and woodcuts of foxgloves, Digitalis purpurea and D. lutea. The book contains 500 descriptions and woodcuts of medicinal plants, arranged in alphabetical order, and relied heavily on the De Materia Medica (c. AD 70) of Dioscorides. He was a powerful influence on the herbals of Dodoens, and thence to Gerard, L’Escluse and Henry Lyte. A small quarto edition appeared in 1551, and a two volume facsimile of the 1542 edition with commentary and selected translations from the Latin was published by Stanford Press in 1999. The original woodcuts were passed from printer to printer and continued in use for 232 years (Schinz, 1774). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Cistus incanus ssp creticus Juss. Cistaceae. Rock Rose. Distribution: Crete. Interesting symbiosis with fungus called Tuber melanosporum which increases nutrient absorption for the plant and inhibits growth of other plants in the vicinity. It is a source of the resin ‘labdanum’ (a.k.a. ‘ladanum’) used in perfumes (similar smell to ambergris), as is Cistus ladanifer. It has no medical uses now, and such use was dwindling even in the 18th century. In the 16th century (Henry Lyte’s 1575 translation of Rembert Dodoen’s Cruydeboeck of 1554) its uses were described (directly copied from Dioscorides’ Materia Medica (70AD)) as: ‘Ladanum dronketh with olde wine, stoppeth the laske [periods], and provoketh urine. It is very good against the hardness of the matrix or mother [uterus] layde to in the manner of a pessarie, and it draweth down the secondes or afterbirth, when it is layde upon quicke coles [hot coals], and the fumigation or parfume thereof be received up into the body of women. // The same applied to the head with Myrrhe and oyle of Myrrhe, cureth the scurffe, called Alopecia, and keepeth the heare [hair] from falling of [sic], but whereas it is already fallen away, it will not cause the heare to growe agayne. // ...' and goes on in this vein about its uses for pain in the ears, and removing sores and scars and other things. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Tradescantia 'Concorde Grape'
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Lavatera olbia 'Pink Frills'
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Neottia ovata plus Cantharis rufipes beetle
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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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Veratrum album L. Melanthiaceae Distribution: Europe. Cows do not eat Veratrum species in the meadows, and human poisoning with it caused vomiting and fainting. In the 1850s it was found to reduce the heart's action and slow the pulse (Bentley, 1861, called it an 'arterial sedative'), and in 1859 it was used orally in a woman who was having convulsions due to eclampsia. Dr Paul DeLacy Baker in Alabama treated her with drops of a tincture of V. viride. She recovered. It was used thereafter, as the first choice of treatment, and when blood pressure monitoring became possible, it was discovered that it worked by reducing the high blood pressure that occurs in eclampsia. By 1947 death rates were reduced from 30% to 5% by its use at the Boston Lying in Hospital. It works by dilating the arteries in muscles and in the gastrointestinal circulation. A further use of Veratrum species came to light when it was noted that V. californicum -and other species - if eaten by sheep resulted in foetal malformations, in particular only having one eye. The chemical in the plant that was responsible, cyclopamine, was found to act on certain genetic pathways responsible for stem cell division in the regulation of the development of bilateral symmetry in the embryo/foetus. Synthetic analogues have been developed which act on what have come to be called the 'hedgehog signalling pathways' in stem cell division, and these 'Hedgehog inhibitors' are being introduced into medicine for the treatment of various cancers like chondrosarcoma, myelofibrosis, and advanced basal cell carcinoma. The drugs are saridegib, erismodegib and vismodegib. All the early herbals report on its ability to cause vomiting. As a herbal medicine it is Prescription Only, via a registered dentist or physician (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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Veratrum nigrum L. Melanthiaceae Distribution: Europe. Cows do not eat Veratrum species in the meadows, and human poisoning with it caused vomiting and fainting. In the 1850s it was found to reduce the heart's action and slow the pulse (Bentley, 1861, called it an 'arterial sedative'), and in 1859 it was used orally in a woman who was having convulsions due to eclampsia. Dr Paul DeLacy Baker in Alabama treated her with drops of a tincture of V. viride. She recovered. It was used thereafter, as the first choice of treatment, and, when blood pressure monitoring became possible, it was discovered that it worked by reducing the high blood pressure that occurs in eclampsia. By 1947 death rates were reduced from 30% to 5% by its use at the Boston Lying-in Hospital. It works by dilating the arteries in muscles and in the gastrointestinal circulation. A further use of Veratrum species came to light when it was noted that V. californicum - and other species - if eaten by sheep resulted in foetal malformations, in particular only having one eye. The chemical in the plant that was responsible, cyclopamine, was found to act on certain genetic pathways responsible for stem cell division in the regulation of the development of bilateral symmetry in the embryo/foetus. Synthetic analogues have been developed which act on what have come to be called the 'hedgehog signalling pathways' in stem cell division, and these 'Hedgehog inhibitors' are being introduced into medicine for the treatment of various cancers like chondrosarcoma, myelofibrosis, and advanced basal cell carcinoma. The drugs are saridegib, erismodegib and vismodegib. All the early herbals report on its ability to cause vomiting. As a herbal medicine it is Prescription Only, via a registered dentist or physician (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley