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Plant, a Plant! My Kingdom for a Plant!
Yearbook 1990 By: D.A. Shedden Back to the web versionA Plant, a Plant! My Kingdom for a Plant! by D.A. Shedden
In the competitive race to be accorded the title of Man's best friends, the members of the Animal Kingdom have bested those of the Plant Kingdom at every turn. But it isn't really fair. Certainly, animals have been used for food, clothing and even shelter. Their hooves have been turned into glue and their entrails have been employed by soothsayers. But the Animals can't hold a candle to the Plants when it comes to construction of buildings, or ships or the provision of fuels such as wood, coal or oil. A field of grain will provide more calories and nutrients than a field of cows. Only in the manufacture of clothing have animals outshone plants although, even there, cotton and flax have held their own against formidable competition. And where would we be without rubber boots?
When it comes to medicine, though, the Plant Kingdom really comes into its own. Granted, men (and women) have been clobbered by falling trees, killed off by toadstools and given something to think about by nettles and poison ivy. But the plants' potential for good (when taken as prescribed, needless to say) has far outweighed any evil propensities.
Take the bark of the willow, for example. People of several cultures have done just that for centuries to cure agues and fevers. The active ingredient, salicin (the name derived from the Latin name for the willow, "salix") was isolated in 1829. Salicylic acid and acetylsalicylic acid have since been used to combat fever, gout, aches and pains and inflammation. Until recently, no self-respecting household would have been without its bottle of Aspirin in the medicine cupboard.
At first sight, it would appear that ergot, the product of a fungus, Claviceps purpurea, has no redeeming features. Rye and other grains contaminated by it spread death and destruction in olden times. It was referred to in Assyrian writings in 600 BC and in the sacred books of the Parsees in 400-300 B.C. They knew it caused death and abortion. Writings from the Middle Ages talk of St. Anthony's fire, epidemics of painful gangrene of the limbs. Although used obstetrically in 1582, it was not until 1808 that ergot was officially introduced into medicine as a uterine stimulant and prevented death resulting from post-partum haemorrhage. Not bad for a fungus!
The climbing shrub, Rauwolfia serpentina (Benth) may have been the subject of ancient Hindu, ayurvedic writings. Extracts were used to treat snakebite, hypertension, insomnia and insanity. Therapeutic uses of reserpin (rauwolfia) for high blood pressure and psychoses were described in an Indian medical journal in 1931, but its use in western countries was delayed for a further 23 years.
Space restrictions prevent the detailed recording of numerous others. But you know many of them already:
- digitalis, from the foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, was used by the Romans and mentioned in 1250 in the writings of a Welsh physician;
- Penicillium notatum, a mould, revolutionised the treatment of infections in the 1940s;
- quinine, the main alkaloid of the cinchona tree bark, was first written about by an Augustinian monk in Lima, Peru, in 1633; it is still in use for the treatment of malaria;
- curare, which started life as a poison on the arrow tips of South American Indians, earned a respectable place in history after 1932 in the treatment of tetanus, spastic disorders and psychiatric conditions. It was first used as a muscle relaxant to complement general anaesthetics in 1942;
- alkaloids of the belladonna plants were known to the ancient Hindus. Although deadly nightshade was often used during the time of the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages as a poison (for murder most foul), you may have had an injection of atropine to stem the flow of saliva before an operation;
- and don't forget the Calabar bean which yielded up the alkaloid physostigmine, or eserine, in the late 19th century to provide an effective treatment for glaucoma.
There are others with chequered histories such as strychnine, which is of no therapeutic value, and opium and its derivatives, morphine and heroin, whose useful effects have been overshadowed by their non-medical uses.
So, dear readers, let's hear it for the plants. Hip, hip. (Eat your hearts out, ye canine hordes!)
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