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November 25, 2008
Ethnobotany
This morning, while watching a high def TV documentary on the Amazon Basin, my curiosity was aroused when the narrator used the term “ethnobotany” in listing reasons for preserving things we don’t understand; for at least a long enough to find out if they have some value.What I discovered, with considerable help from Google, is that although the contributions of plants to human welfare were already being studied in “ancient” Greece, the practice wasn’t called Ethnobotany until 1895. Even then (I was also surprised to discover) one of the more famous such examples, based on the observation by British physician William Withering that a tea made by a Shropshire woman from the poisonous foxglove plant could relieve dropsy (edema), wasn’t even mentioned. I also learned that Withering was a clinician who had been encouraged to publish by another, even better known enlightenment luminary. More googling, after adding “controversy” to the search, brought my flash of insight full circle: not only had the development of digitalis as medicine been launched by alert clinical observation and further experimentation, much like that done by William O’Shaughnessy with hemp, it had ultimately generated considerable controversy which is still unresolved.
The biggest difference between hemp and foxglove seems to be that the latter doesn’t alter mood, and even though its toxicity has always been known to pose a risk (indeed, many have died from using it over the years) it was never made illegal nor have either its use nor prescription ever been cause for arrest.
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at November 25, 2008 02:23 AM