Herbs that changed the world

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Herbs That Changed the World Autumn Crocus(Colchicum autumnale) has been called "vegetable arsenic." The active ingredient is the alkaloid colchicines. It is a standard treatment for gout, but applied to plant cells when they are dividing, chromosome numbers can be manipulated, rendering sterile hybrids fertile and making food plants bigger and more vigorous. Coca (Erythroxylum coca) The alkaloid cocaine was isolated in 1860 and used as a local anesthetic in 1884 in the first painless cataract operation. During Prohibition in the US, an alcohol free coca wine imitation became a craze and was sold as the "Intellectual Beverage and Temperance Drink," aka Coca Cola. Until 1902 when it was banned, this popular soft drink contained

cocaine. Ergot (Claviceps purpurea), a fungus on rye, was the cause of a disease called St. 's Fire whose symptoms were intense, firelike pain in the limbs, delirium, and hallucinations. Limbs turned gangrenous and many died from it. Outbreaks have been recorded throughout history. The active ingredients ergonovine and ergotamine, isolated between 1906 and 1920, aids childbirth. Another derivative isolated in 1943, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), attracted attention in the '70s as a potent hallucinogenic. Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) The active ingredient is salicylic acid. This is the plant that gave us aspirin. Mexican Yam (Dioscorea

species) The active ingredient is diosgenin, which yields steroidal drugs-corticosteroids, oral contraceptives, and sex hormones. Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum) is the world's greatest painkiller. There are 20 or more alkaloids in opium-morphine, (first alkaloid to be isolated in the history of chemistry in 1806) codeine, and methadone. Papeira (Chondrodendron tomentosum) Curare, extract from the stems of this plant, causes instantaneous muscular paralysis. South American native people used it to hunt. It was first used in 1942 and is now essential in all surgical procedures. It cannot be synthesized. Quinine (Cinchona species) is the drug used in

curing malaria. Rauvolfia (Rauvolfia serpentina) was first mentioned in a Hindu medical treatise written in 600 B.C. The active ingredient reserpine was isolated in 1952, and the term "tranquilizer" was coined the following year. Alkaloids from this plant have revolutionized the management of psychotic patients and led to advances in anti-hypertensive drugs. Suzi List Owner health/ http://360./suziesgoats What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

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