Plants, Pills and Potions
Ian Brand (via Zoom)
Thursday 26th November 2020
Bradford Botany Group member Ian Brand is a retired GP so is well placed to talk about the medicinal uses of plants. Ian’s professional and entertaining talk was an excellent way to begin our first ever session of BBG Zoom talks.
Ian informed us that one in three drugs are made or originate from plants. Plants have mechanical defences to protect them from attack but also hidden chemical defences and there is undoubtedly still much to be gained from studying plants to find new medicines for ourselves. Pedanius Dioscorides was a Greek physician who lived from 40-90AD and his text De Materia Medica which lists 650 plants and their curative properties was used for 1,500 years. Great advances in medicine began to be made from the 15th Century and the establishment of botanical gardens also helped to improve knowledge.
In a backward step for medicine, Swiss physician Paracelsus (1493–1541) further developed the concept of the ‘The doctrine of signatures’ where it was believed that every plant was ‘signed’ in some way by God to show the usefulness of the plant to people. For example, toothwort flowers were said to look like lines of teeth so were used to treat problems with the teeth.
From the 19th Century there began a move to find the chemical structure of drugs so that they could be synthesised. Ian told us the fascinating stories of the development of a number of drugs including how the drug Digoxin was discovered from foxgloves and how Salicin, an anti-inflammatory, was extracted from willow bark which then led to the development of the safer Aspirin. Ian’s account of the development of Quinine was truly surprising – I had no idea of the connection between Britain’s ‘Marsh Fever’, Oliver Cromwell and the Queens favourite tipple of Dubonnet and gin! Ian also talked about the development of morphine which is still produced directly from poppies and how many scientific discoveries happen by accident such as the discovery of Warfarin (another fascinating account).
It was great to see our first Zoom talk well attended, with 22 BBG members who all seemed to greatly enjoy both the talk and the opportunity to see botany friends in this time of Covid restrictions.
Susan