Med Hist. Apr 1, 2005; 49(2): 230–231.
PMCID: PMC1088232
Book Review
Medicinal plants in folk tradition: an ethnobotany of Britain and Ireland
David E Allen and Gabrielle Hatfield.
Medicinal plants in folk tradition: an ethnobotany of Britain and Ireland.
Portland, OR, and Cambridge: Timber Press. 2004, pp. 431, illus., £22.50 (hardback 0-88192-638-8).
Medicinal plants in folk tradition: an ethnobotany of Britain and Ireland.
Portland, OR, and Cambridge: Timber Press. 2004, pp. 431, illus., £22.50 (hardback 0-88192-638-8).
Anyone wanting to know the folkloric uses of a British plant would probably consult one of the standard herbals: John Gerard's Herball or Generall historie of plantes (1597), John Parkinson's Theatrum botanicum (1640), Nicholas Culpeper's Complete herbal and English physician enlarged (1681), William Salmon's Botanologia: the English herbal (1710), Elizabeth Blackwell's Curious herbal (1737), William Withering's Botanical arrangement of British plants (1787–92), or Mrs M Grieve's Modern herbal
(1931), my favourite. But they might be misled, for those herbalists
generally derived their information from Greek and Latin herbals, such
as those of Dioscorides and Apuleius Platonicus, ignoring information
relevant to the British Isles; about a half of the plants included by
Gerard, for example, are not native to Britain.
For the
last seventeen years David Allen has been following a different path
altogether, seeking out information about the uses of herbs in Britain
and Ireland from purely local sources. And at last, with the help of
Gabrielle Hatfield, he has produced the work of scholarship that his
many years of labour promised.
The results confirm two
views that I have long held: that folkloric medicinal uses of herbs do
not reflect their true pharmacological properties, except occasionally
by chance, and that the more indications a plant is said to have the
less likely it is that any of them is actually beneficial. This does not
bode well for ethnopharmacologists interested in finding new
therapeutic uses for plants. For example, we find here ten remedies for
gout, including Bryonia dioica (white bryony), Sambucus nigra (elder), Tanacetum vulgare (tansy), and Verbena officinalis (vervain), none of which is efficacious, to my knowledge. But Colchicum autumnale,
the source of colchicine, is listed for measles, jaundice, and the
procurement of abortion, not gout. Herbs used to treat cancers include Chelidonium majus (greater celandine), Conium maculatum (hemlock), Rumex acetosa (sorrel), and Taraxacum officinale (dandelion), but not Vinca major, which contains powerful anti-cancer drugs. Vinca
is listed, however, as being useful for cuts and bruises, nosebleeds
and toothache, hysteria and nightmares, colic and cramp. Don't try it at
home, is my advice.
Now a pharmacologist, disappointed
with the effects of these remedies, might not be tempted to investigate
the list of nearly thirty plants supposedly useful for asthma, including
Allium ursinum (ramson), Inula helenium (elecampane), and Verbascum thapsus (great mullein). But if so he would miss a gem. For the list includes Datura stramonium
(thorn apple), the source of an anticholinergic drug that is beneficial
in asthma. The remedies with real effects often stand out in having
only one major recognized use. Consider Claviceps purpurea
(ergot), the rye-infecting fungus that causes smooth muscle contraction.
It has only one credited action, a tonic effect on the uterus, used, as
its twentieth-century counterparts were, to procure abortions, to
induce or speed the progress of labour, and to stop postpartum bleeding.
Occasionally,
however, a real action is hidden among a gallimaufry of distracting
indications. Dandelion, for example, or pissabed, is a diuretic, but its
other uses, mostly in Ireland, are among the most diverse in the book,
including coughs and colds, jaundice, stomach upsets, rheumatism, cuts
and sprains, broken bones, thrush, headaches, diabetes, anaemia, and in
Tipperary “every disease”.
The many
alternative common names of these plants have been omitted, although to
be fair this spares us some inordinately long lists. More important is
the omission of maps showing how the uses of the plants vary from region
to region, one of the major fascinations of this work. Perhaps there is
another volume to come—an atlas of British and Irish herbs.
Articles from Medical History are provided here courtesy of Cambridge University Press
