Atish Seedlings

I didnt realise aconite was a herb, what does it do?

I gooogled it Sticki ....the herb has an anti inflammatory effect similar to non steroidal anti inflamatory products, such as Diclofenac. They were so good, in the old ways, of finding a specific for common complaints. It's that 'eye of newt' business that gets herbalism a bad press. One of the other plants is said to be helpful in mountain sickness at altitude. On Isabella Birds travels in the Himalaya around 1870 she mentions this Aconite was gathered on the lower parts in expectation of terrible trials at 18000 feet!!!! Very intrepid lady. They had to use humungously high passes for trading. Interesting reads free on Kindle.

ooooh thanks dorjac, i didnt think to look, thats really interesting, i do like to hear these 'stories', i always think its amazing how they find out that one plant is miraculous and another poisonous!!!

free on kindle?? i wonder if i can download that?

Just type in Isabella Bird into Kindle and her books are listed. Not many reviews and one says she's 'stuck up' seemingly because she uses Latin botanical names, and calls certain indigenous populations 'savages' as you do in 1870 or thereabouts. She lived with an indigenous tribe ( Hairy Aino) people in Japan to find out about them and their failing culture, due to Japanese scorn for them.

that sounds utterly fascinating, thank you dorjac, there are some cultures that really intrigue me ~ japanese is one of them.
'stuck up' thats an awful thing to say!!! they certainly dont hold back with their feelings do they??!!

I guess she must have brought valuable info back after her hair raising trips. So that botanists could follow up and gather specimens. So latin names were essential, and botanical ID very useful to make notes, on one of these very, very extremely scary trips.

i have found some of it

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/bird/isabella/japan/chapter1.html

i think its really interesting

i thought the latin names were brought in so that things could be identified on an international basis???

I understand botanists/pharmacists think it is urgent now, with rain forests being chopped down, to get as much plant material analysed for content and databased as they can. Taxol from Yew is a fairly recent useful drug from a tree considered poisonous, right on our own doorstep. So what else must be out there that has good uses.

you never know!!

there are a lot of yew trees in church yards!!!!