Curative Nature
Before the advent of modern chemistry and pharmaceuticals, people turned to the world around them to find possible remedies for illness and injury. The use of plants for medicinal purposes is well-documented, most notably through herbals – books that list and describe various plants as well as their uses. Herbal remedies are still used throughout the world, often based on anecdotal evidence. However, through scientific study, some plant-based remedies have been tested and proven effective – many even serving as the origin of modern medications.
Contiguous fragments from an unpublished medical or herbal, 13th century.
These two manuscript fragments are based on Book II of Avicenna’s Canon Medicinae. Active in the 11th century, Avicenna is considered one of the most prominent medical authorities of the Middle Ages. Book II of his work focuses on the medicinal benefits of plants as well as antidotes to poisons.
Elizabeth Blackwell. A Curious Herbal, vol. 1. London: Printed by Samuel Harding in St. Martin’s-Lane, 1737.
Elizabeth Blackwell was a celebrated English botanical illustrator, known especially for her contributions to A Curious Herbal. She both drew and engraved the images of the plants in this work, basing her designs on live samples under cultivation at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London.
The plant illustrated here is known as bear’s breech or breeches, a type of acanthus. Historically used to treat various types of inflammation in the body, recent studies indicate that this plant does indeed have potential as a natural anti-inflammatory.
Kensai Katō. Wa-Kan ninjin kō / 和漢人參考. Kōto [Edo]: Yūki Jirōbē; Naniwa [Osaka]: Asano Yahē [and 2 others], An'ei 3 [1774] hosei.
Originally written by Kensai Katō, and later edited by his son Genjun, this treatise discusses the cultivation and use of ginseng and other roots for medicinal purposes and features numerous woodcuts to illustrate the text.
Hortus Sanitatis. Moguntiae [Mainz]: Jacobus Meydenbach, 1491.
The Hortus Sanitatis (Latin for The Garden of Health) is a natural history encyclopedia published by Jacob Meydenbach in Mainz, Germany. Among other descriptions of the natural world, it describes plant species alongside their medicinal uses.