Dangerous Garden: the Quest for Plants to Change Our Lives.Many people think of new pharmaceuticals as being brewed up from chemicals in the labs of companies such as Pfizer and Merck. While this is often so, a full 40 percent of the drugs behind the pharmacist's counter in the Western world are derived from plants that people have used for centuries, For instance, quinine quinine (kwī`nīn', kwĭnēn`), white crystalline alkaloid with a bitter taste. Before the development of more effective synthetic drugs such as quinacrine, chloroquine, and primaquine, quinine was the specific agent in the treatment of from tree bark relieves malaria, and licorice licorice (lĭk`ərĭs, –rĭsh), name for a European plant (Glycyrrhiza glabra) of the family Leguminosae (pulse family) and for the sweet substance obtained from the root. from a root has been an ingredient in cough drops for more than 3,500 years. Stuart examines how different peoples have used these and many other medicinal plants medicinal plants, plants used as natural medicines. This practice has existed since prehistoric times. There are three ways in which plants have been found useful in medicine. at different times, Such medications have affected civilizations by stemming both ferocious plagues and common maladies. Stuart illustrates this as he documents a host of medicinal plants from a historical perspective. HUP HUP Hangup (Unix command) HUP Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania HUP Hungarian Unix Portal HUP Home Use Program HUP Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle HUP Hot Uniaxial Pressing HUP Heavy Utility Personnel , 2004, 207 p., color photos/Illus., hardcover, $35,00. |
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