An Asian plant with mysterious cathartic powers, medicinal rhubarb spurred European trade expeditions and obsessive scientific inquiry from the Renaissance until the twentieth century. Rarely, however, had there been a plant that so thoroughly frustrated Europeans' efforts to acquire it and to master its special botanical and chemical properties. Here Clifford Foust presents the remarkable efforts of the explorers, traders, botanists, gardeners, physicians, and pharmacists who tried to adapt rhubarb for convenient use in Europe. His is an intriguing tale of how humans and their institutions have been affected by natural realities they do not entirely comprehend. Readers interested in the history of medicine, pharmaceutics, botany, or horticulture will be fascinated by this once-perplexing plant: highly valued by physicians for its cathartic properties, rhubarb resisted revealing its active chemical principles, had many widely varying species, and did not breed true by seed. This history includes sections on the geographic and economic importance of rhubarb--which explain how the plant became a major state monopoly for Russia and an important commodity for the East India companies--and a discussion of rhubarb's emergence as an international culinary craze during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.Originally published in 1992.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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Product Description: This guide to Alaskan wild plants, native and introduced, can be used to promote health and healing, use for emergency first-aid care, or to maintain wellness. More than fifty plant species are described with information on habitat and distribution as well as general information on how each one can be used as medicine...read more

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Product Description: Comprising 26 chapters, this volume deals with the genetic transformation of medicinal plants. It describes methods to obtain plants resistant to insects, diseases, herbicides, and plants with an increased production of compounds of medicinal and pharmaceutical importance...read more

Product Description: Like the previous nine volumes published between 1988 and 1996, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants X is unique in its approach. It comprises 22 chapters dealing with the distribution, importance, conventional propagation, micropropagation, tissue culture studies, and the in vitro production of important medicinal and pharmaceutical compounds in various species of Actinidia, Alkanna, Arnebia, Campanula, Catharanthus, Centella, Chenopodium, Cornus, Cynara, Ephedra, Euglena, Haplophyllum, Morus, Oenothera, Otacanthus, Oxalis, Polypodium, Rosmarinus, Sesamum, Solanum, Taxus, and Tephrosia...read more

27 chapters cover the distribution, economic importance, conventional propagation, micropropagation, tissue culture studies, and in vitro production of important medicinal and other pharmaceutical compounds in various species of Anchusa, Brucea, Catharanthus, Chrysanthemum, Coleus, Corydalis, Coreopsis, Emilia, Ginkgo, Gloriosa, Hypericum, Inonotus, Leucosceptrum, Lilium, Linum, Mosses, Nandina, Penstemon, Prunus, Pteridium, Quassia, Ribes, Senecio, Taraxacum, Thermopsis, Vanilla, and Vitiveria. Like the previous five volumes on medicinal and aromatic plants (Volumes 4, 7, 15, 21, and 24), this book contains a wealth of useful information for advanced students and researchers in the field of plant biotechnology and chemical engineering, pharmacy, botany and tissue culture.

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A noted herbalist presents fifteen herbs that can be used effectively in treating a range of drug-resistant ailments--such as pneumonia, ear infections, and meningitis--along with tips on making and using infusions, tinctures, teas, and salves from aloe, echinacea, garlic, and other natural sources. Original. (view table of contents)