Herbal Medicine & Magic:

Sorting Fact from Fancy

Plants offered the first effective cures for disease, and the history of herbal medicine is defined by lore and science—in equal measures. The European herbal tradition is reflected in the medicinal plants carried by early settlers to the New World; many of these species escaped dooryard gardens and naturalized in our local flora, which now includes many plants with legitimate or presumed curative properties.

Historic lore and the doctrine of signatures documents herbs in fanciful ways that reflect human dependence on these essential plants. Antibiotic properties abound in herbs, and during World War II, herbs replaced unavailable pharmaceutical medicines. Even today 40 % of all pharmaceutical drugs still contain at least one botanical compound. Retaining practical knowledge of medicinal herbs is essential, especially as antibiotics wane in efficacy. Join us for this intriguing overview of medicinal plants—from  ancient traditions to military history and modern medicine.

Presenter, Judith Sumner, specializes in ethnobotany, flowering plants, plant adaptations and garden history. She is a graduate of Vassar College and completed her graduate studies in botany at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and at the British Museum, and did extensive field work in the Pacific region on the genus Pittosporum.

In addition to writing, her projects include field studies in the Great Smoky Mountains and work with the United Nations developing petroleum-rich plants in the Caribbean. She served as a visiting scientist for several summers in the LEAP (Learning about Plants) program at Harvard for Boston school teachers and has volunteered as a National Public Radio Science mentor. Her column “The Gardener’s Kitchen” (under the pseudonym Laura Craig) appeared in Horticulture magazine and is currently being republished by the Herbal Academy of New England. Judith is currently at work on a botanical history of World War II, aimed at an understanding of the essential roles played by plants both on the home front and in the military. 

Learn more about Judith at her website, www.judithsumner.com.

Member Cost: $12
Non-Member Cost $20

 

Botanical Print from the Mass Hort Collection:  

Aloe succotrina, Title (alt.): Aloe, Fynbos
Artist: Bouchard, Magdalena, d. 1793

Source: Hortus Romanus Volumes I-VII (Bonelli,Georgio).
Handpainted Engraving.
Date: ca. 1772–1796

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