Around the World in 80 Plants – Jonathan Drori Illustrated by Lucille Clere
Reading about plants and how they shaped our lives is a fascinating endeavor. How little we stop to think when we sprinkle turmeric, or asafoetida in our foods? Turmeric and Asafoetida by themselves are used so ubiquitously in Indian cooking that we quite forget the journeys from farm to consumption.
Starting off with plants that I have heard of in the magical context such as Myrtle, Wormwood, Clovers, Mandrakes, the book makes its way through plants that influenced our civilizations in different parts of the world.
The amount of information packed into a 200-page book is amazing and warrants a place in the reference section.
We are mostly aware of the fact that we have not even scratched the surface when it comes to the potential of plants and their medicinal uses. There are around 380,000 plant species in the world, and we do not know how many are not catalogued yet. Even the ones in popular use, we do not yet know their potential. Take the Mexican Yam for the instance. It grows like a vine and produces its tubers.
Yet, when I read about the Mexican Yams (Dioscorea Mexicana), I was blown away. The humble vegetable has a substance called diosgenin. Diosgenin, it turns out, is a vital starting ingredient for the manufacturing of steroids. Steroids are used to treat asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune diseases.
“The use of steroids expanded in the 1940s, but the drugs, derived from animals and even humans, were hideously expensive. At one time, it took forty oxen to provide the cortisone to treat one arthritic patient for a day. “
– Around the World in 80 Plants – Jonathan Drori
How many times have I applied the cortisone ointments to relieve eczema for the children, without considering how we came by it?
As if this weren’t enough, they are also used in the production of sex hormones progesterone and testosterone.
“The biggest boom of all came from the use of yam-derived progesterone and other hormones to trick a woman’s body into acting as if it was pregnant thereby inhibiting ovulation. The contraceptive pill was born.”
– Around the World in 80 Plants – Jonathan Drori
Our lives as we know it today, have been forever changed thanks to this humble vegetable.
“It is fitting that a plant with splendidly heart-shaped leaves should have had such a profound effect on the well-being and love lives of millions of people.”
– Around the World in 80 Plants – Jonathan Drori
Nourish-n-Cherish 