Transcript The traditional uses of medicinal plants, today studied by ethno-botanists and ethno-pharmacists, have their roots in the distant past of all continents.

The traditional uses of
medicinal
plants,
today
studied by ethno-botanists
and ethno-pharmacists, have
their roots in the distant past
of all continents. Medicine,
pharmaceutics and botany three sciences that belonged
together for thousands of
years, going right back to the
very origins of mankind.
These sciences developed out
the in-depth observation and
knowledge of the environment
and medicinal plants. For tens of
thousands of years, mankind has
been stricken by fever, terrified
by diseases, with no alternative
but to seek cures in his
immediate surroundings.
Mankind was not first in
distinguishing between useful
and dangerous species, and
thereby contributing to a
better life. He very probably
started by imitating and
adopting the behaviour – as is
now becoming increasingly
known - of certain animals.
Some have interpreted
this starting point as the birth
of obscure and irrational
sciences based on trial and
error, on immoral “guinea-pig
tests” by man on his fellow
beings,
and,
moreover,
sanctioned by numerous errors,
great suffering and false
expectations.
It is often forgotten that
back in those days “medicine
men” or “shamans” needed to
acquire a great amount of
knowledge.
To know which medicinal
plants to select, a shaman had
to be a botanist; to know how
to prepare and administer
them, a pharmacist; and to
establish a diagnosis a doctor.
In the absence of any
knowledge of anatomy or
physiology, any diagnosis was
at best uncertain and guided
by rule of thumb. In addition
to all this, the shaman needed
to have sound command of
his patients' psychology.
Healing practice was more
often than not accompanied by
superstitions taking medicine
into a world of empiricism and
ideology, and it has taken a
long time to shake off such
attitudes. But how many
medicines now used to treat
anything from a passing
indisposition to the most
serious illnesses have their
roots in these first tentative
steps of primitive mankind?
We find the sails of
indifference and disrespect
fluttering from the mast of
oblivion - and time is running
out.
The know-how of our
ancestors and the traditions
of primitive people are at risk
of disappearing for ever.
Moreover, deepgoing changes
to biotopes which have not yet
completely revealed their
treasures are endangering the
survival of certain plants they
found indispensable.
Over the last few years,
renewed interest has been
shown
by
pharmaceutical
companies for those forgotten
plants used in traditional
medicine, benefiting drugs
derived
from
chemical
synthesis.
Abandoning
their
ignorance or even contempt,
they have embarked on a
frantic hunt for "green gold"
and patents, travelling the
world in search of the last
secrets of the shamans.
Indigenous
populations hardly profit
from such "biopiracy" and
their contribution remains
generally ignored
Numerous
peoples
still resort to medicinal plants
and the wealthy minority
living in the industrialized
world,
although
now
benefiting from a medicine
more advanced from a
technological point of view,
have not completely forgotten
them.
This has nothing do with a
simplistic "back-to-the-roots"
nostalgia or any systematic
research
into
everything
natural.
Natural
products
continue to swell the long list of
today's
drugs,
and
our
ancestors' know-how, evolved
under a system of trial and
error, remains a facilitator and
an orientation for current
research work.
Thus, the traditional
use of medicinal plants can be
seen as part of the book of
time, woven into the history
of Mankind.
In this retrospective,
the Museum would like to
revive and reassert those
pharmaceutical observations
and choices made by mankind
in a hostile environment since
the beginning of his existence.
This attempt at recreating
the birth of pharmacy and how
medicines were discovered and
used is based on the analysis of a
history interwoven with topics
touching the very roots of
human societies and showing the
interrelationship
between
mankind and nature. The plants
on show have been chosen from
among many. They are used here
to relive the story of what was
and will long remain an
inexhaustible
reservoir
of
medicines – medicinal plants.
In
addition,
the
Museum highlights the many
points
of
contact
and
apparent complicity between
medical science and arts from
which each has benefited
throughout history.
The opening up of these
disciplines helps us to unroll
the history of the "green
pharmacy" throughout its
evolution, while at the same
time highlighting the artistic
and
historical
aspects
accompanying or illustrating
it.
This is why the eighteen
topics selected and described
below have been limited on
purpose to these plant species,
leaving out other sources of
natural medicines - minerals,
animals, micro-organisms or
marine organisms of similar
undisputed interest.
 Showcase
1.
Therapeutic
potentialities of plants
(why plants content drugs ;
use of medicinal plants by
animals) ;
 Showcases 2 to 4. Short
history
of
the
green
pharmacy (first evidenceshowcase 2, developmentshowcase 3) and coming to
maturity – showcase 4) ;
 Showcases 5 to 8. Botany
first ! (outstanding importance
of botany for the identification
 Showcases 9 and 10.
Medicinal plants in balloons
(some stories for young people) ;
 Showcases
11
to
18.
Listening herb stories in the
monastic gardens (contribution
of the monks to the perpetuation
of the Occidental and Arabian
traditional medicines) ;
 Showcases 19 to 26. Vegetal
tears (essential oils, resins,
latex, mucilages and gums in
medicine) ;
Showcases 27 and 28. From
willow bark to aspirin (the
salicylic derivatives isolated from
willow at the origin of the
fantastic place of aspirin in
pharmacy) ;
Showcases 29 and 30. « The
queens of hearths » (active
constituents of Digitalis as
irreplaceable
drugs
in
cardiology) ;
Showcases 31 to 36. The
prescriptions of Mr Purgon (an
introduction to the good use of
natural laxatives) ;
Showcases
47
and
48.
Alkaloids discovery (a simple
introduction to plant chemistry) ;
Showcases 49 and 50. Arrows
poisons
(ancestral
hunting
methods has led to the discovery
of curarising compounds which
are now indispensable in
anesthesiolgy);
Showcases 51 and 52. From
murdering harvesting to a
harvest of drugs (the study of
ergot of rye at the origin of a
number of intoxications in the
Middle Ages has led to the
isolation of several drugs
showing outstanding activities) ;
Showcases 47 and 48. Alkaloids
discovery (a simple introduction to plant
chemistry) ;
Showcases 49 and 50. Arrows poisons
(ancestral hunting methods has led to the
discovery of curarising compounds which
are now indispensable in anesthesiolgy);
Showcases 51 and 52. From murdering
harvesting to a harvest of drugs (the
study of ergot of rye at the origin of a
number of intoxications in the Middle
Ages has led to the isolation of several
drugs showing outstanding activities) ;
Showcases 53 and 54. In
colchides, Jason doesn’t suffer
from gout (colchicine isolated
from autumn crocus, an useful
drug for the treatment of patients
suffering from articular diseases) ;
Showcases 55 to 57. Drugs in
the sorceress chauldrons (plants
used in witchcraft as sources of
several drugs and drugs models
used in contempory medicine) ;
Showcases 58 to 60. The Jesuit
powder (quinquina bark as first
treatment of malaria).
We wish you a very enjoyable visit.
To make things easier for you, we have
compiled an English language booklet for
you. It costs €4 and is available either in
the secretary's office of the Faculty of
Pharmacy (on the 3rd floor of this
building) or at the A. Herlant Library (4th
floor of this building). An illustrated
guide of the Museum (in French only):
"Plantes
d’autrefois,
médicaments
d’aujourd’hui,
2nd
édition
2010,
completely revised, colour illustrations,
349 pages (price: €15 + postage when
ordered, 20% reduction for students), is
also available in the same offices.