Remembered Remedies

The first week of the autumn term (but not for me!) brought those lovely crisp, sunny September mornings and it was on one such that I took myself to Kew Gardens for an event which proved even more fascinating than I had hoped. Kew's mission statement is: "We want to live in a world where plants and fungi are understood, valued and conserved ..." and I had not fully understood before just how much work goes in to the continuing study and use of plants.

People have been using plants as medicine for thousands of years and, until the birth of the NHS in 1948, ordinary people knew and used many of the plants that grew in the wild. Our day, entitled 'Ethnomedica' or 'Remembered Remedies', started with an excellent lecture from Professor Monique Simmonds, OBE, Deputy Director of Science at Kew who has been heading up this fascinating project.

The project started with the folklore of long-used plant remedies and they have collected a vast amount of anecdotal information from people of all ages. Unsurprisingly, most of the common ‘old wives’ tales’ have much basis in fact: nettles for anti-inflammatory use; lavender as an antiseptic; rosemary for digestion, sage for a cough and many more.

The Queen's Garden grows medicinal plants, many of which have been used for centuries. The plants in the Queen's Garden are exclusively those grown in Britain before and during the 17th century and the plant labelling differs from Kew's norm. They include not only today's botanical name and family, but also the common name in the 17th century plus a virtue or quotation from a herbal (plant book). Today the science of medicinal plants still has many secrets to be revealed and the Ethnomedica project is gathering information from which to continue research.

We were also treated to a behind the scenes look at the Nursery, an amazing collection of glasshouses containing plants from all over the world. Some of them are now extinct in the world and Kew has the responsibility of propagating rare and often invaluable plants.

Research into the properties of plants is ongoing; one stunning recent success was a the use of the properties of the Madagascar Periwinkle which have increased the survival rate for childhood leukemia from 10% to 90%!

I also took the opportunity to view the Marianne North Gallery, a little known display of breathtaking watercolours - plants from all over the world drawn and painted by this intrepid Victorian lady - well worth a visit if you go.

Kew also pioneered the Millennium Seed Bank and now works on projects with groups including the Eden Project, Chelsea Physic Garden and the Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.

The value of what Kew holds is breathtaking - not just the plants, but the research, and the collections (including Charles Darwin's). I should not have been surprised therefore to learn that Kew has its own police constabulary!

And of course, I bought a book - I'm off to experiment!