Woodlands.co.uk

Trees as Sources of Medicine

By woodlandstv

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Dr Henry Oakeley, Garden Fellow at the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London, introduces trees from around the world that have medicinal uses or connections. The ancient plane tree, Platanus orientalis subspecies insularis from the Island of Cos, off the coast of Greece, under which Hippocrates taught his medical students 2,300 years ago and parent of the London plane. Drimys winteri, a forest tree from Tierra del Fuego, whose fruits cured sailors of scurvy 450 years ago; along with Citrus trees whose fruits have been used for this since 1617. He talks about the olive tree, Olea europaea, source of olive oil, and the American sassafras tree, Sasafras albidum, once used to flavour children’s drinks but now the main source of the drug Ecstasy. To finish there is the pomegranate, Punica granatum and its elegant dwarf variety nana, whose juice was used in mediaeval times to treat fevers; and the fabulously ancient maidenhair tree Gingko biloba, whose extracts increase cerebral blood flow in ancient arteries to little effect, but may have more light-hearted properties. https://garden.rcplondon.ac.uk/ An Adliberate film http://www.adliberate.co.uk for WoodlandsTV http://www.woodlands.co.uk/tv


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Discussion

So the British have two balls hanging down and the Americans have one ball hanging down. That explains a lot.

Lazarus

May 3, 2019

What on earth is a banana doing growing in England?! Begone with you, curse of global warming!!

Dale Redpath

May 3, 2019

🙂

C G

May 3, 2019

Wasn't grapes grown in Greenland at one time?

Tom Angle

May 3, 2019

This chap deserves his own TV series.

Roy Carter

May 4, 2019

Get him on country file every week

James Turner

May 6, 2019

very nice and i have seen some familiar medicinal plants to heal free of charge i can cure poisonous snake snakes including toxins from sea snakes… i'm Vietnamese

Bác Học Điên

May 11, 2019

That was wonderful to see and to listen. Henry did you notice that hairy caterpillar on your tie?

Norma Snockers

July 2, 2019

I’m trying this topic in the science fair

NELLYWORLD

August 20, 2019