Field of aspirin?

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) The brand name aspirin was derived from the former botanical name for meadowsweet, Spiraea ulmaria (now Filipendula ulmaria). In the late 19th century the German company Bayer was looking for a medicine that could replicate the...

The first medicines

In these posts we will look again at the plants that the first humans used to look after themselves and their families: the very first medicines. We dip into the healing needs of the hunter-nomads, and then the earliest farmers and villagers. Plants have common...

Introducing the herbslinger

On the track of the First Medicines Stories from the interior Here we go looking at how humans learnt the ways of plants, and how we might learn these lessons again in modern times. There are some great stories to...