Rhubarb - The Wondrous Drug

An Asian plant with mysterious cathartic powers, medicinal rhubarb spurred European trade expeditions and obsessive scientific inquiry from the Renaissance until the twentieth century. Rarely, however, had there been a plant that so thoroughly frustrated Europeans' efforts to acquire it and to master its special botanical and chemical properties. Here Clifford Foust presents the remarkable efforts of the explorers, traders, botanists, gardeners, physicians, and pharmacists who tried to adapt rhubarb for convenient use in Europe. His is an intriguing tale of how humans and their institutions have been affected by natural realities they do not entirely comprehend. Readers interested in the history of medicine, pharmaceutics, botany, or horticulture will be fascinated by this once-perplexing plant: highly valued by physicians for its cathartic properties, rhubarb resisted revealing its active chemical principles, had many widely varying species, and did not breed true by seed. This history includes sections on the geographic and economic importance of rhubarb--which explain how the plant became a major state monopoly for Russia and an important commodity for the East India companies--and a discussion of rhubarb's emergence as an international culinary craze during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Originally published in 1992.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

List of contents

List of Illustrations Ch. 2The Very True Rhubarb: The Seventeenth Century Ch. 3The Russian Rhubarb Trade Ch. 4The East India Company and European Trade Ch. 5Collecting and Systematizing Ch. 6Accommodating the Root: The Society of Arts and Other Promotions Ch. 7Rhubarb as Medicine: The Eighteenth Century Ch. 8The Search Ends? Ch. 9The Testing of Rhubarb Ch. 10Tarts and Wine Conclusion Notes to the Chapters, with List of Abbreviations Bibliography Index

About the author

Clifford M. Foust

Summary

An Asian plant with mysterious cathartic powers, medicinal rhubarb spurred European trade expeditions and obsessive scientific inquiry from the Renaissance until the twentieth century. Rarely, however, had there been a plant that so thoroughly frustrated Europeans' efforts to acquire it and to master its special botanical and chemical properties. Here Clifford Foust presents the remarkable efforts of the explorers, traders, botanists, gardeners, physicians, and pharmacists who tried to adapt rhubarb for convenient use in Europe. His is an intriguing tale of how humans and their institutions have been affected by natural realities they do not entirely comprehend. Readers interested in the history of medicine, pharmaceutics, botany, or horticulture will be fascinated by this once-perplexing plant: highly valued by physicians for its cathartic properties, rhubarb resisted revealing its active chemical principles, had many widely varying species, and did not breed true by seed. This history includes sections on the geographic and economic importance of rhubarb--which explain how the plant became a major state monopoly for Russia and an important commodity for the East India companies--and a discussion of rhubarb's emergence as an international culinary craze during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Originally published in 1992.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Additional text

"Foust has written an interesting book, long on commercial and botanical detail.... Provides a clear view of another building-block in the emergence of the modern world."

Product details

• Authors: Clifford Foust, Clifford M. Foust, Foust Clifford M.
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 14.07.2014
• EAN: 9780691600697
• ISBN: 978-0-691-60069-7
• No. of pages: 394
• Series: Princeton Legacy Library; Princeton Legacy Library
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > General; MEDICAL / History, History of Medicine, Pharmacology