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Economic Botany Collections
Royal Pharmaceutical Society Collection at Kew
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| Selection of crude drugs from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society collection at Kew |
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The photo shows a sample of the types of crude drugs included in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s donation to Kew. The following medicinal uses for these plants come from Theophilus Redwood’s Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia (1857). The samples from top left, clockwise are: JUGLANDACEAE Juglans regia. These English walnut leaves were presented to the Pharmaceutical Society in 1934 by CW Maplethorpe, they were collected by KP Shipkoff in Bulgaria. The label reads ‘Allen and Hanbury Ware.’ The leaves of the English walnut are detersive, diaphoretic, anti-arthritic and anti-syphilitic. Other parts of the plants can be used against diseases of the lungs as well as a sweetener for food. EBC 42074 MORACEAE Ficus pumila. These climbing fig fruits come from Argentina. They were presented to the Society by Dr. A Henry. The fruits are eaten and can be made into a jelly. The label reads; ‘The jelly soon melts’. EBC 42110 SALICACEAE Populus balsamifera. The buds of this poplar tree yield a resinous excretion which is said to be diuretic and a remedy for scurvy. EBC 42105 EUPHORBIACEAE Pedilanthus pavonis. Candelilla wax from Mexico is an example of the many items included in the Pharmaceutical Museum’s collection that held more than just medicinal properties. Many were also substances of commercial value or potential commercial value. An excerpt from the Pharmaceutical Journal dated October 24, 1911, accompanying the artefact states that the wax could be powdered by pounding and was then soluble in turpentine. It could be used as a lacquer and in making telephone cables. EBC 42268 |