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 paperback editions preserve the original texts of these
important books while presenting them in durable paperback
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.
General
Imprint: |
Princeton University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Princeton Legacy Library |
Release date: |
July 2014 |
First published: |
July 2014 |
Authors: |
Clifford M. Foust
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 21mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
394 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-691-60069-7 |
Categories: |
Books >
Medicine >
Other branches of medicine >
Pharmacology >
General
|
LSN: |
0-691-60069-4 |
Barcode: |
9780691600697 |
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