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MEDICINAL PLANTS
and the Victorian Physic Garden
with Maria Vlotides
Thursday 12th September 2019
Doors open at 6:30 pm, Talk commences at 7:00 pm
Comfrey for broken bones, Catmint for stomach upset and Stinging Nettle for allergies: this is just a small selection of botanical remedies that could be found in an English garden. In fact, the use of plants for medicinal purposes is as old as mankind itself and spans the globe. Archeological digs have uncovered material evidence of the practice dating back 60,000 years and the oldest written record is a 5,000 year old Sumerian clay slab which documents over 250 medicinal plants including poppy, henbane and mandrake. Essentially, humans have been involved in a vast clinical trial with medicinal plants for thousands of years and this has culminated into a powerful world catalogue of herbal medicines and it has been estimated that more than 50% of available drugs have originated in some way from plants.
In this talk, medical herbalist Maria Vlotides will explore the history of medicinal plants and botanical gardens within Europe. She will introduce a selection of key medicinal plants including White Willow, Pot Marigold, St. John’s Wort, Common Thyme, Hawthorn, Stinging Nettle, Lavender and Echinacea and tell the stories of their uses, histories and identification highlighting their importance to a contemporary therapeutic armoury.
MARIA VLOTIDES
Maria Vlotides read PPE at Oxford University before training as a medical herbalist in 2002 with a course in Natural Therapies at Neals Yard Remedies . This led on to a degree in Herbal Medicine at the University of Westminster. She is now a successful medical herbalist who also holds a series of incredible herb walks in London to familiarise you with plants in their own highly urban setting and to give a voice to the silent greenery around us. To find out more please visit her website: the-apothecarys-daughter.com
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