The Big, Bad Book of Botany

by Michael Largo

  Herbalists prescribe lavender to treat head lice, hyperactivity, microbial activity on gums, airborne molds, and insomnia. Recent laboratory studies suggest lavender extract may have promise in fighting cancer; certain components in the oil have been shown to reduce the size of breast cancer in mice. The buds, flower spikes, and flowering tips of lavender are widely popular as condiments in salads and flavoring agents for baked goods and desserts—it’s even used to flavor sugar, creating what’s commonly known as lavender sugar. Lavender is a favorite for potpourris, and many now use it in lieu of rice (which can kill birds after expanding in the stomachs of those that eat it) as an ideal wedding confetti.

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  What’s In a Name?

  Lavender’s scientific name, Lavandula, was coined by the famous botanist Carl Linnaeus. English lavender or Old English lavender (L. angustifolia), French lavender (L. stoechas or L. dentata), and Spanish lavender (L. stoechas, L. lana-ta, or L. dentata) are some of the widely used names for different lavender species. Lavandula angustifolia is one of the most widely cultivated varieties and most commonly referred to as simply lavender.

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  LEAF OF GOD

  Tabernanthe iboga

  Passport to the Past

  Leaf of God, bitter grass, tree of knowledge: these are some of the common names of the sacred iboga tree of West Central Africa. The plant has a long history as part of traditional rituals and religious practices in the Bwiti religion and other secret religious societies in the Gabon province of Central Africa—particularly among the Mitsogo, Babongo, and Fang peoples. For hundreds of years, iboga has served as a keystone in the development and expansion of religious systems, and is used in a variety of festivals and rites.

  The key to its religious popularity is the alkaloid contained in the root of the plant, which allowed ancient people to access religious “psychedelic” experiences. Historically, many early religions throughout the world used vegetable hallucinogens for healing, magic, religious ceremonies, and spiritual teaching. A drink made from this plant can seriously alter one’s perception of the world, and affects cognition and motor skills.

  Among traditional African religions, iboga helped transport one to the “land of the dead,” where one’s ancestors discussed the truth about the person’s past lives and the future evils he or she could expect to encounter. Frequently, ingestion was an important initiation rite into these religions; boys of around thirteen took massive doses, often for extended periods. The community at large would often ingest the plant on special religious holidays, though in smaller amounts. Similar doses also proved useful as a stimulant to aid in hunting, maintain alertness, and to heal sick people or drive out evil spirits.

  Tabernanthe iboga is noted for its psychedelic or hallucinogenic properties. The iboga belongs to the family Apocynaceae (dogbane) and is indigenous to Gabon, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire) in west-central Africa. The plant grows well in humid tropical forest understories, in well-drained soil, and loves moderately shady conditions.

  The Leaf of God is actually an evergreen herbaceous perennial shrub and usually attains a height of 5 to 7 feet. However, under certain ideal conditions it may reach the height of a small tree, 30 feet or more. The stem is long, erect, and extends branches out in pairs. Its leaves are narrow and dark green. The white-pink tubular flower cluster grows on long, slender, pedunculated inflorescences just above the point of branching. The shape of iboga’s fruit varies from elongated ovals to spheres and the fruit is yellowish orange in color. The yellowish root of the plant is the most concentrated source of the plant’s hallucinogenic chemicals, which might make it more appropriate to call iboga the “Root of God” instead.

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  Invisible Suit

  The Leaf of God has served as an important spiritual pillar for the establishment and expansion of numerous religious systems. Ancient peoples believed the plant could offer a glimpse of who you really are or help you gain an understanding of your true, unique individuality. Africans even once believed consumption of the plant could make one invisible to Western civilization, particularly slave traders.

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  LEPIDODENDRON

  The Gasoline Plant

  The geological history of earth is replete with once-dominant species that have gone extinct, leaving behind nothing but fossilized clues of their existence. The Carboniferous period (359 to 299 million years ago) is one such epoch, characterized by both tropical and warm temperate climates. These climate conditions were ideal for life, and thus the period was a showcase for many of the earliest and greatest biological events, including the establishment of terrestrial life. Amphibians and reptiles appeared, and vast swaths of swamp forests took shape. Through a process called permineralization these swamp forests eventually formed into coal beds, and they are the source of our gasoline today. The name of the epoch, Carboniferous, actually means “carbon-bearing.” Morphologically, carboniferous plants resembled many present-day tropical floras. It was also at this point in history that small shrubs made the leap to large, tree-size plants, and the plant world began to develop the complex vascular system we see today.

  Lepidodendron was among these first vascular plants of the Carboniferous period, and is distinguished as one of the first giant land plants. Today’s lepidodendron is called a giant club moss or scale tree, but it was once part of a now-extinct genus of ancient arborescent (treelike) plants. These plants grew as dense forests in wetlands and contributed significantly to the formation of the tropical coal forest flora of the Carboniferous period. The next time you fill your car up with gas, know that it probably contains the remnants of lepidodendron trees, which once harvested the energy of an ancient sun.

  Lepidodendron and other plants in its genus are evolutionarily linked to the moss, or lycopsids, of today. These early treelike plants were large, exceeding a height of 100 feet and with diameters as wide as 3 to 5 feet. These fantastic plants were preserved as specimen fossils in coal ball deposits of carboniferous shales, and left impressions of their leaf pattern, which resembles alligator skin or tire treads.

  The name Lepidodendron originates from the Greek words lepido, meaning “scale,” and dendron, “tree.” The plants had soaring, long, thick trunks and did not branch until fully grown. At maturity, each plant was topped with a coronet of bifurcating branches and tinted with cushions of long, thin, spirally arranged leaves. The leaves were shed from older parts of the stem, which left densely packed, diamond-shaped leaf scars, principally composed of green photosynthetic tissues and marked with minute apertures or pores known as stomata. The trunk, or stem, was green with thick bark. The roots of Lepidodendron were not really true roots, and scientists instead identify them as stigmaria. Stigmaria bear round, nodelike structures on the surface, themselves the remnants of ribbonlike rootlets arranged radially from the stigmaria—much like the spikes of a bottlebrush. Lepidodendron replicated through sophisticated, encapsulated spores, called megaspores and microspores. Upon germination, each megaspore developed into the female gametophyte—the egg-producing part of the plant. The microspores, for their part, contained the sperm-producing male gametophytes.

  Lepidodendron generally lived for twelve to fifteen years and were monocarpic, meaning they reproduced only once before dying. The plant’s fruit, or cone, is called a strobilus, or lepidostrobus—essentially an enfolded megasporangium (a structure that bears one or more megaspores) similar to that of seed plants. However, the existence of a true fruit cone is still a topic of scientific debate, as a fossil has never been found demonstrating its existence. Whatever their fruiting might have looked like, by the Mesozoic era drastic changes in climate conditions had taken place, and these giant plants became extinct.

  LICORICE

  Glycyrrhiza glabra

  Sweet Root

  Over the millennia of our existence, human beings have depended on plants for the protection and restoration of health. The b
iological importance of their capabilities, made possible by their chemical (or phytochemical) makeup, cannot be overstated—put simply, we would not exist without them. Even with advances in scientific research, we are not always able to completely behold all that plants have to offer. Nevertheless, plants lie at the foundation of human medicine. In the past few decades, we have witnessed a trend to duplicate the biologically active molecules found in plants and transform them into pharmaceuticals. Particular attention has been paid to one such plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra, for its potential in the fight against eczema, dyspepsia (indigestion, gastroesophageal reflux disease), upper respiratory infections (cold, cough), chronic hepatitis, peptic ulcer disease, and liver cancer, specifically hepatocellular carcinoma.

  Glycyrrhiza glabra has an exceptionally sugary flavor, leading to its more popular nickname: licorice (which means “sweet root” in Greek). The plant is indigenous to the Mediterranean and certain parts of Asia, including Greece, Turkey, Spain, Caucasian and trans-Caspian Russia, Italy, Iraq, and northern China. It grows best in well-drained soils. The plant has an admirable history in human medicine, stretching over thousands of years. Both Eastern and Western civilizations have made extensive use of licorice roots in treating a variety of illnesses, varying from the common cold (as an expectorant and carminative) to liver disease, and as a flavoring agent in candies and tobacco. The plant was introduced to England by Dominican friars around the fifteenth century. History records cultivation of the plant beginning in England in 1562. In all probability, it was English settlers who introduced the plant to the New World, after which its popularity and usage flourished even more.

  The licorice plant belongs to the legume family (peas, beans) of flowering plants. The plant is a subtropical herbaceous perennial and usually grows in rich soil to a height of 4 to 5 feet. Its woody stalks are 3 to 6 inches long, with featherlike leaves and leaflets that grow from both sides of a common axis (pinnate leaves). The leaflets are generally eight to sixteen in number, and somewhere between oval and lanceolate in shape. The licorice plant has an extensive branching root system, which principally comprises a main taproot, root branches, and numerous long-runners, or thinner roots that spread out. The long, cylindrical taproots are soft and fibrous and are the part that most frequently finds medicinal use among humans. The main taproot grows horizontally, brown on the exterior and yellowish on the interior. The flowers are small, and purple, blue-violet, or white-pink; they grow in loose clusters from the leaf axils. Licorice seeds come in long, oblong protective cases known as seedpods; due to the low germination rate of the seeds, vegetative methods of propagation (by means of harvested roots) allow for the spread of the plant without sexual reproduction.

  The flavor and delightful aroma of licorice come from its water-soluble, biologically active mixture of different substances such as anethole, flavonoids, pectins, triterpene, saponin, amino acids, mineral salts, polysaccharides, and simple sugars. Licorice root is 30 to 50 times sweeter than sugar and more than 150 times more so than sucrose. The plant owes its extreme sweetness to a mixture of potassium, calcium, and magnesium salts of glycyrrhizic acid, also known as glycyrrhizin, a triterpenoid compound. Accordingly, practitioners of traditional medicine prescribed licorice to treat diseases caused by high sugar levels and to keep a patient’s blood sugar down. The interior yellowish color of the licorice root is mainly due to the presence of flavonoid liquiritin, isoliquiritin, and other substances. Among the natural isoflavones, glabridin and hispaglabridin and vitamins A and B are present in licorice and have noteworthy antioxidant activity. The isoflavones glabridin and glabrene possess estrogen-like properties and thus act like xenoestrogens—naturally occurring compounds that imitate estrogen.

  Licorice root is one of the oldest and most frequently employed botanicals in all pharmacopoeias, nearly always mentioned in Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Hindu, Assyrian, Babylonian, Chinese, and even Sumerian texts. Many early peoples discovered the plant’s abilities as a demulcent (soothes and coats irritated membranes) and as an expectorant (lessens phlegm and congestion). In modern medicine, licorice extracts are a popular flavoring agent to mask bitter tastes and are added to syrup preparations. In addition, licorice has therapeutic benefits against numerous viruses, such as hepatitis A and C, human immunodeficiency virus, cytomegalovirus, and herpes simplex. This antiviral property of licorice is mainly attributed to glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhizic acid. After oral consumption of licorice root, intestinal bacteria hydrolyze glycyrrhizic acid (the main ingredient of licorice) into glycyrrhetic acid—one thousand times more potent an inhibitor of 11-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase than glycyrrhizic acid. Both of these components retard hepatic metabolism of aldosterone and suppress 5-beta-reductase activity; in moderate doses they can help the liver tremendously.

  Hardly a One-Hit Wonder

  In addition to this slew of health benefits, more recent research has revealed that licorice’s glycyrrhizic acid also inhibits various other aspects of organ inflammations. Yet another well-documented effect of licorice extract is from its antioxidant properties, which, studies suggest, can lower serum liver enzyme concentrations and improve hepatic tissues significantly. In addition, deglycyrrhizinated licorice (licorice without glycyrrhizin) inhibits the growth of Helicobacter pylori, and doctors prescribe it for healing stomach ailments and ulcers. Some studies have shown licorice to be effective against autoimmune conditions such as lupus, scleroderma, and rheumatoid arthritis, and others have indicated that it possesses anticancer and anti-allergic properties. Since licorice supplementation has some side effects, including elevated blood pressure, hypokalemia (potassium loss), and edema, people should use caution to avoid overconsumption or misuse. Licorice components also exhibit significant anti-inflammatory effects, partly due to inhibition of phospholipase A2 enzyme, an enzyme central to various inflammatory processes.

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  William Thomas Fernie, an occultist/scientist, wrote Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure (1897), which boosted this plant’s forgotten benefits. He presented a detailed description of the active constituents of the licorice root, identifying glycyrrhizine (a demulcent starch), simple sugars, amino acids, and mineral salts, and finally explained why the plant was so beneficial.

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  Licorice ropes (and that black cube variety) have been around for some time. Many believe the first licorice candies were produced in Holland during the 1770s.

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  LIE DETECTOR BEAN

  Physostigma venenosum

  Calabar Justice

  Prehistoric judicial systems would often determine guilt or innocence by subjecting the accused to a dangerous experience traditionally known as “trial by ordeal.” Whether one survived such an ordeal was left to divine control, and escape or survival was taken to indicate innocence. The roots of this custom lie in the Code of Hammurabi and the Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest known systems of law. Numerous West African tribes depended on the calabar bean, also known as ordeal bean or lie detector bean, for rulings in their early courts. These tribes used the power of the beans (really highly poisonous seeds) to detect witches and people possessed by evil spirits. Courts would feed numerous seeds, what they called “ordeal poison,” to the accused; if he or she was innocent, God would perform a miracle and allow the accused to live—and the court would have its ruling. If the reverse was true, of course, guilt would be “proven” the moment its sentence was successfully carried out.

  Calabar bean is the seed of a climbing leguminous plant scientifically known as Physostigma venenosum and is poisonous to humans when chewed. However, if one swallowed the whole bean intact, it might prevent the release of its toxins. The plant is indigenous to the coastal area of southeastern Nigeria known as Calabar and was first noticed in 1846, though it took until 1861 for botanists to describe it. Its scientific name, Physostigma venenosum, came from the appearance of “a snooping beak-like solid appendage at the end of the stigma.”
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br />   The plant is a large, herbaceous perennial vine, with a woody stem at the base. It produces a large, purplish flower with intricate visible veins. Once pollinated, the flowers yield a thick brown pod of a fruit, which contains two or three large kidney-shaped seeds. The seeds ripen throughout the year; however, it’s not until the rainy season (June through September) that the plant is able to produce its best, most toxic beans.

  How It Kills

  The alkaloid content in a calabar bean is only slightly above 1 percent, and the most potent of the alkaloids are calabarine (with atropine-like effects) and physostigmine, of which the latter is mainly responsible for the bean’s poisonous properties, which act on the nervous system. This compound disrupts communication between the nerves and organs. In this regard, it acts similarly to nerve gas, which results in contraction of the pupils, profuse salivation, convulsions, seizures, spontaneous urination and defecation, loss of control over the respiratory system, and ultimately death by asphyxiation.

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  Some Benefits

  Since physostigmine affects neurotransmitters in the brain, scientists have begun conducting studies to see if the alkaloid might aid in reversing Alzheimer’s disease or perhaps anticholinergic syndrome, a process by which neurotransmitters dangerously “freeze up” during or after anesthesia. Though itself toxic, this alkaloid proves an effective antidote for poisoning from another deadly plant, Atropa belladonna.