Rhubarb: The Wondrous Drug

(Paperback)

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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. H

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Winner of the Edward Kremers Award, American Institute of the History of Pharmacy "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."--The Times Literary Supplement