Nature's Apothecary

A botanical history of the medicinal uses of herbs, flowers, fruits, and vegetables throughout time.

Herbs have been used for centuries to cure all manner of ailments. They were especially important as home remedies for the many people without access to a trained physician before the advent of affordable healthcare. In the Middle Ages, monastery gardens were used to cultivate plants to treat not only their own house, but also the secular community that surrounded them. Information about the medicinal properties of plants was gathered into books known as herbals, which gained an increased audience with the advent of printing.

Nature’s Apothecary features a selection of a hundred plants showing how not only herbs but also flowers, fruit, and vegetables have been used in different ways for medicinal purposes. Exquisite color illustrations from John Gerard’s renowned 1597 Herball accompany short narratives describing the social, cultural, and historical importance of plants growing in the hedgerows and meadows, in gardens, as well as more exotic flowers from further afield. Drawn from the writings of a range of herbalists, including John Gerard, Nicholas Culpeper, and Elizabeth Blackwell, these works together give a fascinating history of nature’s extraordinary role in both formal and folk medicine.