Rhubarb (ebook)

Argumento de Rhubarb (ebook)

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.

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"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

"Clifford Foust's book is one of the most unusual I have ever read--quite innovative in concept and execution. It has taught me a great deal about early modern Russian history and medical history, but it also has much to say about the history of botany and horticulture, as well as international economics. Few readers would fail to find something of interest here."--John T. Alexander, University of Kansas0List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Ch. 1 The Roots of Rhubarb 3 Ch. 2 The Very True Rhubarb: The Seventeenth Century 18 Ch. 3 The Russian Rhubarb Trade 46 Ch. 4 The East India Company and European Trade 79 Ch. 5 Collecting and Systematizing 96 Ch. 6 Accommodating the Root: The Society of Arts and Other Promotions 112 Ch. 7 Rhubarb as Medicine: The Eighteenth Century 136 Ch. 8 The Search Ends? 158 Ch. 9 The Testing of Rhubarb 180 Ch. 10 Tarts and Wine 213 Conclusion 240 Notes to the Chapters, with List of Abbreviations 249 Bibliography 321 Index 363