289 results filtered with: Purple
- Digital Images
- Online
Lamium orvala L. Lamiaceae Balm-leaved red deadnettle. Orvala is the Latinised name for the French name, orvale, for Salvia sclarea Distribution: Southern Europe. I can find no information about it. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley
- Digital Images
- Online
Pulsatilla vulgaris Mill. Ranunculaceae Distribution: Europe. Lindley (1838) and Woodville (1790) knew this as Anemone pulsatilla, the common name being Pasque (Easter) Flower. At the end of the 18th century it was recommended for blindness, cataracts, syphilis, strokes and much more, treatments which, as was clear to physicians at the time, were valueless. Gerard (1633) writes: ‘They serve only for the adorning of gardens and garlands, being floures of great beauty’. It is in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, all members of which are poisonous. It was recommended, by mouth, for ‘obstinate case of taenia’ (tapeworms). One hopes it was more toxic to the worm than the patient. Flowers with a central disc and radiating florets were regarded as being good for eye complaints under the Doctrine of Signatures. Porta (1588) writes (translated): ‘Argemone [Papaver argemone], and anemone, have flowers of this shape, from this they cure ulcers and cloudiness of the cornea’. There were occupational diseases even before there were words like pneumoconiosis, and Lindley writes that ‘the powder of the root causes itching of the eyes, colic and vomiting, if in pulverising it the operator do not avoid the fine dust which is driven up.’ Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley
- Digital Images
- Online
Adenovirus
David S. Goodsell, RCSB Protein Data Bank
- Digital Images
- Online
Pulsatilla vulgaris + Bombylius major
Dr Henry Oakeley
- Digital Images
- Online
Acinos alpinus (L.) Moench. Lamiaceae. Rock thyme. Small herbaceous perennial. Distribution: C. and S. Europe. This is Mountain wild Basill, Clinopodium alpinum, of Parkinson (1640), the Teucrium Alpinum and Clinopodium Alpinum hirsutum of Bauhin. Then as now, when it has the synonyms Thymus alpinus, Satureja alpina and Calamintha alpina, its nomenclature has been confused. It is unlikely to be the Acinos or Clinopodium of Theophrastus or Disocorides. Dioscorides gives opposing medicinal uses to the plants he knows by these two names, and Parkinson (1640) makes no judgement as to its uses. Reportedly drunk as a tea in Greece, but evidence for it being used historically for fevers is lacking. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley
- Digital Images
- Online
Cynoglossum officinale L. Boraginaceae. Houndstongue. Distribution: Europe. Culpeper (1650) writes: “... being roasted and laid to the fundament, helps the haemorrhoids. It is also good against burnings and scaldings.” It contains hepatocarcinogenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids and while people are known to eat the young leaves as a vegetable, this is inadvisable. The whole plant is hairy and may cause contact dermatitis. The use of herbal remedies, which contain these alkaloids, by the Bantu of southern Africa correlates with their high incidence of tumours of the liver and pancreas. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley
- Digital Images
- Online
Breast cancer cell spheroid treated with doxorubicin, SEM
Khuloud T. Al-Jamal, David McCarthy & Izzat Suffian
- Digital Images
- Online
Prostate cancer cells treated with nano sized drug carriers
Khuloud T. Al-Jamal
- Digital Images
- Online
Cell division in a live zebrafish embryo
Paula Alexandre, UCL
- Digital Images
- Online
Varicose Veins, Legs. Female. Illustrated with thermography
Thermal Vision Research, Wellcome Collection
- Digital Images
- Online
Glutamatergic neurons in telencephalon, zebrafish
Kate Turner, Dr Steve Wilson
- Digital Images
- Online
Lamium maculatum 'Beacon Silver'
Dr Henry Oakeley
- Digital Images
- Online
'More to love' Adipose tissue
Odra Noel
- Digital Images
- Online
Apoptosis
Odra Noel
- Digital Images
- Online
Plankton; a diatom frustule
Annie Cavanagh
- Digital Images
- Online
Tradescantia 'Concorde Grape'
Dr Henry Oakeley
- Digital Images
- Online
Aconitum carmichaelii Debeaux. Ranunculaceae. Chinese aconite, Chinese wolfsbane, Carmichael's monkshood. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution C. to W. China to N. America. Named for Dr J.R. Carmichael (d. 1877), English physician, plant collector and Protestant missionary from 1862-1877 in Guangdong and Shandong, China initially in Canton. He aided Francis Forbes to collect plants for Kew. Aconitum plants are so poisonous that Theophrastus states that death was the punishment for possessing them. Aconitine is the poison and was used - from Aconitum ferox - in the 'curry murder' in London in 2009. It causes respiratory paralysis, bradycardia (slowing of the pulse), cardiac arrhythmias, tingling, sweating, gastric cramps, diarrhoea and death, both by ingestion and by absorption through the mucous membranes and the skin. Despite this it is widely used in Chinese herbal medicine. It is a restricted herbal medicine which can only be dispensed by a herbal practitioner for external use following a one-to-one consultation, or by prescription from a registered doctor or dentist (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley- Books
The royal purple and the biblical blue: argaman and tekhelet : the study of Chief Rabbi Dr. Isaac Herzog on the dye industries in ancient Israel and recent scientific contributions / editor, Ehud Spanier ; technical editor, Moshe Ron ; editorial board, S.M. Edelstein [and others].
Herzog, Isaac, 1888-1959.Date: [1987], ©1987
- Digital Images
- Online
Serratula tinctoria subsp. seoanei (Willk.)M.Lainz Asteraceae. Saw-wort (in the USA called Dyer's plumeless saw-wort). Distribution: Europe. Named after Dr Victor Lopez Seoane (1832-1900) a Spanish naturalist and physician who was Professor of Physics, Chemistry and Natural History in Corunna. He attained a certain infamy in that three of the subspecies of birds which he published as new discoveries were in leaflets dated 1870 and 1891 but were actually published in 1894, the discovery of which rendered two of his discoveries attributable to others (Ferrer, in Ingenium 7:345-377 (2001). This plant was described by Heinrich Willkomm in 1899 as Serratula seoanei, but M. Lainz, in 1979, decided it was merely a subspecies of Serratula tinctoria, a plant described by Linnaeus (1753). Linnaeus based his description on a plant with a woodcut in Dodoens' Pemptades (1583), saying it had pinnate leaves. However, that woodcut is of two different plants, and when re-used by Gerard (1633) he pointed out that Tabernamontanus (1625) had a woodcut of them and a third plant all with leaves varying from just pinnate to entire. Whatever, the leaves on Serratula tinctorius subsp. seoanei are very distinct, but while pinnate the leaflets are exceedingly narrowly and deeply dissected, Gerard (1633) writes that it is 'wonderfully commended to be most singular [useful] for wounds, ruptures, burstings, and such like...' It is a dye plant, containing luteolin, the same yellow dye as is present in Reseda luteola (source of the dye 'weld'). Seoane also has a viper, Vipera seoanei, named after him
Dr Henry Oakeley
- Digital Images
- Online
Hyacinthoides non-scripta (L.) Chouard ex Rothm. Asparagaceae Bluebell. Perennial bulbous plant. Distribution W. Europe to N. Portugal. Seed and plants from wild stock are protected in England and Wales and all trade in them is prohibited, despite their abundance. All parts of the plant are poisonous and the sap can cause dermatitis. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley
- Digital Images
- Online
HIV and antibodies, HIV viral life cycle, illustration
David S. Goodsell, The Scripps Research Institute
- Digital Images
- Online
Senecio pulcher Hook.&Arn. Asteraceae Distribution: South America. It has not attracted attention as a medicinal or toxic plant but members of the genus Senecio contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids that are toxic to the liver and may cause liver cancer. A traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) product, Qianbai Biyan Pian, contains Senecio scandens which contains the unsaturated pyrrolizidine alkaloids, senecionine and seneciphylline. This is now a banned drug. (Safety of Herbal Medicinal Products, July 2002, Medicines Control Agency). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley
- Digital Images
- Online
Varicose Veins, Legs. Female. Illustrated with thermography
Thermal Vision Research, Wellcome Collection
- Digital Images
- Online
Prostate cancer cells treated with nano sized drug carriers
Khuloud T. Al-Jamal & Izzat Suffian
- Digital Images
- Online
Coccolithophore
Dr David Furness