Healing With Poisons

Download or read book Healing with Poisons written by Yan Liu and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295749013 At first glance, medicine and poison might seem to be opposites. But in China’s formative era of pharmacy (200–800 CE), poisons were strategically employed as healing agents to cure everything from abdominal pain to epidemic disease. Healing with Poisons explores the ways physicians, religious figures, court officials, and laypersons used toxic substances to both relieve acute illnesses and enhance life. It illustrates how the Chinese concept of du—a word carrying a core meaning of “potency”—led practitioners to devise a variety of methods to transform dangerous poisons into effective medicines. Recounting scandals and controversies involving poisons from the Era of Division to the Tang, historian Yan Liu considers how the concept of du was central to how the people of medieval China perceived both their bodies and the body politic. He also examines the wide range of toxic minerals, plants, and animal products used in classical Chinese pharmacy, including everything from the herb aconite to the popular recreational drug Five-Stone Powder. By recovering alternative modes of understanding wellness and the body’s interaction with foreign substances, this study cautions against arbitrary classifications and exemplifies the importance of paying attention to the technical, political, and cultural conditions in which substances become truly meaningful. Healing with Poisons is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the generous support of the University of Buffalo.

Download or read book Changing Poison into Medicine written by Aditi Shukla and published by Notion Press. This book was released on 2019-09-22 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Changing Poison into Medicine is a collection of poetry, prose and monologues about self-healing and love. It is about the experiences of self-worth, self-discovery, uncertainty, acceptance, solitude, love, wisdom and ignorance. Ultimately, we all want to be happy. Every action in our life is motivated by that strong desire, but still, during difficult events of our lives, we tend to behave in habitual patterns and avoid what is uncomforting to us even when we know that the comfort which we are gaining out of it will be temporary. We respond to these times in ways that surrender our own happiness, causing irreparable damage to self. The book rides you through the most painful times of your life and shows how during those crucial times of adversity you could change the poisons within you into medicine and healings for others and lead your life with utmost dignity and meaning without causing damage to self.

Download or read book Poison Or Medicine written by Daniela Weil and published by Library for All. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We all know that poisons are bad for you and medicines are good for you. But can medicines be bad for you and poisons be good for you? This is an engaging book for middle primary readers. Proceeds from this sale benefit not for profit organisation Library For All, helping children around the world learn to read. 8-10 years

Download or read book The Poison Path Herbal written by Coby Michael and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: • Explains how to work with baneful herbs through rituals and spells, as plant spirit familiars, as potent medicines, and as visionary substances • Details the spiritual, alchemical, astrological, and symbolic associations of each plant, its active alkaloids, how to safely cultivate and harvest it, and rituals and spells suited to its individual nature and powers • Shares plant alchemy methods, magical techniques, and recipes featuring the plants, including a modern witches’ flying ointment Part grimoire and part herbal formulary, this guide to the Poison Path of occult herbalism shares history, lore, and information regarding the use of poisonous, consciousness-altering, and magical plants. Author Coby Michael explains how, despite their poisonous nature, baneful herbs can become powerful plant allies, offering potent medicine, magical wisdom, and access to the spirit realm. Detailing the spiritual, alchemical, astrological, and symbolic associations of each plant, the author explores their magical uses in spells and rituals. He focuses primarily on the nightshade family, or Solanaceae, such as mandrake, henbane, and thorn apple, but also explores plants from other families such as wolfsbane, hemlock, and hellebore. He also examines plants in the witch’s pharmacopoeia that are safer to work with and just as chemically active, such as wormwood, mugwort, and yarrow. The author shares rituals suited to the individual nature and powers of each plant and explains how to attract and work with plant spirit familiars. He offers plant alchemy methods for crafting spagyric tinctures and magical techniques to facilitate working with these plants as allies and teachers. He shares magical recipes featuring the plants, including a modern witches’ flying ointment. He also explores safely cultivating baneful herbs in a poison garden.

Download or read book Botanical Curses and Poisons written by Fez Inkwright and published by . This book was released on 2024-03-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poison has caused some of history's most dramatic deaths--yet a fine line separates healing from killing: the difference lies in the dosage! Folklorist Fez Inkwright returns to the archives to reveal fascinating stories behind a variety of lethal plants, witching herbs, and funghi. Going from A to Z, she covers everything from apple to oleander, beautifully illustrating each plant herself. This enthralling treasury is packed with insight and lore on the mysteries of everyday flora.

Download or read book The Poisons of Caux: The Hollow Bettle (Book I) written by Susannah Appelbaum and published by Knopf Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2009-08-11 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing a witty and macabre new fantasy trilogy. There's little joy left in the kingdom of Caux: the evil King Nightshade rules with terrible tyranny and the law of the land is poison or be poisoned. Worse, eleven-year-old Ivy’s uncle, a famous healer, has disappeared, and Ivy sets out to find him, joined by a young taster named Rowan. But these are corrupt times, and the children—enemies of the realm—are not alone. What exactly do Ivy and Rowan’s pursuers want? Is it Ivy’s prized red bettle, which, unlike any other gemstone in Caux, appears—impossibly—to be hollow? Is it the elixir she concocted—the one with the mysterious healing powers? Or could it be Ivy herself? Told with wry humor, The Hollow Bettle is the first installment in the Poisons of Caux trilogy, an astonishing tale of herbs and magic, tasters and poisoners.

Download or read book Phytomedicines, Herbal Drugs, and Poisons written by Ben-Erik van Wyk and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-06-22 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plants have been used to treat disease throughout human history. On a clay slab that dates back approximately five thousand years, the Sumerians recorded medicinal recipes that made use of hundreds of plants, including poppy, henbane, and mandrake. During the Middle Ages, monks commonly grew and prescribed plants such as sage, anise, and mint in their monasteries. And as the market for herbal remedies and natural medicine grows, we continue to search the globe for plants and plant compounds to combat our various ailments. In Phytomedicines, Herbal Drugs, and Poisons, Ben-Erik van Wyk offers a richly illustrated, scientific guide to medicinal and poisonous plants, including those used for their mind-altering effects. Van Wyk covers approximately 350 species—from Aloe vera and Ephedra sinica to Cannabis sativa and Coffea arabica—detailing their botanical, geographical, pharmacological, and toxicological data as well as the chemical structures of the active compounds in each. Readers learn, for example, that Acacia senegal, or gum acacia, is used primarily in Sudan and Ethiopia as a topical ointment to protect the skin and mucosa from bacterial and fungal infections, and that Aconitum napellus, more commonly known as aconite, is used in cough syrups but can be psychedelic when smoked or absorbed through the skin. With 350 full-color photographs featuring the plants and some of their derivative products, Phytomedicines, Herbal Drugs, and Poisons will be an invaluable reference not only for those in the health care field but also for those growing their own medicinal herb gardens, as well as anyone who needs a quick answer to whether a plant is a panacea or a poison.