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Home Courses FULLY BOOKED Medieval medicinal plants: Miasmas, monks and mandrake
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FULLY BOOKED Medieval medicinal plants: Miasmas, monks and mandrake

Take a trip back to the later Middle Ages and find out about the role of plants in medieval medicine.

Event details

Tuesday 29 April 2025
10am - 1pm

Tutor:

Gwenda Kyd

Price

£40

Location: Classroom

About the course

In this history course, we will explore the medieval view of illness – what were the causes of disease thought to be? What diseases were common? Who did you go to if you got ill and how did they diagnose you? Our main focus will be on the plants involved in the prevention and treatment of disease. Today, some of these plants have proven medicinal benefits and other uses and a few are still used in herbal medicine. Is it possible that, in some cases at least, medieval medics really did have the right idea? Weather permitting, we will also visit some plants used in medieval medicine that grow in the Garden.

About the tutor

Dr Gwenda Kyd is a chemist and freelance science writer and editor. She is interested in plant-based healing and has studied herbal medicine and other therapies. She co-devised the Botanic Garden’s ‘Chemicals from Plants’ Trail and in 2014 published a book based on the Trail, ‘Molecules, Medicines and Mischief’.

Bookings for this course will close on 15 April

14th-century painting of mandrake, Fructus mandragorae Tacuinum sanitatis

Please take the time to read our course cancellations and refunds policy.

Please note that once this course has been filled, you can email education@botanic.cam.ac.uk to be added to a waiting list.

 

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