untamed fact #13 (poison is in the dose)

August 20, 2013

untamed fact #13 (poison is in the dose)

If you doubt the power of herbs and oils, consider this inspired example of nature’s fierce grace….

Many of nature’s most powerful blessings aren’t a part of our herbal apothecary because of their threat to life even with minimal ingestion–herbs like foxglove, poison hemlock, and deadly nightshade are just too potent for us to be playing around with them.

Yet many of those same herbs have had their active components isolated in laboratories for use in microscopic quantities in pharmaceuticals–and to great effect.

Pharmaceutical companies rely on a component sourced from foxglove to manage heart rate, one from poison hemlock serves as an antispasmodic and sedative, and a component of deadly nightshade addresses acute cardiac arrest. Even common aspirin was informed by the naturally occurring acetylsalicylic acid in willow.


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