Fifty Plants That Changed the Course of History

In Network 108 I reviewed Eric Chaline's pleasingly- illustrated book Fifty Animals that Changed the Course of History, and suggested the obvious, " surely one could write an interesting exposition on 'Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History.'" This was in fact done, by Bill Laws. Moreover, Firefly Books has also published Fifty Minerals that Changed the Course of History, by Eric Chaline (reviewed below). All three books are beautifully produced and illustrated in matching, tasteful, hardback format with a ribbon book mark bound in – a nice touch for book lovers, and perfectly designed to assemble your very own box set!

This consistent format is worth comment. The importance of each plant and animal species is discussed in reference to their edible, medicinal, commercial and practical properties, although for minerals the categories are industrial, cultural, commercial and scientific. In all cases the authors and editors have cogently identified the historical importance of species, and the individuals, cultures and surprise circumstances that helped alter or influence the course of history, both positively and negatively. One can judge the importance of a species by the length of the entry. In relation to the standard 4-page exposition, tea, sugarcane, potato, wheat and wine grape each earn 8 pages, while cotton, rubber, apple, barley, hop, opium poppy, cocao and corn are worth 6 each. Other species are no less familiar or interesting. For example, although Darwin claimed that there is no difference between tears shed in sorrow, or joy, and those induced by onions, biochemist William Frey proved otherwise. Emotional tears contain additional proteins that help rid the body of stress–related chemicals.

Bamboo is not merely a fast growing source of versatile construction material (scaffolding) but also a food. In his Manual of the Bamboo Shoot Zan Ning a 10th century Buddhist Monk offers 98 recipes. Ling Lun, court musician to the "Yellow Emperor" Huang Ti used bamboo to make a 12-note flute "to accurately reproduced the six female and six male voice notes." Hemp, (the name has Anglo-Saxon origins), described as a "versatile narcotic," has great utility as a fibre, without which alternatives would have been necessary to rig ships or hang unfortunates throughout the centuries, going back some 4,500 years. Herodotus noted that the Scythians were prone to "shout for joy" after inhaling the vapors of cooked hemp seeds. Marijuana, a word of Mexican derivation, and a strain with more psychoactive ingredient (THC) than the hemp strain, and now legal in some western states, most recently played a transformative role, as the most accessible drug of choice, in the consciousness generation and its artistic creations. Tea is just one of many "plantation" products that altered the history and fortunes of empires and every caste of citizen from the captains of industry to the merchant, servant and slave. Thanks to geography, and politics we associate tea with Brits, and coffee, and the Boston tea party, with Americans. As is well-known, the history of our beloved tea is complexly intertwined with opium in defining Anglo-Indian and Anglo-Chinese relations in the 19th Century, whereas its relationship with sugar and coffee helped determine the course of Anglo-American relations. Opium has been known and used for 6,000 years and, as a source of morphine, has been far more valuable in medicine than its other derivative, heroin, which caused addiction in up to 15% of US Army servicemen in Vietnam, and an even larger percentage of Russian soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The British, French and Americans were the biggest drug-dealing cartels in the opium wars of the early 1800s when Indian opium was forced on the Chinese by underhanded and cynical legalisation strategies promulgated under the guise of official trade concessions. The German pharmaceutical company Bayer at one time marketed heroine as a non-addictive cough remedy. For the collector of medical antiques a vintage bottle, overtly labeled with the word heroin, is probably worth its weight in – well, heroin. Likewise cocaine was an ingredient in Coca Cola and other remedies, and the early bottles and signs are also vintage collectibles worth their weight in – well you know. Sigmund Freud used cocaine regularly for three years, quitting only when he saw it kill a colleague. In the 1990s 31% of New York murder victims showed traces of cocaine. Tobacco has even more than opium or cocaine to answer for when it comes to ruining human health. The plant was named Nicotiana after Jean Nicot, French ambassador to Timbuktu, and was once considered valuable protection against the plague. In fact, for this reason, smoking was at one time compulsory at Eton! Today, however, 10 million cigarettes are sold every minute and tobacco kills someone every eight seconds. Many, non-drug plant products are, or have been worth their weight in gold as the profit-driven spice trade informs us. In the case of capture, a sailor's pepper pouch was more likely more valuable than his gold ear ring in buying his freedom. The crocus relative Saffron, grown, among other places, around Saffron Walden, requires 150,000 blooms to make a kilo and was measured in "scruples" (each = 20 grains, or 1.3 grams). So, 50 Plants is a Pot Pourri of information. Gregor Mendel made the Sweet Pea famous. Van Gogh did the same for sunflowers, and Renoir devoted years to painting Olive trees. Manchester was at one time dubbed "Cottonopolis" and the French Monk Don Pérignon learned how to cork wide bottles using the bark of an Iberian relative of the mighty English oak. Incidentally 5000 of the English species gave their lives in the construction of Nelson's flagship. Sugar came from India some 2500 years ago, not from the Americas. It has been labeled "white death" although, ironically, it was the cause of countless black deaths during the euphemistically named "middle passage" so lucrative for slave traders. In a weapon against the British sugar trade Napoleon successfully undercut the price by planting 70,000 acres of sugar beet. Although we know in a general way that these plants have changed the course of history 50 Plants emphasises just how influential they have been. In this, and in the companion books on animals and minerals, we are reminded that despite the medicinal, nutrition, convenience and economic benefits obtained from these species, they have been ruthlessly and often criminally exploited to the detriment of other species, natural ecologies and our own best long term interests. Just as there is a fine line between obvious drug-producing plants, those producing undesirable toxins, and those with beneficial qualities, there is also, or can be, a fine line between drug cartels, robber barons, corporations and agribusiness. The land grabbing tradition of plantation owners of previous centuries continues today, with some modification, especially in Africa where various fast developing nations, especially in Asia are buying up or leasing large tracts of land for questionable agricultural purposes such as growing more corn and palm oil. This is to say nothing of the sacrifice of rainforest for soy and other monoculture plantations. Let us hope that growing awareness of our various addictions to sugar, tea coffee, alcohol, tobacco, chocolate and other refined and concentrated agricultural products will help us rethink the benefits of a more varied and healthy diet of organic, locally grown produce. A little thought may help us to appreciate the old adage that "variety is the spice of life" and the key to sustaining a diverse, flourishing and self-sustaining biosphere, rather than one that is driven by industrial agribusiness. As a famous Chinese proverb reminds us you plant rice for a year, trees for a decade and educate for a lifetime.