Civil War book helps scientists search for new antibiotics

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I just saw this on Google News. I'm not quite sure if this forum is the right one to share it, so Mods, if you think there's a better place, feel free to move the thread there. I just found it amazing that modern science can still learn from Confederate surgeons who saved the lives of countless soldiers using traditional plant medicine - sometimes learned from Native Americans or even slaves!
A study from Emory University, published last Wednesday looks to Civil War history and plant medicine to discover new antibiotics that might help against modern, most dangerous multi resistant bacteria.
One of the researchers, Micah Dettweiler is quoted as follows:
“During the Civil War, there was a blockade of the Confederacy by the Union, and that prevented them from easily importing a lot of different goods, among them contemporary medicines like quinine and chloroform and laudanum.”
The Confederacy commissioned a botanist named Francis Porcher to go out and survey medicinal plants in the South to find substitutes for those medicines. Porcher published a book in 1863, “Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests,” on useful and medicinal plants of the Southeast – plants the Confederacy could use.
White oak, tulip poplar and a shrub called devil’s walking stick were the focus of the study.
Another researcher, Cassandra Quave says all three of the plants have compounds that could help fight some types of bacteria. White oak showed promise in keeping bacteria from growing. Devils walking stick hindered bacterial cells from communicating with each other. Tulip poplar worked on communication, and also on preventing bacteria from forming a sticky protective film.
So modern science is now discovering how these potent plants worked to help fight back inflammation after woundings and/ or amputations.

For the complete study, look here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44242-y

For Porcher's book, "Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests" look here on archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/resourcesofsouth00porc/page/n6
 
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I just saw this on Google News. I'm not quite sure if this forum is the right one to share it, so Mods, if you think there's a better place, feel free to move the thread there. I just found it amazing that modern science can still learn from Confederate surgeons who saved the lives of countless soldiers using traditional plant medicine - sometimes learned from Native Americans or even slaves!
A study from Emory University, published last Wednesday looks to Civil War history and plant medicine to discover new antibiotics that might help against modern, most dangerous multi resistant bacteria.
One of the researchers, Micah Dettweiler is quoted as follows:
“During the Civil War, there was a blockade of the Confederacy by the Union, and that prevented them from easily importing a lot of different goods, among them contemporary medicines like quinine and chloroform and laudanum.”
The Confederacy commissioned a botanist named Francis Porcher to go out and survey medicinal plants in the South to find substitutes for those medicines. Porcher published a book in 1863, “Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests,” on useful and medicinal plants of the Southeast – plants the Confederacy could use.
White oak, tulip poplar and a shrub called devil’s walking stick were the focus of the study.
Another researcher, Cassandra Quave says all three of the plants have compounds that could help fight some types of bacteria. White oak showed promise in keeping bacteria from growing. Devils walking stick hindered bacterial cells from communicating with each other. Tulip poplar worked on communication, and also on preventing bacteria from forming a sticky protective film.
So modern science is now discovering how these potent plants worked to help fight back inflammation after woundings and/ or amputations.

For the complete study, look here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44242-y

For Porcher's book, "Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests" look here on archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/resourcesofsouth00porc/page/n6
I'm interested in the book. Too expensive to buy, so I requested it through my library.
 
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