Bitter Roots: The Search for Healing Plants in Africa

309 Pages·2014·2.535 MB·English

by  Abena Dove Osseo-Asare

Bitter Roots

BITTER ROOTS
The Search for Healing Plants in Africa
Abena Dove Osseo- Asare
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Abena Dove Osseo-Asare is assistant professor of history at the University of
California, Berkeley.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2014 by Abena Dove Osseo-Asare
All rights reserved. Published 2014.
Printed in the United States of America
23 2 2 21 20 1 9 1 8 1 7 1 6 15 1 4 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 08552-4 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 08602-6 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 08616- 3 (e-book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226086163.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Osseo- Asare, Abena Dove Agyepoma, author.
Bitter roots : the search for healing plants in Africa / Abena Dove Osseo- Asare.
pages ; cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 226- 08552-4 (cloth : alkaline paper) — ISBN 978- 0- 226- 08602-6
(paperback : alkaline paper) — ISBN 978- 0- 226- 08616- 3 (e-book) 1. Materia
medica, Vegetable—A frica. 2. Medicinal plants— Africa. I. Title.
RS181.O87 2014
615.3'21–dc23
2013020550
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1 992 (Permanence
of Paper).
For my parents, Kwadwo and Francislee Osseo-A sare
v

CONTENTS
Introduction: From Plants to Pharmaceuticals 1
1. Take Madagascar Periwinkle for Leukemia and Pennywort for Leprosy 31
2. Take Grains of Paradise for Love 71
3. Take Arrow Poisons for the Heart 107
4. Take Bitter Roots for Malaria 131
5. Take Kalahari Hoodia for Hunger 165
Conclusion: Toward Bioprosperity 199
Ac knowl edgm ents 215
Persons Consulted 221
Notes 225
Bibliography 249
Index 289
vii
Figure I.1 Exchanging plants at Alafi a Bitters, Ghana. (Photo by author.)
INTRODUCTION
From Plants to Pharmaceuticals
We know the time, the persons, the circumstances, belonging to each
step of each discovery.
—William Whewell, Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences
The struggle over plants unfolds once again between scientists and heal-
ers in a humid classroom in Ghana. After tea and biscuits, the workshop
participants reconvene for the fi nal session of the day. A middle-a ged
scientist begins to plead with the healers to fi ll in the simple forms that
have been set before them on the long tables. “How will my colleagues
and I at the Faculty of Pharmacy complete our studies without your
help?” he implores. Near me, anxious healers debate what to do. “Look at
the banner over there,” one says, nodding toward a list of research insti-
tutes and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). “Many of the spon-
sors also market medicinal plants. How can we trust the organizers?”
They wisely assume that the scientists might be working with contacts
in foreign drug companies. I watch as a few healers scribble down the
names of such well- known medicinal plants as mahogany bark. No new
information here as the confl ict continues between those with labora-
tory coats and those without.
Bitter memories shape the search for healing plants in African coun-
tries. For over a century, confl icts over rights to medicinal plants have
persisted between healers and scientists. Stolen recipes, toxic tonics,
1