The Secrets of Flora

Brief stories of plants, molecules and humans
There is nothing so misleading as the apparent docility of plants. Accustomed to their delicate, silent company, mesmerized by the colors and aromas of their flowers, we are rarely aware of being in the presence of nature’s most skilled alchemists. Hidden within the world of plants are prodigious substances that can mitigate pain and human suffering, capable of curing diseases or, at the same time, end our life in the blink of an eye. A plant did in one of the greatest of men; another accompanied Marcus Aurelius during his long meditations; and Freud believed he had found a miraculous substance in the same plant that has led many others to their death.
In the pages of this book, scientist David G. Jara draws on science, history and anthropology to reveal many of the secrets, some already known and others yet to be discovered, concealed behind the beautiful and innocent appearance of plants. Secrets whose chemical nature can induce the most powerful addictions, contain the most promising drugs and offer the most lethal poisons.