{"id":6914,"date":"2016-07-28T10:00:26","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/?p=6914"},"modified":"2016-06-28T10:03:29","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T14:03:29","slug":"catnip-not-just-for-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/2016\/07\/28\/catnip-not-just-for-cats\/","title":{"rendered":"Catnip not just for cats"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the\u00a0Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Img0009\"<\/a> \"Img0010\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Plantas que curan y plantas que matan<\/em> written in Spanish by\u00a0Arias\u00a0Carbajal certainly makes a splashy impression with its pulpy cover. \u00a0The title translates to “plants that cure and plants that kill” and includes both theoretical and practical information regarding medical botany for curing various diseases. \u00a0In one section I discovered hierba de los gatos<\/em> or catnip. \u00a0\"Img0011\"<\/a>The text counsels that it can be used for nerves, headache, suppression of menstruation, scurvy, and people suffering from general weakness (whatever that means).<\/p>\n

Since the 1700s catnip tea has been used for many mild ailments including nervous conditions, stomachaches, hives, and even the common cold. \u00a0More familiar with catnip as a stimulant for actual cats I was curious if\u00a0people today still use catnip for any of these ailments. \u00a0I discovered that people still brew up catnip tea though there appears to be little hard scientific evidence that these problems are being cured by the catnip. \u00a0During the 1960s it was apparently smoked for the euphoric effects many claimed to experience and most people agree that it can be a good insect repellent when used in an\u00a0oil form. \u00a0\"Img0012\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On the other end of the spectrum we have the very poisonous tartago<\/em> or spurge. \u00a0Native to southern Europe, northwest Africa, and throughout most of Asia the seeds, flowers, leaves, and roots are all poisonous and because the plant produces latex it can cause skin irritation when handled. \u00a0One animal that appears to be immune to the toxin from spurge are goats who sometimes eat it. \u00a0But watch out if you are going to milk your goat because the toxin can still be passed along\u00a0in the goat’s milk!<\/p>\n

\"goats\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Plantas que curan y plantas que matan :tratado te\u00f3rico pr\u00e1ctico de bot\u00e1nica medicinal para la curaci\u00f3n de todas las enfermedades \/por el Prof. Pio Arias-Carbajal, ex-medico de S.M.\u00a0Mexico : [publisher not identified], [date of publication not identified]<\/a>\u00a0can be found at the Botany Libraries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager,\u00a0Gretchen Wade, Judith Warnement, and Chris Robson of the Botany Libraries for contributing to this post.<\/em><\/p>\n

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This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the\u00a0Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Plantas que curan y plantas que matan written in Spanish by\u00a0Arias\u00a0Carbajal certainly makes a splashy impression with its pulpy cover. \u00a0The title translates to “plants that cure and plants that kill” and includes both theoretical and practical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4490,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[72744],"tags":[156177,156180,1996,72720,156178,72659,156181,156179],"class_list":["post-6914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harvard-botany-libraries","tag-catnip","tag-catnip-tea","tag-goats","tag-julio-mario-santo-domingo-collection","tag-medicinal-plants","tag-plants","tag-spurge","tag-tartago"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5TUly-1Nw","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6914"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7476,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions\/7476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}