FEMALE GUARDIANS
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
An acient Ethiopian text,the book of Enoch,writen between the second and first centuries BC,credited the gods with revealing the secrets of herbalism to women practitioners.This early trend for female herbalists continued through the centuries.Women figured amongst the most revered herbalists but were also often persecuted as witches for the continued practice of their apparently mysterious art.Modern medicine has much for which to thank many so-called old wives'secrets,handed down from mother to daughter.It was just such a grandmothers knowledge that led to the discovery of the digitalis-a highly poisonous substance now used throughout the world in the treatment of heart disease,in the form of digoxin or lanoxin.in 1775,a young doctor,William withering,was asked to try a certain cure for dropsy,an accumulation of fuid in the body's tissues.'I was told;he recorded,'the cure had long been kept a secret by an old woman in
shropshire who had made cures after the more regular practitioners had failed...it was not difficult...to perceive that the active herb could be none other than foxglove(digitalis purpurea).
