Chelsea Physic Garden B2 C1 SPEAK UP IN CLASS

The Chelsea Physic Garden in London was established as an apothecary garden and is the second oldest botanical garden in Britain.

The Chelsea HERBAL HEALING Physic Garden

Visitamos este histórico jardín medicinal ubicado en el elegante barrio londinense de Chelsea, donde aún se cultivan decenas de especies de plantas que históricamente se han utilizado para tratar enfermedades y dolencias de todo tipo.

What do aspirin, digoxin and morphine have in common? All three medicines are derived from natural plants. Aspirin from willow tree1 bark2, digoxin from foxglove3, and morphine from poppies4. These plants can be found alongside many more unique and important examples in the Chelsea Physic Garden in London. Located in the exclusive borough5 of Kensington and Chelsea, close to the river Thames, the garden is a living green time capsule and London’s oldest botanic garden. Founded in 1673, it has a collection of around five thousand edible6, herbal, useful and medicinal plants. Plants that have changed the world.

NATURE’S PHARMACY

Originally known as the Apothecaries7’ Garden, the Chelsea Physic Garden developed through the Age of Enlightenment8 , when medical and medicinal knowledge and science were changing fast. Plants were still the main source of treatment for most ailments9. An apothecary was a person who studied plants and used them to formulate and dispense medicines —rather like10 a chemist11 today. The garden was home to indigenous and endemic species, as well as those imported from around the globe. Today, of the world’s top 150 prescription drugs12, three quarters originate from plants. Plants are nature’s pharmacy. And the Chelsea Physic Garden remains a place of learning; for visitors, schoolchildren and trainee13 gardeners alike14 .

POISON15

Its secluded16 , south-facing17 location behind high brick walls18, close to the warm air currents of the river, created a micro-climate in the garden. To this day it remains two or three degrees warmer than anywhere else in London. Laid out19 in neat20 rows21 and plant beds22 , criss-crossed23 with pathways24, the Chelsea Physic Garden provides visitors with fascinating insights25 into the importance of plants. Did you know that 80 per cent of the developing world’s population — more than four billion people— relies on26 herbal medicine as its primary source of healthcare? Or that 95 per cent of all plant species are poisonous —even edible fruits and vegetables such as

ON CD 13

GLOSSARY

1 willow tree: sauce 2 bark: corteza 3 foxglove: dedalera 4 poppies: amapolas 5 borough: barrios 6 edible: comestibles 7 apothecaries: boticarios 8 Enlightenment:

Ilustración 9 ailments: dolencias 10 rather like: más bien como 11 chemist: farmacéutico 12 prescription drugs: medicinas con receta 13 trainee: aprendiz 14 alike: por igual 15 poison: veneno 16 secluded: aislada 17 south-facing: orientado hacia el sur 18 brick walls: muros de ladrillo 19 to lay out: disponer 20 neat: ordenado 21 rows: filas 22 plant beds: parterres 23 criss-crossed: entrecruzado 24 pathways: senderos 25 insights: datos, informaciones 26 to rely on: confiar

Gardens are much more than just places for greenery40. They also tell the stories of people and plants: the designers, gardeners, scientists and explorers. A statue to Sir Hans Sloane stands in the centre of the Chelsea Physic Garden. A famous physician41, naturalist, collector, and founder of the British Museum, he once trained here and became the garden’s primary benefactor in the 18th century. Whilst serving in Jamaica, Sir Hans acquired a valuable42 stock of quinine, which is obtained from the bark of the cinchona tree43 and used to treat malaria. He also observed local women mixing cocoa with milk to treat stomach ailments. ‘Sloane’s Milk Chocolate’ became a popular drink. The recipe would eventually be bought by Cadbury’s.

lemons, asparagus, beans and tomatoes contain mild27 toxins. Plants use toxins to protect themselves from being eaten. And it is these poisons that can be extracted to be used as medicines.

VERSATILITY

As Britain built its global empire, scientists discovered an unprecedented diversity of new and exotic plant species. Entrepreneurs28 were keen29 to exploit their commercial potential. But how to safely store30 and transport the plants and stop them from dying during the long sea voyages? The answer was the Wardian case31, a type of glass terrarium developed in 1829 by the physician and botanist Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward. He discovered that plants held32 in a sealed33 glass case were protected within their own micro-environment. This helped to launch large-scale enterprise in resources such as tea, smuggled34 from China to British India, and rubber35 , shipped36from Brazil to Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Back home in Britain, Victorian households37 filled Wardian cases with exotic orchids and ferns38 , protected from the polluted city air. The Chelsea Physic Garden links the ingenuity39 and learning of people with the incredible versatility of plants past and present. Whether used for food, building materials, musical instruments or medicines, plants are an integral part of our planet —and of everyday life for us all.

GLOSSARY

27 mild: leves 28 entrepreneurs: emprendedores 29 keen: deseosos 30 to store: almacenar 31 Wardian case: caja de

Ward 32 to hold: mantener 33 to seal: sellar 34 to smuggle: contrabandear 35 rubber: caucho 36 to ship: expedir 37 households: domicilios 38 ferns: helechos 39 ingenuity: ingenio 40 greenery: vegetación 41 physician: médico 42 valuable: valioso 43 cinchona tree: quina

From top left down: the Anglo-Irish physician and collector Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) on an engraving from 1844; a pond in the Chelsea Physic Garden; an image from the garden gates.

THE PLANTS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

People need plants: for food and farming, for building, biodiversity and oxygen, and for medicine. Numerous pharmaceutical drugs in use today originate from plants. Many of them can be found in the Chelsea Physic Garden, London’s oldest botanic garden. It contains thousands of edible, herbal, useful and medicinal plants. Jenny Rickell is the education and outreach officer1 at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London. She enjoys teaching people about plant life, biology, evolution, and diversity. But with one in five plant species currently at risk of extinction, their importance to human existence is paramount2 , as she explains to Speak Up:

Jennie Rickell: (American accent):

Within the garden we’ve got... it’s a bit like a plant Google. We’ve got lots of ordered beds with lots of different plants in that can teach the public and children what plants can be used for in our everyday life. That is our byline3, actually, “to teach people about how plants can be used in our everyday life”.

MONASTRIES AND BOTANY

Of more than 1,600 plant species in Britain, around a quarter have some medicinal use. Alongside4 mainstream pharmaceutical produce5 are homeopathic and alternative remedies that have been used for centuries. The healing6 powers of druids combined under Roman rule with medical teachings of the classical world. After the Romans left, the Christian Church maintained the legacy7 of herbal and healing gardens:

Jennie Rickell: The physic garden is a garden which houses8 medicinal plants. Mostly physic gardens popped up9 in Europe during the monastic eras,

ADVANCED

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ON CD 14

GLOSSARY

1 outreach officer: responsable de divulgación 2 paramount: crucial 3 byline: rúbrica, lema 4 alongside: junto a 5 produce: productos agrícolas 6 to heal: curar 7 legacy: legado 8 to house: albergar 9 to pop up: aparecer 10 knowledgeable: experta 11 literate: alfabetizada 12 to tend: cuidar

A Victorian glasshouse at the Chelsea Physic Garden.

so monks would be looking after [them]. The first few physic gardens were in Italy. And the monks, being the knowledgeable10 people, trained, literate11 people of the community, had the power or the responsibility of keeping these gardens tended12 to and then writing down what they were finding. So… what a plant could do, how it could heal you.

DRY OR WET

Medieval medicine was based on the theory of the four humours and plants were used to balance the body.

Jennie Rickell: At that point, they were more looking at the four humours. So it’s a way of looking at health. It’s similar to Chinese medicine, actually in a sense. But the four areas of health would

GLOSSARY

13 bile: bilis 14 phlegm: flema 15 in check: bajo control 16 damp: húmedo 17 to soak up: absorber 18 moist: húmedo 19 mallow: malva 20 gloopy: viscosa 21 gain: ganancias 22 cocoa: cacao 23 therefore: por tanto 24 addiction: dependencia 25 dots: puntos 26 soil: suelo, tierra

“THERE’S LOTS YOU CAN DO WITH PLANTS TO SEE THE

POWER OF PLANTS YOURSELF. […] Not only just having your hands in the soil, being able to be: bile, yellow and black bile13, blood, grow something.” and phlegm14. And they thought you had to have everything in check15, in health benefits, but also financial gain21 , balance. And if you weren’t, then you as Rickell explained: might be too damp16, too hot, too cold. That’s where the physic garden idea Jennie Rickell: There had to be some began. Is that monks would be using a funding behind that, there had to be plant to make you more dry. So they’ll some money from somewhere, and be an astringent plant which means it that from the [British] Empire’s percan draw water, soaks up17 water a lot. spective, they wanted to make money. If you ingest that, or even if you just put Find these useful plants that they could it onto your skin, then that will draw trade, which they did. Tobacco, et cetera, water out and it will make you more dry. cotton, which ultimately changed the The opposite, if you’re too dry and you economy of the world. And cocoa22, for need to have more wetness, then you example. And medicine came with that. might have something like aloe vera, which is very, very damp MOLECULAR STRUCTURE and moist18. Or another Although the Chelsea Physic Garden has thing, mallow19, which is a a large collection of medicinal and herbal plant that you can put into water plants, it is impossible to grow them in sufand it will just turn gloopy20 . ficient quantities to provide medication for the world’s vast population. Many phar-

FINANCIAL GAIN maceuticals are therefore23 produced During the Age of Discovery, from the from synthetic compounds, which comes beginning of the 15th century until the with its own unique problem: middle of the 17th century, ships voyaging around the globe carrying scientists and Jennie Rickell: We’ve expanded our explorers, entrepreneurs and business knowledge so significantly and techpeople. The discovery of new plant spe- nology has increased so much… They cies meant scientific advancement and now know the molecular structure of

Clockwise from opposite page: poppies; a statue of Sir Hans Sloane who bequeathed his collection of 71,000 items, including books, manuscripts, drawings, coins and plant specimens to the British nation; taking care of the plants.

the compounds within the plants that they can extract. The problem with that is plants work synergistically. And there’s not just one element in a plant, there’s lots of things working synergistically together. Some of which I believe we don’t even know, we haven’t even identified, really.

MENTAL HEALTH

There is more to health than just physical fitness. The Chelsea Physic Garden is involved in valuable social and community projects; working with people who suffer from mental health issues, anxiety, isolation, addiction24 or illness. The healing power of plants comes in many different forms.

Jennie Rickell: [There’s] lots you can do with plants and to see the power of plants yourself. And, again, connecting those dots25. Not only just having your hands in the soil26, being able to grow something. That’s empowering in itself. It’s like, “I have the knowledge to be able to grow my food.” But also how to use those plants. I’ve seen such a beneficial impact on some people who’ve kind of come through these doors and then gone on to do other things.

SPEAK UP Explains

Physic Garden. Jardín medicinal. Se trata de un tipo de jardín botánico dedicado al cultivo de plantas medicinales. El adjetivo physic es un término arcaico que denota un ‘fármaco’ o ‘medicina’, principalmente purgantes. El término physician se usa también de manera formal para referirse a un ‘médico’.