The Museum of Forgotten Botanicals
Atropa belladonna
Category: Poison & Power
Primary Period of Use: Antiquity- 19th Century CE
Region of Origin: Southern & Central Europe, North Africa, Western Asia (see below)
Community: Ancient Greek physicians, Roman herbalists, Renaissance cosmetics trades, early European surgeons
belladonna
glove
fox
Digitalis purpurea
Category: Medicine & Healing
Primary Period of Use: Medieval folk use- 1785 CE [formal documentation]
Region of Origin: Western & Central Europe
Community: Welsh folk healers, English country herbalists, 18th-century European physicians
cinchona
Cinchona officinalis
tree
Category: Medicine & Healing
Primary Period of Use: Pre-Columbian era- 19th century CE
Region of Origin: Andean South America (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador)
Community: Indigenous Quechua peoples, Spanish colonial physicians, British & Dutch colonial administrations
Opium
Papaver somniferum
Category: Poison & Power
Primary Period of Use: 3400 BCE - present
Region of Origin: Mediterranean Basin, Mesopotamia, extending through Central Asia & South Asia
poppy
Community: Sumerian healers, ancient Egyptians, Greek physicians, Arab medical scholars, Chinese Imperial Court, 19th-century European medical establishment
woad
Isatis tinctoria
Category: Dye & Textile
Primary Period of Use: Neolithic era- 17th century CE
Region of Origin: Europe, particularly Britain, France, Germany, and the Mediterranean
Community: Ancient Celts & Britons, medieval European textile guilds, English & French dye merchants
indigo
Indigofera tinctoria
Category: Dye & Textile
Primary Period of Use: 2500 BCE- 1897 CE [synthetic dye invention]
Region of Origin: South Asia [India], extending to West Africa & the American Southeast
Community: Ancient Indian textile workers, West African artisans, enslaved people in colonial South Carolina & Georgia, British East India Company
mandrake
Mandragora officinarum
Category: Poison & Power
Primary Period of Use: Antiquity- 17th century CE
Region of Origin: Mediterranean Basin, Middle East
Community: Ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, medieval European herbalists and surgeons
Willow
Salix alba
Bark
Category: Medicine & Healing
Primary Period of Use: 400 BCE- 1897 CE [aspirin synthesis]
Region of Origin: Europe & Western Asia
Community: Ancient Greek physicians, Indigenous peoples of North America, 28th-century English clergyman, 19th-century pharmaceutical chemists
saffron
Crocus sativus
Category: Trade & Economy
Primary Period of Use: 3500 BCE- present
Region of Origin: Southwest Asia [likely Crete or Iran], widely cultivated across Mediterranean and South Asia
Community: Minoan Cretans, ancient Persians, Arab physicians, Mughal court, medieval European apothecaries
crocus
madder
Rubia tinctorum
Category: Dye & Textile
Primary Period of Use: 1500 BCE- 1869 CE [synthetic alizarin]
Region of Origin: Western & Central Asia, Mediterranean Europe
Community: Ancient Egyptians, Persian textile workers, Indian dyers, European military clothiers
tea
Camellia sinensis
Category: Trade & Economy
Primary Period of Use: 2737 BCE [legendary]; 3rd century CE [documented]- present
Region of Origin: Southwest China [Yunnan Province], extending through South & Southeast Asia
Community: Tang Dynasty Chinese court, Buddhist monks, Japanese Zen tradition, British East India Company, colonial Indian laborers
plant
hemlock
Conium maculatum
Category: Poison & Power
Primary Period of Use: Antiquity- 4th century BCE & beyond
Region of Origin: Mediterranean Basin, Europe, Western Asia
Community: Ancient Athenians, Greek physicians, Roman jurists, medieval herbalists
wormwood
Artemisia absinthium
Category: Medicine & Healing
Primary Period of Use: 1550 BCE- 1915 CE [absinthe prohibition]
Region of Origin: Temperate Eurasia & North Africa
Community: Ancient Egyptians, Greek & Roman physicians, medieval European herbalists, 19th-century French bohemian culture
turmeric
Curcuma longa
Category: Curcuma longa
Primary Period of Use: 2500 BCE-present
Region of Origin: South & Southeast Asia [India, Indonesia]
Community: Vedic Hindu practictioners, Ayurvedic physicians, Tamil Siddha tradition, medieval Arab spice traders, contemporary global wellness industry
tobacco
Nicotiana tabacum
Category: Poison & Power
Primary Period of Use: Pre-Columbian era [earliest evidence c. 1000 BCE]- present
Region of Origin: South America [domesticated], extending through all of the Americas
Community: Indigenous peoples of the Americas [ceremonial & medicinal use], European colonists [commercial expansion], enslaved Africans [plantation labor]
henna
Lawsonia inermis
Category: Dye & Textile
Primary Period of Use: 3000- present
Region of Origin: North Africa, Middle East, South and Southeast Asia
Community: Ancient Egyptians, Arabic & North African Berber cultures, South Asian Hindu & Muslim communities, Sephardic Jewish tradition
chamomile
Matricarua chamomilla
Category: Medicine & Healing
Primary Period of Use: Ancient Egypt (documented)- present
Region of Origin: Europe & Western Asia
Community: Ancient Egyptians, Anglo-Saxon herbalists, medieval European monasteries, 18th-century German & Austrian pharmaceutical traditions
lavender
Lavandula angustifolia
Category: Medicine & Healing
Primary Period of Use: Ancient Egypt (documented)- present
Region of Origin: Europe & Western Asia
Community: Ancient Romans, Arab physicians, medieval European monasteries, Provencal distillers, 20th-century aromatherapy movement
Gossypium hirsutum
cotton
Category: Dye & Textile
Primary Period of Use: 5000 BCE [India, independent domestication]; 3000 BCE [Americas]- present
Region of Origin: Independently domesticated in South Asia, the Americas, & East Africa
Community: Ancient Indus Valley civilization, pre-Columbian Indigenous peoples of Mexico & Peru, 18th-19th century American plantation system [enslaved laborers], British industrial textile workers
coca
Erythroxylum coca
Category: Poison & Power
Primary of Period Use: 8000 BCE- present
Region of Origin: Andean South America [Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador]
Community: Pre-Inca Andean civilizations, Inca Empire, Quechua & Ayrmara peoples, 19th-century European pharmaceutical industry
"Roots of Change"