Hoosier Home Remedies

ene 1985 · Purdue University Press

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With a sense of urgency, Dr. Tyler has collected andtranscribed some 750 folk remedies still alive in the memories of more than 175Hoosier-area correspondents. The pharmacologist, who has thirty years ofexperience with natural-product remedies, fears these cures will soon beforgotten, since modern medicine usually writes them off as hoax, and those whopractice them are becoming fewer and fewer. For Tyler, however, folk medicine isworthy of scientific research; after all, scientists discovered morphine fromopium poppy, digoxin from foxglove, and ergotamine from ergot fungus byobserving the efficacy of these ancient folk remedies. By suggesting furtherinvestigation of some remedies, warning readers against downright dangerouscures, and noting the constitutive ingredients of those proven effective, Tylerinvites further illumination of this shady region between superstition andscience while entertaining his reader with much fascinating medical tore.Hoosiers, folklore followers, physicians, and pharmacologists will appreciatethe meticulous clarity of Tyler's scientific commentary on folk medicines.

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Varro E. Tyler is executive vice president for academic affairs at Purdue University. Formerly he served as dean of Purdue's Schools of Pharmacy, Nursing, and Health Sciences. He is the author of approximately 180 scientific and educational articles in professional journals and has written or contributed to several books, such as Experimental Pharmacognosy.