Dr. James Duke

On this day in 1991, The New York Times printed an announcement about an upcoming symposium at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) featuring Dr. James Duke.

Duke was sharing his research; the topic was plants for health and healing and their role in modern medicine.
The article shared Duke's incredible personal experience using plants to promote his own good health. It said this:

"Dr. James Duke is one of those rare botanists who actually eat what they preach.
He loves to watch the evening primrose open within 60 seconds. But he also munches its seeds, which are high in tryptophan, an essential amino acid that can relieve pain and depression.
Purple coneflowers thrive in his rather rumpled wild garden in Fulton, Md. He eats their roots to boost his immune system.
To cure a cold, he mashes up the stems and leaves of forsythia. To help strengthen weak capillaries, he makes "rutinade" from violet and buckwheat flowers, lemon grass, rhubarb stalks, and herbs high in rutin (anise, camomile, mint, rosehips)."