An Aztec Herbal | Nature

ABSTRACT OUR fragmentary knowledge of the early history of botany in Mexico has lately received a remarkable addition in the form of a reproduction of a manuscript herbal of the sixteenth

century, written by an Aztec physician, and now edited by Dr. Emily Walcott Emmart1. It had long been known that, by the period of the Spanish conquest, gardening and medicinal botany in

Mexico had reached a high degree of elaboration2. The fact that the language of the Nahuas included several different names for different types of garden, shows that horticulture played a

considerable part in their lives. Montezuma possessed gardens for flowers and medicinal herbs, in which, according to the chronicler, Cervantes de Salazar, he “did not allow any vegetables

or fruit to be grown, saying that it was not kingly to cultivate plants for utility or profit in his pleasance”. He also owned vegetable gardens and orchards, but these he seldom visited,

since he held them to be “for slaves or merchants”. His contempt for mere utility did not extend, however, to curative herbs. He ordered his physicians to make experiments with the medicinal

plants in his gardens, and to use the best-tried remedies for the benefit of the lords of his court. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription

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THREATS OF PLANTS USED IN INDIGENOUS MEDICINE IN JAWI DISTRICT, ETHIOPIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE Article Open access 09 October 2024 MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY LOCAL

COMMUNITIES IN SOUTHERN FARS PROVINCE, IRAN Article Open access 17 February 2025 METABOLIC PROFILING REVEALS FIRST EVIDENCE OF FUMIGATING DRUG PLANT _PEGANUM HARMALA_ IN IRON AGE ARABIA

Article Open access 23 May 2025 REFERENCES * The Badianus Manuscript (Codex Barberini, Latin 241), Vatican Library. An Aztec Herbal of 1552. Introduction, translation and annotations by E.

W. Emmart. (Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1940). 7.50 dollars. * The Gardens of Ancient Mexico. By Z. Nuttall . (Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1925 for 1923, pp. 453–64.) Download

references Authors * AGNES ARBER View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE

THIS ARTICLE ARBER, A. An Aztec Herbal. _Nature_ 146, 81–83 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146081a0 Download citation * Issue Date: 20 July 1940 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146081a0

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