THE team behind Tynedale’s very own Physic Garden is developing a programme of workshops to show how, throughout history, people have used plants to improve their health.

We all know that plants provide us with a vital source of vitamins and minerals, but staff and volunteers at Dilston Physic Garden are set to demonstrate that plants are equally as important for our health as our five-a-day.

Even back in Anglo-Saxon times, when legend and folklore played its part in medicine, many remedies were mixed with familiar-sounding shrubs.

And now the aim is to demonstrate how history has informed 21st century science and medicine.

“There’s a well-known collection of Anglo-Saxon medical texts and prayers called the Lacnunga manuscript, which features something called the Nine Herb Charm,” said Davina Hopkinson, a medical herbalist from Broomley, who is one of a group of volunteers at the garden near Corbridge.

“It was a remedy used to help treat wounds, and all the ingredients are plants with healing and anti-inflammatory properties that we’ve all heard of. Things like chamomile, nettle and plantain.”

With this in mind, Davina and garden manager Nicolette Perry are devising a programme of two-hour workshops which will begin next month in a very fitting venue.

Hexham Abbey, founded in Anglo-Saxon times by the Northumbrian saint and bishop called Wilfrid, will host a free talk and demonstration entitled Flying Venom and Elfshot.

“The title of the workshop really sums up some of the beliefs of the time,” added Davina.

“People would refer to flying venom as the contagious diseases which would make a lot of people ill and wipe out the masses.

“Any arthritic, stabbing pains would be attributed to tiny bad elves firing arrows at them.”

Nicolette said: “Plants contain a number of key pharmacologically-active constituents. These are called phytochemicals. They are there to protect the plant from their environment.

“But a significant number of these phytochemicals have been shown by science to help us too.

“So we have natural agents that are anti-cancer, antibiotic, antiviral as well as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects – all key to health issues we encounter.

“There is now significant science behind their actions too. Today, the vital role of plants in preventative medicine is increasingly evident and the use of herbal medicines in the treatment of chronic disease is of great importance.”

Add to this the fact that 50 per cent of all new drugs discovered come from plants – aspirin, morphine and the heart drug digoxin are all derived from plants.

Nicolette said: “There are a growing number of physic gardens up and down the country. We have between 700 and 800 different species of plant here and our focus has always been to look at the effect they have on the brain and the central nervous system.”

To that end, a 10-day foundation course on the discovery of plants for health has already been running from the garden.

A memory aid study has also been carried out, using a tincture mixed from herbs traditionally associated with memory.

And staff at the garden are putting out a call for funding to help build a workshop programme which it is hoped will engage school children by introducing them to the vital role of plants for their health.

Nicolette said: “One feature visitors really love when they come to the garden is the historical folklore.

“There are so many magical stories behind the use of key medicinal plants.

“For example, the herb sage was used 400 years ago to ‘restoreth the braine’, and we spent three years at Kings College in London finding the evidence to prove this.

“At the Physic Garden, we use the weird and wonderful folklore to connect with people on the health benefits of plants.”

As for the Abbey workshop, Davina explained: “We’re going to look at the unlikely success of medieval medicine.

“Some Anglo-Saxon herbal remedies were a bit bonkers, using ash and all sorts, but not all.

“Nottingham University is producing key research to show how plants used in Anglo-Saxon herbal medicine have killed methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus or MRSA.”

The event will take place on Saturday, May 14, between 2pm and 4pm.