Longevity-associated plant discussion Sept. 29

Cavendish Historical Society will host a free talk on plants and herbs associated with longevity at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 29 at its museum at 1958 Main St. (Route 131) in Cavendish.

Dr. Charis Boke, a member of the Anthropology Department at Dartmouth College, will be one of the featured speakers. She is currently writing her first book, Poison, Power, and Possibility: Building Relations with Medicinal Plants, which explores the poetics, politics and practices of contemporary herbalists in North America, leaning on ethnographic research, botanical histories and lived experience to examine what it takes to remedy what ails us. Boke assisted with the Benjamin Rush Medicinal Garden at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.

Former Cavendish resident and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn used European mandrake root, along with radiation therapy, to treat his cancer. He relied heavily on this information while writing the semi-autobiographical novel Cancer Ward. In the book, Solzhenitsyn described a doctor who noticed that peasants did not seem to get cancer; he related it to their practice of drinking chaga tea.

Mandrake and chaga have been used for centuries. A study conducted at the National Cancer Institute found that the mandrake root solution that Solzhenitsyn used to help cure his cancer contained two cancer drugs.

For more information, please call 802-226-7807 or send an e-mail.