Daffodil magic

Despite the best efforts of snow and rain, the wild Daffodils are starting to break out across the Chiltern Hills. That glorious bright yellow is the colour of Spring and it will soon be joined by meadows of buttercups, dandelions and ragworts.

The talk I gave in Brighton on Monday was called Do we need a new Witchcraft? The title was deliberately provocative - especially as I had a very science-y audience - but the central thread was that we mustn't let the pursuit of science blind us to the wonder all around. The people who were once labelled as witches were wise and cunning folk who knew the medicinal usefulness of working with Nature. Reducing the natural world to nothing but chemicals and atoms removes the emotional connection and leads to exploitation. We've already lost so many species due to human activity. Who knows what those species could have taught us? 

Around 30% of all modern medicines are derived from natural sources and many - such as aspirin, penicillin, steroids, quinine, morphine, statins, and a whole host of anti-cancer drugs - come from plants and fungi. Foxgloves gave us digitalin, a drug used in tackling heart disease. And Snowdrops and Daffodils both contain a natural alkaloid called galantamine which is used to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease and mitigate its symptoms, such as memory loss. 

So, the next time you see a Daffodil opening up, remember this ... 

It's not just a pretty face.