Angel Light - Oleander Flower -repost per request

EXPLORED: #3 in 2007

FYI: Oleanders are extremely poisionous! . . .having said that . . .
Records of the medicinal use of oleander date back at least 3500 years. The Mesopotamians in the 15th century BC believed in the healing properties of oleander and the ancient Babylonians used a mixture of oleander and licorice to treat hangovers. Roman soldiers also regularly took an oleander extract for hangovers. Pliny, the Elder of ancient Greece, wrote about the appearance and properties of oleander. Arab physicians first used oleander as a cancer treatment in the 8th century AD.

Centuries later, in the 1633 edition of "The Herbal, or General History of Plants, the author John Gerard says of oleander: This tree being outwardly applied, as Galen saith, hath a digesting faculty; but if it be inwardly taken it is deadly and poisonsome, not only to men, but also to most kinds of beasts. The flowers and leaves kill dogs, asses, mules, and very many of other four footed beasts: but if men drink them in wine they are a remedy against the bitings of Serpents, and the rather if Rue be added. The weaker sort of cattle, as sheep and goats, if they drink the water wherein the leaves have been steeped, are sure to die which indicates knowledge that the raw plant is poisonous, but that extracts of the plant were used medicinally. An oleander extract much like the home remedy known as oleander soup; is most likely the magic healing potion that led to the witchcraft accusation against Rebecca, the beautiful Jewish woman from the Holy Land, in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe


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