BULLETIN FOR THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY
Volume 50, 2025
Orna, Mary Virginia, “Review of Most Delicious Poison: The Story of Nature's Toxins—From Spices to Vices by Noah Whiteman,” Bull. Hist. Chem., 2025, 50, 71-74.
https://doi.org/10.70359/bhc2025v050p071
Abstract/Description: By reviewing Noah Whiteman's book, Most Delicious Poison, I find myself needing to justify this choice
since its contents are not the usual subject matter found in the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. For example, the introductory chapter focuses on the numerous toxins in the daisy family, their origins, their purpose, how other species, including our own, can use them as tools, and how they work in doing their nefarious job. Since it takes a great deal of energy out of a plant to manufacture a bouquet of such toxins, their role in self-defense must be very much worthwhile to the organism. Two such toxins highlighted in the chapter were the pyrethrins and artemisinin, contained in wormwood. Pharmacologist Tu Youyou isolated and identified the latter as an antimalarial in 1979, for which she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015. After reading the chapter, we come away with an expanded chemical
vocabulary: saponins, terpenoids, steroids, phenolics, alkaloids, flavonoids, profens, tannins and the already mentioned pyrethrins. So, what makes this book appropriate for review in the Bulletin? It depends upon how narrow or broad one's view of the history of chemistry is. A restricted view sticks to limiting the history of chemistry to recorded history in which the names of chemical practitioners can be ascribed to discoveries, theories or notable progress. Some instances of the work of chemists and other scientists appear in this book; their achievements will be highlighted as they appear. An expanded view encompasses the archaeological record: no individuals can be named, but civilizations can be identified, taking into account how our understanding of the nature of matter and how its transformation has evolved. This reviewer has decided to adopt a super-expanded view that includes Mother Nature as the original chemist.