Of Herbs and Pharmaceuticals: Rethinking the Rise of the Pharmaceutical Industry after the Plant Turn
Medicinal plants have long held an ambivalent place in the history of pharmacy. On the one hand, the success story of alkaloids plays a key role in pharmacy’s origin stories; on the other hand, vegetal drugs have long been described as part of pharmacy’s prehistory, viz., as early and rudimentary steps towards the development of modern (predominantly synthetic) pharmaceuticals. This familiar narrative has been increasingly challenged in recent years, particularly after the ‘plant turn.’ Plant preparations in all their forms (essential oils, tinctures, water extracts, etc.) and not just alkaloids have been identified as central actors in the industrialization of pharmacy. This talk furthers these perspectives by considering the case of Germany, a country widely considered as the beating heart of the pharmaceutical industry in Europe, from the 1880s to 1945.
By tracing the trajectory of medicinal plants from the mountains and fields where they are gathered or cultivated, all the way to the factories that process them into pharmaceuticals, this presentation will highlight the benefits of considering scientific, economic, geopolitical, and environmental developments concurrently. Medicinal plants thrive in specific ecological conditions; their collection in the wild is intricately linked to the roles of women and children in certain peasant economies in Germany and abroad. Building on the concept of ‘workscape,’ this presentation will examine how a series of ‘revolutions’ in transportation, agriculture, and industry have made the gathering and cultivation of medicinal plants increasingly challenging in the first half of the 20th century worldwide. Using GIS, it will consider the geopolitical stakes of Germany’s reliance on plants sourced from rival empires, and the vulnerabilities such dependency entailed for a critical industry in an age of multiple crises and wars—vulnerabilities that synthetic drugs did not present.
These dynamics—and not just the introduction of new synthetic drugs, as the common story goes—explain why plants were marginalized in Western pharmacopeias. By tracing the trajectory of medicinal plants during the era of drug production industrialization, this talk further underscores the need for an externalist history of science that considers the significant impact of environmental transformations and geopolitical factors in shaping scientific developments.
Matti Leprêtre is a Research and Teaching Fellow at Sciences Po Paris and a PhD candidate at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). He received a dual B.A. from Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris in 2017. His research focuses on the transformations of herbal remedies in Germany during the age of drug production industrialization, intersecting transimperial history, environmental studies, and the history of science from 1884 to 1945. More broadly, he examines the global implications of this industrialization through two anthologies he is co-editing, which explore the connections between medicinal plants, colonialism, and the industrialization of drug production from a global perspective.
Date:
27 January 2025, 16:00
Venue:
Maison Française d’Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road, Oxford OX2 6SE
Speaker:
Matti Leprêtre (Sciences Po Paris/EHESS)
Organising department:
Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology
Part of:
Oxford Centre for the History of Science Medicine & Technology (OCHSMT) Seminars and Events
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Belinda Clark
