Mayo Clinic is testing a 17th C Dutch herbal text’s transcription of a Pacific Island remedy.

“Natural products are invaluable sources of healing agents — consider, for example, that aspirin derived originally from willow bark, and the molecular basis of the anti-cancer chemotherapeutic agent TaxolTM was derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. So it’s not so far-fetched to think that the contributions of an ancient text and insights from traditional medicine really may impact modern public health,” explains Brent Bauer, M.D., director of the Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program.

Exactly. Why reinvent the wheel?