Watanabe Koichi: Contrayerba in Dreaming - detox plants-history

Watanabe Koichi investigates the ‘contrayerba’ plant, a mysterious medicinal herb with anti-poisonous properties that is no longer in use. Spanning a history of 500 years, he traces the movement of this plant through Europe, America, and Asia. First mentioned in Dutch books from the Edo period, Koichi noticed that many plants with the same name appear and disappear over time. He explores how people use plants as medicines, and ends his journey and book in a forest where the plant grows wild. Included is a text by author Anna Tsing, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, and co-director of the Aarhus University Research on the Anthropocene.