FOR centuries in Britain, people relied on plants to treat their aliments and in many other places in the world they still do.

In fact, plans to excavate and display the remains of the medieval St Leonard’s Hospital in Northumberland Park, North Shields, will include the re-creation of its herb garden which would have provided remedies for patients.

Now a garden in the Tyne Valley in Northumberland is championing a growing movement to look again at the medicinal properties of plants in a modern world dominated by prescription pills.

Dilston Physic Garden was established by Newcastle University neuroscientist Professor Elaine Perry.

It is now a registered charity for education and enjoyment and is linked to medicinal plant researchers at Newcastle, Northumbria and Durham universities.

This year the garden is launching a course for lay people in plant medicine.

The 10-day course over five weekends from May to October will lead to a Foundation in Plant Medicine diploma on how to use medicinal plants to improve health.

Prof Perry, curator of the garden which is near Dilston Castle, says: “The garden has 800 or so plants that have provided us with key medicines for thousands of years. There are endless examples people will be familiar with.

“A favourite garden flower, the marigold, has been used for hundreds of years to treat skin disorders, peppermint is great for your digestion and compounds first discovered in snowdrops are a key treatment for Alzheimer’s disease today.”

Other examples are provided by Prof Perry’s daughter, Dr Nic Forster, who is managing director of the garden and director of the new course. She says: “A high percentage of our modern drugs are derived from plants, from aspirin from willow to morphine from poppies,” she says.

“Feverfew is good for headaches, lemon balm tea for anxiety, St John’s Wort is clinically proven to be effective against depression, with fewer side-effects and elderberry juice reduces the length of a flu attack.”